trail clearing technique and tools

[ArlyA]

Bump Head

If you are cutting tough weeds or tree shoots, I'd suggest going to larger, cam lock head and run 155. That's what we run here.

 

[ArlyA]

Clearing trail at camp over the weekend. Does cooler string work better? Did run the same strings for the whole day. No idea why.

 

[Milo]

Arly is that stilt grass you're cutting?

 

[ArlyA]

Arly is that stilt grass you're cutting?

I don't believe he have that up here.

 

[Milo]

Count your blessings!

 

[ArlyA]

Count your blessings!

What have you used to knock it down?

 

[kenmbz]

I used Milestone on my stiltgrass, works great on the grass in open areas.

Unfortunately the stiltgrass comes up through everything, including junipers, so we can't kill it all.
The deer etc. won't touch it.
When it gets to 2-3foot maturity, it seeds and then falls over so it suffocates anything else in the spring.
Nasty stuff, in rose bushes, veggy garden, woods, pretty much everywhere you look.
Deer will walk through and spread seeds etc.
I spend more time on SG eradication than anything else, trying to find tree trunks, branches and rocks to clear an area is tough with that stuff covering it.

 

[Milo]

What have you used to knock it down?

Pretty much as Ken described.

Not so bad where it can be mowed and mowing short in fall greatly reduces it seeding much, and it dies annually, but just one plant can make 100's of seeds. And you can't mow where it grows around rocks, through briars, and takes off through the forest. No way a nut can grow to a sapling through the stuff so the forest can't regenerate.

 

[walhondingMF]

On my property a lot of them are more ash. I have oak, walnut, maple, and sweet gum coming up too, but more ash than anything. I'm starting to think I should just cut down ash saplings to encourage the other species since as soon as the ashes start to mature the Emerald Ash Borers will get them.

I had a local forester recommend allowing as many young ash making as you can, even if the ash borer eventually gets them. This will maybe keep them around enough to potentially find a solution in the near future maybe?

 

[EscapedSuburbia]

I had a local forester recommend allowing as many young ash making as you can, even if the ash borer eventually gets them. This will maybe keep them around enough to potentially find a solution in the near future maybe?

I actually just had this conversation with a guy from my county soil and water conservation district yesterday. He said they're most likely going to be killed so just remove them and put in something hardier like oaks. What got the conversation started is that I was ordering a few hundred seedlings from the state forestry site and I could save shipping if I could pick them up at my county SWCD office so I gave them a call. The forestry service still sells green ash seedlings so somebody there agrees with your assessment that we should try to keep them around.