2021 who's started their land projects?

I am up at the property waiting for a forestry expert to stop by. When I was here the other day I noticed that a bunch of red oaks were dying, it’s either drought stress, some kind of beetle or oak wilt. Will find out soon…. On a side note the clover is bouncing back after the rain we had which is good. Already getting dry again unfortunately… we are going to be getting some rain in the next few days, fingers crossed.

 

Wish mine were coming up that nicely!!

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That looks like a killer spot there!

 

Geezzzz, I hope it's not oak wilt. The DEC here in NY forces the cutting of all oaks in a 100ft. Radius of each infected tree. It spreads from Beetles to trees roots then through root system....let's hope it's just weather or Japanese beetles or an earlier gypsy moth issue...Good luck...plots looking good.

 

^^^ To my post above, I met with the forester and he thinks it is the 2 lined chestnut beetle along with the drought. He said it is the perfect storm for them to kill the trees. He wasn’t 100% sure so he is going to send out another person to do some diagnostics to find out for sure. He said the the red oaks normally have the beetle’s but the combination of the two is sometimes just too much for the trees to withstand. Also he hasn’t seen a pocket of this many trees affected in over 30 years, lucky me…… If I had to guess there’s at least 30, but probably more mature trees dying scattered around 3 acres.

 

He was pretty confident that it wasn’t oak wilt, I was very relieved about that.

 

Just make absolutely positive they are dead BEFORE making any cutting decisions. In such cases what can happen is a total Browning and a leaf drop way too early . That or they hang on to those dead leaves through winter They go dorment. Then the following spring come back.

 

Yep, I marked them all and going to sit back and wait now.

 

Well here are a few of the first rye new plot and trail plot. Rye / clover. Surface seed up well and clover sprouted way better than expected. It will all thicken nicely. Everything looks the same.I couldn't get a pic of one trail due to sun glare coming up over the horizon. Happy!

 

^^^ to my above posts about the red oak trees, the forester I met with yesterday consulted with his colleagues and they said that they are 99% certain that it is the 2 lined chestnut beetle. So the best thing to do now is selectively log it this winter when the ground is frozen. It won’t eliminate them all but it will kill thousands and thousands of beetles, eggs and larvae. Unfortunately they are predicting it to be even worse next year… The email they sent showed the history of the last 3 drought periods and thousands of trees were lost due to these little bastards. The only good thing is that this part of my woods is very mature and could use a good logging anyway. Hopefully this will slow them down a bit

 

Did they ever suggest a controlled burn.

 

No, probably because the damage starts from the top of the trees and works it way down.

 

Got my last plots in. Pretty excited about it honestly. I’ll have the video up in a few days.


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Oats,turnips and clover andumpkins has just exploded here with the rains.

 

Looking good!!

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I have checked the forecast and have rain today none tomorrow then rain next 2 days. After this nothing for a week. So today I over seeded the behind house trail plot trails and the new plot.
The other plots have not thickened up enough to over seed . The turkey and grackles hit things hard. Though laneway has really good sprouting on turnips I put in with rye and clover. Wasn't looking for bulbs just.greens and what makes it until next year for seed. This rain will thicken the rest of plots in the next day or two so I can hide the rest of my rye in them. Out of the 200#'s I have 50 left.I'm also over seeding the shade beans.

 

Made it back up to the woods, checked all the cameras and plots. They are all doing good with the much needed rain. Winter wheat has germinated and coming in nicely for a throw and grow. Also happy that my #1 and #2 bucks have been showing up on a regular basis.

 

^^^ better angle of the #1 hopefully Incan keep my composure if I get a crack at him… This would be why I put so much effort into doing what I do.

 

Today I came across a fresh single bed next to one of my chestnuts. In ALL MY YEARS of hunting IT is the biggest ever seen. Literally looked like a cow bed . it was nearly 4ft x 3ft and the clover was mashed down.

 

The recent rains in MN have sure been awesome AF!
Nice bucks.
OND, it's not uncommon to find a bed like that. Most likely a deer using it as a daily bed hence the size.