My Managed Forrest plan in SW Ontario

RuralKanuck said:
Less rare but slow growing, and has very specific soil and habitat requirements is the Yellow Lady Slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum)

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“While orchids are often associated with love, luxury, and elegance, the lady's slipper orchid means capricious beauty in the language of flowers.”

The Yellow Lady Slipper orchid, symbolizes friendship and new beginnings …
 

RuralKanuck said:
So far as I know it was logged out sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900s, there are two or three huge Maples that obviously where not taken then, one of which is now starting to die off. I am going to try and take some of it for fuel wood if I can get it down without killing myself and can then see its age by ring count. An old apple probably seeded after the logging was aged at around 120 years 10 ot 15 years ago by ring count! I do not believe the hardwood section has beet touched since then hence my wish to leave it largly untouched as much as possible.
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I would highly recommend leaving those maples for 2 reasons. #1 as you eluded to is your own personal safety. #2 those trees could be critical nesting habitat now and in the long term. They also could be sources of food for woodpeckers, and sapsuckers.

Fuel wood perhaps should be obtained from the suppressed and intermediate trees in the stand. Taking suppressed and intermediates opens more space and lessens competition for the remaining trees in the stand. It also opens up the forest floor allowing for herbs, grasses and shrubs and shade-intolerant trees. This in turn provides food for both mammals and birds. The appearance also becomes more "park like" which is pleasing to the eye, however ymmv on that - not sure if that would qualify as "natural" to you.

As an aside an increment borer would allow you age any tree so you would not be restricting your information to the trees that are cut down.
 
The above title means different things to different land owners so this could turn into a far ranging discussion, in my own case I manage more for my nature than income somature salable timber is generally left standing. The back 20 acresor so is mixed hardwood mostly Maple and Ash, the front aprox 10 is Pine that was planted under a ministry program back in 1978 at which time it was noted that "Woodlot was heavily logged some years ago”, little evidence of that remains now. The pine is now for little salable use although much of it being a good and should be thinned most of the logging folks not wanting to bother, and I having used it in the past for many of the projects around here.

The area at the very back of the property we call 'fern gully' for the abundance and variety of ferns that cover the forest floor there is much see this in the fall of year and its been some time since I have been back that far. My timeas been taken up during the spring with bringing out the logs from several fallen trees a little nearer the 'woodyard' where I block and split them before taking to the woodshed for stacking ready forwinter use. Not my favorite job but free (if we dont count the costin sweat and sore backs) wood is not to be wasted!

There was a time when I could name the almost 20 different kinds of ferns to be seen but I fear that my passing years have seen my ability to remember such details fade, even recollecting the names of more easily identified plants seen on the forest floor is becoming harder each year. For the most part as I point out the various growth I must now say 'look there, sorry I dont remember what its called' or stop and read through my database list to see if that jogs my memory. Frustrating!

Will post a few more spring forest pictures in the future ........
 
RuralKanuck said:
The above title means different things to different land owners so this could turn into a far ranging discussion, in my own case I manage more for my nature than income somature salable timber is generally left standing. The back 20 acresor so is mixed hardwood mostly Maple and Ash, the front aprox 10 is Pine that was planted under a ministry program back in 1978 at which time it was noted that "Woodlot was heavily logged some years ago”, little evidence of that remains now. The pine is now for little salable use although much of it being a good and should be thinned most of the logging folks not wanting to bother, and I having used it in the past for many of the projects around here.

The area at the very back of the property we call 'fern gully' for the abundance and variety of ferns that cover the forest floor there is much see this in the fall of year and its been some time since I have been back that far. My timeas been taken up during the spring with bringing out the logs from several fallen trees a little nearer the 'woodyard' where I block and split them before taking to the woodshed for stacking ready forwinter use. Not my favorite job but free (if we dont count the costin sweat and sore backs) wood is not to be wasted!

There was a time when I could name the almost 20 different kinds of ferns to be seen but I fear that my passing years have seen my ability to remember such details fade, even recollecting the names of more easily identified plants seen on the forest floor is becoming harder each year. For the most part as I point out the various growth I must now say 'look there, sorry I dont remember what its called' or stop and read through my database list to see if that jogs my memory. Frustrating!

Will post a few more spring forest pictures in the future ........
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Good Morning to you up there.

Do you keep any animals ? I see your avitar has a nice looking Border Collie in it ? How long have you lived there ? I like your attention to details on your property. JimB.
 
againstthegrain said:
I would highly recommend leaving those maples for 2 reasons. #1 as you eluded to is your own personal safety. #2 those trees could be critical nesting habitat now and in the long term. They also could be sources of food for woodpeckers, and sapsuckers.

Fuel wood perhaps should be obtained from the suppressed and intermediate trees in the stand. Taking suppressed and intermediates opens more space and lessens competition for the remaining trees in the stand. It also opens up the forest floor allowing for herbs, grasses and shrubs and shade-intolerant trees. This in turn provides food for both mammals and birds. The appearance also becomes more "park like" which is pleasing to the eye, however ymmv on that - not sure if that would qualify as "natural" to you.

As an aside an increment borer would allow you age any tree so you would not be restricting your information to the trees that are cut down.
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So seem very knowledgeable on this subject AGT would you mind telling me what training or studying you have had on it?

AS a bit of an aside I have NO shortage of woodpeckers here. Downy, Hairy, Red Bellied, Red Headed and of course the Flicker and not short of dead standing wood for them to searh including my wood siding at times. But I just figure they are trying to tell me it needs work, I just encourage the two smaller ones to come to the seed feeder on the window sill rather than the siding on the house!
 
I am Very interested in your posts.My farm is 45 acres on one side of road and I have a little over 6 acres I own across the road.
When we moved to NY , We contacted the Cornell Cooperative Extention up here and they gave us some excellent advice on handling the woodlots, creating a deep run off area, above where we built a new barn, and a man from the Cornell Extension came out and spent hours going over every bit of land we had.

He suggested since we had springs to consider a pond (which we did have put in- a great idea for the livestock in the summer, and he also suggested share cropping our fields of hay that the seller had maintained well for years, with crop rotation and lime etc. That too was a good idea and since my husband worked I was the family farmer and we never needed to buy a tractor, when we share cropped.
https://cals.cornell.edu/cornell-cooperative-extension

Also I had a Certificate from Penn State University in Agriculture ,which helped me plan the farm before we moved up from NJ.

My main livestock job was raising sheep, but I also raised beef , real roasting chickens, and goats , and 2 horses.

Horses are smart but GOATS are the smartest animal I ever raised. And they taste good too.

I had a problem one year because the ewes were rejecting their lambs. I had ,at one point, 22 babies on bottles and special milk formula , and one night I stayed in the barn all night because I had to build another stall. Suffolk lambs all look alike and
after I could feed about 4 at a time, they had to be put into a stall,after being fed because they would try to drink more milk, and some lambs could have missed the 6 hour feedings.

Cornell Co-op had an enormous sheep farm and told me they were having the same problem, same ration of rejects but on a higher schedule and they thought is was because we had been in drought conditions the year before and maybe the ewes did not expect there would be enough water and good pasture and hay , to feed the lambs throughout the spring and summer.
 
jimintoronto said:
Good Morning to you up there.

Do you keep any animals ? I see your avitar has a nice looking Border Collie in it ? How long have you lived there ? I like your attention to details on your property. JimB.
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Jim, I just have this VERY lively young pup now, I have had a four legged friend of one sort or another for over 40 years but this one is the first I have not 'rescued' a little older.
In the past I have kept duck and chickens but the foxes and the weasels or some such took them all eventually even after I had them caged. I do have a pack of Cyotes passing through once in a while at night, I think they have a den at the very back of my property, it did used to be the Fox den!
 
I wrote the above post over a day or more ago and had weather-internet problems, but posted it here today.

I found in my woodlots "Fiddlehead" ferns and someone told me the fiddleheads tops can be cooked and eaten but I only ate a few-many years ago.
 
WVV, you have had much more formal training and instruction than I, I learned mostly 'on the job' along from gleaning a little from the 5 year inspection for the ministry to get a tax reduction.
As I said above I did not have much luck with 'live stock' (are chicken livestock ? lol) but my daughter who is marrided to a cattle farmer who raises breeding cattle raises all kinds of critters generally rescued from elsewhere which I get to hear about from a bit of a distance. She threatens to come and graze the couple of acres I mow (with the sheep not her)
 
Widow of Vietnam Vet said:
I wrote the above post over a day or more ago and had weather-internet problems, but posted it here today.

I found in my woodlots "Fiddlehead" ferns and someone told me the fiddleheads tops can be cooked and eaten but I only ate a few-many years ago.
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In the Maritime Canadian Provinces , fiddleheads are a common food source both at homes, and at resturants. So is seaweed of various types. JimB.
 
RuralKanuck said:
So seem very knowledgeable on this subject AGT would you mind telling me what training or studying you have had on it?

AS a bit of an aside I have NO shortage of woodpeckers here. Downy, Hairy, Red Bellied, Red Headed and of course the Flicker and not short of dead standing wood for them to searh including my wood siding at times. But I just figure they are trying to tell me it needs work, I just encourage the two smaller ones to come to the seed feeder on the window sill rather than the siding on the house!
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I have a BS in Forest Management from the University of Idaho and 10 years experience in the field. I've worked mostly in the intermountain west, but also SE Alaska and central and southern California. I was an expert tree faller and tree climber. Over the years I've done stand exam, timber sale and road layout, timber sale and planting administration, thinning, planted trees, built trails, fought fire (hot shots and engines), controlled burns, and law enforcement.

Those big maples are going to house the larger Pileated and owls and perhaps larger mammals. They are really unique and a key to maintaining a diversity of habitats.
 
Thanks ATG I forgot about the Pileated who I see here once in a while, not sure I want to risk my life in culling those large Maples in a much larger close group anyway!
I may try and tap you knowledge I how to deal with the 10 or so acres of mature pines, no logger want to even give me no balance for the wood, the ministry has told me its no problen to remove a portion of the (pine) trees all planted in 78. (without loosing my tax deduction)
 
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Very pretty!
I really do not feel I deserve that compliment RuralKanuck , as I am an Honors graduate of a Military University- and what I learned in the Penn State U certificate program was limited in this way-there was an entire course on Sheep.

It had much good info but as farmers say- only hands on experience really gets a livestock farmer to gain knowledge they need- because sheep, beef, goats , all are so different in their ways. For example I dont think Australian sheep or maybe Canadian sheep need selenium shots to enhance the limited selenium in their diets here in NY so my Veterinarian showed me what to buy and how to give the sheep these annuals shots.

Also the course did not tell me how sheep determine a leader, when you first buy them, or how dangerous a large Ram can be.

My Ram ,Rambo was enormous but ,since we have to exchange rams every few years, my next ram, Mickey, was a sweetheart, and when he got sick one day I could easily move him into a large snow sled and get him down to the barn. I might have given him penicillin, and I gave him a nice warm bowl of oatmeal . Then within a few hours he seemed fine, and I realized he might just have been exhausted, as it was breeding season for the ewes. :rolleyes:

The personalities of livestock are interesting too, good thing- because Suffolk sheep all look alike. Before we bought a lawn mower up here, I attached electric fence wire to my main Australian High tensile , which was quite an expense but worth it and the livestock kept my lawn and actually every pasture looking like a lawn. Not a perfect lawn but sure good enough until we got a mower.

Some of the most important things I needed during the warm seasons, for my sheep ,was binoculars ( my pastures are all on a hillside), a large winter sled, and Duct tape.
 
Sounds very 'interesting' YVV, as I think I said before my daughter has a variety and had some unusual sheep for a while, I must ask what kind they where she told me but I forget .... as I do most weeks in her call, much forgotten stuff in the old cage above my sholders!
 
Widow of Vietnam Vet said:
Very pretty!
I really do not feel I deserve that compliment RuralKanuck , as I am an Honors graduate of a Military University- and what I learned in the Penn State U certificate program was limited in this way-there was an entire course on Sheep.

It had much good info but as farmers say- only hands on experience really gets a livestock farmer to gain knowledge they need- because sheep, beef, goats , all are so different in their ways. For example I dont think Australian sheep or maybe Canadian sheep need selenium shots to enhance the limited selenium in their diets here in NY so my Veterinarian showed me what to buy and how to give the sheep these annuals shots.

Also the course did not tell me how sheep determine a leader, when you first buy them, or how dangerous a large Ram can be.

My Ram ,Rambo was enormous but ,since we have to exchange rams every few years, my next ram, Mickey, was a sweetheart, and when he got sick one day I could easily move him into a large snow sled and get him down to the barn. I might have given him penicillin, and I gave him a nice warm bowl of oatmeal . Then within a few hours he seemed fine, and I realized he might just have been exhausted, as it was breeding season for the ewes. :rolleyes:

The personalities of livestock are interesting too, good thing- because Suffolk sheep all look alike. Before we bought a lawn mower up here, I attached electric fence wire to my main Australian High tensile , which was quite an expense but worth it and the livestock kept my lawn and actually every pasture looking like a lawn. Not a perfect lawn but sure good enough until we got a mower.

Some of the most important things I needed during the warm seasons, for my sheep ,was binoculars ( my pastures are all on a hillside), a large winter sled, and Duct tape.
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Just to put an actual mileage from your place to Rural Kanucks place near Owen Sound, Ontario is about 400 miles as the crow flies...Not very far at all. JImB.
 
So many Adult Trees are dying and falling due to disease and insects.
The natural tree safety net is gone. When they drop scrub junk replaces it.
IS it the unnatural way for natures moving on with stuff. Cockroaches
and ants will replace us.
 
LOL !

Our local dump was paying high mowing fees for a very large grassy part of the dump but many years ago they decided to raise some sheep on the grounds. The expense of keeping the sheep well fed and healthy was minimal, compared to the mowing fee and the sheep site is an attraction for many.

Other dumps around here have done the same too.
I have photo of the sheep there- have problems attaching it.....due to weather....
 
Widow of Vietnam Vet said:
LOL !

Our local dump was paying high mowing fees for a very large grassy part of the dump but many years ago they decided to raise some sheep on the grounds. The expense of keeping the sheep well fed and healthy was minimal, compared to the mowing fee and the sheep site is an attraction for many.

Other dumps around here have done the same too.
I have photo of the sheep there- have problems attaching it.....due to weather....
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My daughter says she had Barbados blackberry hair sheep, not sure what she has in her collection now other than six young Basset pups!
 
WebMD- "Blue cohosh is a plant. "Cohosh" is from the Algonquin Indian word meaning "rough," and it refers to the appearance of the roots. The root is used to make medicine. Blue cohosh is not a safe plant. However, it still is available as a supplement. Sometimes the supplements do not include warnings.

Blue cohosh is used for stimulating the uterus and starting labor; starting menstruation; stopping muscle spasms; as a laxative; and for treating colic, sore throat, cramps, hiccups, epilepsy, hysterics, inflammation of the uterus, infection of the female organs (pelvic inflammatory disease), over-growth of uterine tissue (endometriosis), and joint conditions.

In foods, the roasted seeds of blue cohosh are used as a coffee substitute.

How does it work ?​

It is thought that blue cohosh might have effects similar to the hormone estrogen. It also may narrow the vessels that carry blood to the heart that can decrease oxygen in the heart."

Habitat and Distribution[edit]​

Wiki- "The plant is found in hardwood forests and favors moist coves and hillsides, generally in shady locations, in rich soil. It grows in eastern North America, from Manitoba and Oklahoma east to the Atlantic Ocean."
 
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