Has anyone tried hinge cutting with a reed canary forest floor? We have a thing poplar woods that is mature with no undergrowth. I'm worried if I do some hinge cutting to spark new growth there the canary will choke out any new growth and I will be left with nothing. Anyone have any experience with this?
If you thin the poplar the new growth will sucker out of the stumps, cut the females it will benefit the grouse as well, the canary can not choke out poplar.
Poplar is a poor choice to attempt hinge cutting with. Its a tree that tends to break, it would be better to just log it and allow the new growth that way.
I understand the concern but with poplar being a tree that isn't very effective for hinging you'd be effectively doing the same as logging just in a much more dangerous way. If it was something like black ash or willow hinge cutting would be a great choice.
I did some research and from what I found, there are two types of poplar and one works with hinge cutting and the other does not, the only problem is I dont know which I have
It will create some prime habitat, did you know that the worlds largest growing tree area wise is a poplar tree, When you cut one down and it suckers out it is a clone of the original tree multiplied. The female has a bud higher in protein than the male and is preferred by grouse. deer also love to brouse on young poplar.
its not very many acres, but I was thinking I would hinge them, even if they don't survive they will provide cover and food for deer for atleast a year, plus theres the chance the tree will survive the hinge and grow. If I remove the tree there is no chance for any of those things to work.
True, I did some logging in Northern Wisconsin years ago and you had to be careful when you dropped poplar because the deer would be eating off the tips of the branches 25-30 yards away from you. This time of year would be a great time to cut them down.
