I've mentioned it before, but the family farm I hunt has been over taken by bush honeysuckle, and when you couple that with the logging practices taking place every winter, the "woods" have become an impenetrable tangle of treetops and honeysuckle. At first glance one would think this appears to be a deers heaven. After all 185 acres of the thickest stuff imaginable has to have it's benefits right? The deer undoubtedly do use this stuff to hide in. However, aside from a few creek crossings and field entrances, the idea of a deer trail left when yhe honeysuckle entered. Alas, I have noticed a trend. Like always has been said, deer are lazy. They want an easy route from A to B. There are aome places where small paths have been cleared. Some from loggers, some from driving a 4wheeler in during the winter. The deer seem to like these, albeit they may only be 30-40 yards long and close to field edges. My idea is to take that to the next step, and clear a small 4-5' wide path 1-200 yards long in areas where bucks used to cruise....the upper 1/3rd of long running ridges....in hopes that they'll reopen their old habits of using these to cruise for does. I do not own any big machinery. I have made due with food plot clearing with a chainsaw and mower, but those were all pretty open areas. For this, I will be driving through the honeysuckle jungle on slopes and down ditches. What type of rental machinery am I looking at that could handle this type of abuse, or is my best bet to just lace up the boots and fire up the chainsaw? And for those of you, that have not encountered the honeysuckle epeidemic....if you start to see signs, start eradicating it ASAP!!! Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk
I did this on the property behind my house last winter. I have one plot in the back of the property that I cleared, it was almost entirely invasive buckthorn so thick you had to crawl through it all. I cleared it with the chainsaw, and then rented a stump grinder so I could actually till it and get it planted, etc. While doing this I moved all the tree tops and cut down buckthorn to funnel the traditional west to east movement into a specific pinch point through my plot that I can easily watch and cover from a vantage point on both the North and South out of two of the only trees big enough for a stand in there. They can only enter or exit the plot from one spot on the west side, and one spot on the east side. I also used tree tops extending out north and south of the plot to force them through it vs. going around it. Has worked really well for me and the movement is MUCH more consistent and the deer don't seem to mind funneling through it at all.
Ours is a different brand and more heavy duty than this one but it's one of the best attachments we have bought for our bobcat. https://www.palletforks.com/skid-steer-tree-fence-post-puller-attachment.html
Don't need any machine other than a 2 gallon tank sprayer and some round up.. Been doing it for years! Keep the paths narrow, like only 12"
That will definantly work after the path or funnel is established, there will have to be some removal done beforehand. Some of these honeysuckle bushes are 8-10' tall and have a cluster of 8 or so trunks coming out of 1 rootball. This stuff is the devils gift to the woods. Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk
One thing to also consider for slow short term but great long term is in the areas you clear whether paths or circle openings throughout (recommend) you could shove some various types of willows or highbush cranberry or ninebark or arrowwood. Mark em shoot maybe even fence (on the cheap) for a year or two if you keep the honeysuckle from impeding on them in two or three years you can then expand wider and slowly nibble away at the honeysuckle while introducing native alternatives the deer and birds love more even!
Tackling a similar situation. Areas that were clear cut about 4 years ago. have grown up with poplar trees and thorny black and raspberry bushes growing in and around the deadfall tree branches left from he cutting. Been fighting to keep a couple openings clean with weed eater, hand sickle and roundup. but I need to open the areas up bigger in order to do some real planting in order to get the deer in. The ground underneath is extremely rocky where leveling it with a dozer isn't even an option. I'm going to start soon, knock the brush down while thinning or clearing the poplar growth getting down to the dead fall branches. making a pile in the middle of the area I want cleared to plant. Later this winter when there is a good snow cover, burn the brush piles so there is little worry about burning the entire woods down. In spring let the new growth start before I spray to kill it all. Then it will be hard rake work to loosen the soil. I'm leaving all the stumps turning them into mineral stumps.
Leave a few so moving forward each year for 1-3 you can have a few stumps sprouting. We've yet to have a mineral stump last longer than 2 or 3 years. Most die going into their second year if deer brows them hard.
