Wood lot management,where does the orchard end?

Years ago , I had a neighbor,
He would mow his yard , rake a good fire break around the house, and set the rest of the world on fire !
With no care as to where it went.
It would take the rest of the community to put it out.
Happened almost every spring.
He is gone now, I don’t like fighting fires

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Yes, definitely not to be used casually! They had whole courses and workshops on it at the forestry school I got my masters from (my degree was more forestry-adjacent). Between that and seeing how it is used to manage tallgrass rangeland in the Flint Hills when I lived in Kansas, I learned you definitely need to know what you’re doing. I think county extension service and/or local FD can provide guidance or training.

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Yikes! Now that’s a problem neighbor.

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As a pre-teen I helped my dad burn sedge grass on pasture land near woods every spring…it worked out well, and I’m still not afraid to burn so long as it’s not windy.

Same here in Central NY. None of our American Beech get large enough to be milled because of Beech Bark disease. They readily regenerate from roots but aren’t able to establish any size before being infested again. So we have this cycle that prevents the tree from being useful anymore. It’s really sad considering the giants that they used to grow into. A large healthy American Beech is truly a rarity here. Nathan Elliott milled some beautiful beech on his YouTube channel a couple months ago (Out of the Woods).

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I’d also like to note that periodic small burns (when done safely and correctly) are the best way to prevent catastrophic wildfires. USFS had a policy of putting out every fire (they didn’t want to waste good timber). What nobody realized yet (because they hadn’t done the experiment yet!) was that by putting out small fires, they were allowing the fuel to build up. After about 100 years of this, we now have an environement where a fire that might not have been so bad has the fuel to burn all the way to the tree tops over huge areas. Modern practice is better, but it will take a long time to correct. Periodic small fires are a part of a healthy forest ecosystem. If I had a woodlot, and it was legal to do so in my jurisdiction, I would definitely burn. I just might contract someone to do it for me, though…

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I’ll put my soapbox away now.

It’s a good soapbox. Around here we’ve had some experience with fires, and the thinking since the '60’s or '70’s has been pretty much as you describe. It has taken a long time to bring thinking around, though, and some of the old timers still think it’s crazy. (The urban- forest interface is much more a problem now than it used to be, too.)

After the fire of 1910 we through the whole Smokey Bear thing:

But burning as a management tool is getting wider acceptance and use now; this year they did some just a few miles from out house. Of course they do it in the fall when the soil moisture level is higher and so on.

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Anybody else dealing with invasives like bush honeysuckle and buckthorn in your woodlots?

I have an invasion of autumn olive here.
At first ,I liked them.
Not so much anymore

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Do you plan to fight the A.O. or let it go?

Yes , the Battle has begun .
I will likely lose .!
As I am surrounded

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Are you using herbicides or…?

Used a small track hoe this summer, pulled many out by the roots, where I could get to , very gratifing .
Cutting others to ground, just trying to keep them from producing seed.
They can get thick, thorny, hard to walk through,flat tires , etc.
They do fix nitrogen,
Don’t like to use herbicides, but so many small seedlings here, they will likely win

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Hector Black, of Hidden springs , has reported of the increased growth of walnut ,under planted with autumn olive , due to their nitrogen fixing, but they do create a obsticle to access . Seam very shade tolerant , or at least they will persist in the shade.

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Does anybody use goats to reduce fire risk and eat invasive species? In theory, it sounds like a good solution…

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With all the talk of using controlled burns to manage forests, I thought I would throw this out. If you are managing your timber with the hopes of having your timber logged in the future, doing controlled burns can damage the trunks of your best trees. While it might seem minor at first, wounds caused by fire can severely detract from the value of your best logs decades later. With softwoods it doesn’t really matter that much, but if you have a nice stand of black walnuts or stave log quality white oaks you can potentially cost yourself thousands of dollars in the long run. So, in short, controlled burns are a good tool, but like any tool they are best used when that tool will get a specific job done.

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@ZombieFruit
Tried that years ago.
Found goats have their own agenda…
" NOT" compatible with fruit trees.
Escape artist , for sure.!
Good at brush control.
Just could not keep them in a fence.
Just one episode of them getting “out” of the fence would make you cry.
They can eat your favorite tree in minutes .
Lost many to them.
I tried to get to some agreement , with them. For several years. I liked the idea. Just never worked out.

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Goats are the spawn of satan. Got rid of mine after I needed to buy a new windshield after one jumped on my car. They are escape artists.

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im not a fan of herbicides either but if used responsively during the proper times, they are great at riding you of the new seedlings. I’ve tried all the natural recipes to kill these tough weeds, but none work as good as carefully placed herbicides. i rotate through different chemicals so they don’t get resistance to any one. only way I’ve kept them at bay other than killing yourself just to see the buggers resprout!.

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