Reclaiming

[Popcorn]

This 20 acres was once a native grass / cedar / pine savanna / sanctuary but due to a lack of management became an overgrown nightmare of tangle where sunlight could not penetrate to the earth. Cedar so thick you would have to crawl through, honey locust so big I have had to dig them up everywhere, sweetgum and sourwood peppered throughout. 4 days with a dozer and a forestry mulcher and likely 3 to 4 to go. Then several huge dozer piled windrows to burn.
This is why we burn or mow, this is why we manage. This was a desert. No food, no water, no grasses or forbs, no game!

 

[BSK]

That's a lot of work, but it will be worth it.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Looking good! Great progress!

 

[Boll Weevil]

Looks good. You might think about pruning your pines up as high as you can reach; the crowns will explode in the next couple of years with all that space to expand.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Good work!

 

[rifle02]

I believe it's going to be great.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Nice job. I can see some plots in there and the place covered up with deer.

 

[Popcorn]

For reference;

 

[BSK]

Pretty much junk acreage without the renovation.

 

[Boll Weevil]

Yeah…junk before. Oasis after.

 

[Popcorn]

Looks good. You might think about pruning your pines up as high as you can reach; the crowns will explode in the next couple of years with all that space to expand.

On this note I doubled back and took out more than half of the remaining pines. Finished today by tightening the windrows up and creating a broad based ditch across diagonally to help manage runoff and retain water during periods of little rain. All thats left is burning the windrows and drilling in some NWSG's and forbs later this fall