It’s Time to Thin the Herd

Hey it's Brock here with Rock Hill Farms And today I'm out here looking at the Trees on the edge of my Woods trying to Make some decisions I think I'm probably coming out here Tomorrow with the skid loader and a tree Puller and a grapple and maybe a brush Cutter just whatever is needed and I'm Going to Kill most of everything in this area but I want to do so with some intentionality So we're talking about an area you can See behind me there's a big berm right There I believe when they built my main shop Before long before I bought this Property they had to excavate that area And they took all the dirt and rock and Made a big berm here I haven't decided If I'm going to leave that berm but That's a decision for another day what I Want to decide today is what should be Growing in front of it I've taken you Guys up on the hill in the past in Videos and shown you that we have a lot Of big mature trees that are mostly dead And dying and they've been storm damaged And What's growing in between them is brush And undesirable species and it's kind of A mess and it's very Rocky And I'd like to clean that up and make Sure that what we have growing in that Spot is good healthy trees that are

Going to make a nice Woods 50 years from Now So we've got an area in front of that Berm probably 50 foot long 25 foot wide That has you know 50 trees in it well How many trees can really grow in a spot That size if you're talking about these Trees like I've got out here take a look We've got Giant Oaks down here Big Field trees Those trees have a huge canopy on them And if you want them to grow like that And be beautiful and gigantic like that They can't be right next to each other So I'm going to take the camera up here And try to identify some species on These trees and make decisions on what We want to leave we want species that Are ideally native to the Part of the country will thrive in this Environment will become large trees and Preferably resistant to rot and disease And then we want to choose one tree over Here maybe one tree in the back middle And one tree over there everything else Needs to go because you can't have 50 Trees right next to each other they're All going to be small stunted trees I'm Pretty mediocre at identifying tree Types just looking at them especially When they don't have all their leaves So I'm just going to go through with the Picture this app which is pretty handy

It'll identify any type of tree or plant Or basically anything growing it'll Identify it so we're going to look at What we have here and see what is Healthy and what is a desirable variety Of trees to have on the property Is a pretty cool app the way it works I Took a picture of the tree it's scanning It Called that a Texas red oak That's what our leaves look like on this Surprised it has leaves in February but Texas red oak is a deciduous tree that Produces reddish brown S in Spring acorns develop in summer and Ripen in Fall that right there We have a Oak tree with a split trunk About 10 inches up off the ground it Splits into two trees Those are neat and unique to have on the Property but maybe don't make the Healthiest tree and maybe don't Grow as healthy and could end up Splitting off So that's an option to keep let's see What else we've got down here So these are not desirable these small Ones here they're actually Just Stumpy little bushing trees And that's not what I want back here see What we got behind them That little skinny guy right there has Had a bigger tree fall on it

It's a rusty black haul so everything Here is going to be short and spread Wide this one straight behind me is the Biggest tree in the area and obviously Has the biggest head start To actually surviving and doing well and That is an American elm so this elm tree Right here is a candidate to keep It'll grow really large But they are kind of threatened by Disease and according to this app are in Danger of becoming extinct So that's a real candidate to keep And we've got this oak tree behind me That I'm going to spread out across here And see what else I can find that's Interesting or a candidate to keep But really This tree can have a 60-foot canopy on It out in the open And I probably don't want another tree For within 20 feet of it if I keep it And I talk about this because I'm going To come through here with the skid steer And I'm going to rip all of these out of The ground and people are going to be Mad at me but I'm going to do it with a Purpose Here's the berm I was talking about the Reason I'm not sure what I want to do With it in my mind my first thought was Clear all this out and use it as fill or Whatever But it may be directing all the rain off

The hill to run down that way which is a Good thing Hopefully over time this app can teach Me to identify trees And I really hope that it's accurate This is a good sized tree right here White ash What do you guys think this is Equidistant enough from that other one That we could keep both And they're not going to fully Bush out Like a field tree but at least there's 25 feet between them so we could save Both of these White Ash is a species of ash tree Native to North America Sleeves turned distinctly bright yellow Or red in the Autumn everything I read About the the white ash is positive Birds love it they grow big this tree Right here is a candidate to keep Now the next thing is Is not just deciding to keep it I've got to make sure it's not damaged Before I make that decision and then We probably don't want All of these lower branches do some Selective trimming here Before I bought the property I was telling friends I was going to Plant walnut trees all over the place Out here but there's so many trees Growing I don't know if it really makes sense to

Spend money planting trees when all of This is here this guy right here is Called a common Buckthorn I don't know much about the common Buckthorn but I don't think we'll keep Him And actually I don't even need to scan These trees Because there's a bigger one right there That I think I'm going to keep let's go Down here and see if we can find Something so as I come down to look at Some of these other trees we're starting To crowd up against these which are Mature trees But it looks like at least half of this Tree has already split off and broke I'm Gonna go scan these two trees and see What we have probably that one will stay And the other one will go So there are three large post oak trees Right here one of them's healthy the Other one about half of the tree looks Like it's split off And when they split off like that There's a hollow spot and you can see Rain is getting into it about 20 feet up And then the third one The entire top is gone off that tree It needs to go so I I'm gonna come out Here and take out that Post Oak and this Post Oak And I'd like to leave something Right in the area could be

Maybe this guy right here Or maybe there's some more Post Oak Right behind that one let's see what we Got That tree was starting to get some size To it but it looks like it might be a Tree that doesn't get that big I just Scanned it it's a Sugar Berry Medium-sized tree Often found near water or flood Plains Along with rivers and streams attracts Birds Bees dogs and humans alike Probably won't pick that one personally I want to grow Hardwoods That are going to someday make good Firewood Even if it's not for me let's go up next To this dying Post Oak and see what's up There my neighbor that lives just over Here is in his 80s lived on that spot For 30 years told me that there are Copperheads on this hill so hopefully we Don't find one of those Let's scan some Of these trees Guess next time out of where those snake Boots I bought Yeah the whole pop of this is dead And all the barks falling off Not a good sign when the Bark's falling Off All right so we talked about Post Oak a Lot of this gets its name from what they Used to use it for all the time and Post

Oak made pretty good post and there's a Shingle Oak right over there It's crowded By a dozen little trees within a foot of It and it's got Thorn bushes wrapped Around it and a Vine coming around it That tree will never turn into a nice Tree if I just if I don't do anything I'll have this big dead tree here it's Gonna fall and crush this Other one right here I was wanting to Save And just rot in the woods never be good For anything And that oak tree that's right next to It it'll never be good for anything Either how's it gonna how's it gonna Grow crowded in all this mess So it'll be a lot of work for me to get Out here and harvest this oak tree and I May or may not get a good saw log out of It But it's the right thing to do so I'm Gonna I'm gonna do it and I enjoy doing It and I want to make this a nice woods And this is the kind of project that Will never be finished I'm never gonna Be like oh well I did it it's every At least a few times a year you come out Here and you work on it and you get rid Of what you what shouldn't be here and You protect what should And then you Try to brutalize and murder

Some big oak trees if you get the chance Because they've lived their lives so I'll see you back out here tomorrow to Kill some of these trees in the meantime I appreciate you taking time to watch The video I'll put links on the screen To a couple more of our videos And I'll see you next time