Turkey Creek Timber, that’s what I call my land. It’s Turkey Creek, because Turkey Creek runs
pretty much right down the middle of the property. It’s Timber, because I hope to be able to
harvest some timber from time to time.
One day, my wife and I may move here.
I love my land and I want to take care of it. I want to see it healed and returned to a
more “natural” state. I want to return
our land to the “pine tree savanna” that used to be here a hundred years
ago.
A pine tree savanna is a place where wildlife and diversity
of plant life will thrive. It is the
type of habitat that turkey, quail and deer love. Wouldn’t it be lovely to take
a walk in my woods and have quail fly up as we approach; to see a flock of
turkey in the distance and maybe even see deer?
I don’t want it to be a rare chance encounter, but a daily
expectation. I want my woods to be so
wildlife friendly, that we have wildlife encounters almost every time we go
exploring and walking in the woods.
Here’s a picture of what it currently looks like and another
picture of what it “should” look like.
The reason the land is so overgrown, is that there hasn’t
been fire on the land in over 50 years.
In a more natural state, this land would have burned every three to five
years.
Pine trees are remarkable in their ability to thrive in a
fire environment, but only if it is a fire that burns low to the ground. If the fire gets up into the canopy then it
will kill the tree. Unfortunately,
because of 50+ years of fire suppression, the understory, i.e. yaupon, of my
forest has grown so thick and tall that in a fire, it would act as a “ladder”
and carry the fire up into the canopy.
My forest would die.
So the challenge for Brenda and I is to reduce the yaupon understory
in our forest. We do that with our
tractor. I have an implement called a
grubber. It’s a device that grabs onto
the trunk of a tree and bites harder and harder into the trunk as I pull on the
grubber with the tractor. We pull the
understory out of the ground, roots and all.
It’s a lot of work, but it seems to be the best way to permanently
reduce the understory. I can’t wait to
see how awesome this place will look once we get the understory under control.
By managing my forest this way, I
hope to one day be able to reintroduce fire back into the ecology. Lord knows I don’t want to keep pulling up
yaupon for the rest of my life!
