kelchm
ArboristSite Lurker
I bought a 4.5 acre property in central PA last year that is partially wooded and also surrounded by 25+ acres of woods on three sides. I'd like to understand what I can do as a property owner to help improve the health of the wooded areas and also make it more robust to any future diseases or infestations.
Photo Album
The most common type of tree on the property seems to have been ash. As I'm sure you can imagine, they've all been decimated by the emerald ash borer. I don't think there is a single ash tree left on the property that is still salvageable. I've probably taken down in the area of 30 ash trees in the last 10 months and have many more still to take care of. I'm still working on my identification skills, but I know that we also have numerous yellow poplar, sugar maple, red maple, beech, birch, red cedar and pine trees on the property.
My biggest concern is that much of the wooded areas seem to be completely choked with vines and various types of scraggly brush. There are also numerous sections that are dominated by a single type of tree including entire groves of dead ash trees where no mature trees remain.
Things I've already started doing:
Photo Album
The most common type of tree on the property seems to have been ash. As I'm sure you can imagine, they've all been decimated by the emerald ash borer. I don't think there is a single ash tree left on the property that is still salvageable. I've probably taken down in the area of 30 ash trees in the last 10 months and have many more still to take care of. I'm still working on my identification skills, but I know that we also have numerous yellow poplar, sugar maple, red maple, beech, birch, red cedar and pine trees on the property.
My biggest concern is that much of the wooded areas seem to be completely choked with vines and various types of scraggly brush. There are also numerous sections that are dominated by a single type of tree including entire groves of dead ash trees where no mature trees remain.
Things I've already started doing:
- Felling dead trees (mostly Ash) while trying to minimize damage to any surrounding healthy trees
- Getting control of the poison ivy, virginia creeper and grape vines (manual removal, no herbicides)
- Clearing out undesirable 'trash' trees that are popping up at the transition areas or where groves of Ash trees have died
- Trying to find suitable saplings that are in undesirable locations (like right next to the driveway) and still small enough to be easily relocated. Poplars seem like an obvious choice for areas where I want to quickly re-establish mature trees since they seem to basically grow like weeds here and are very attractive looking trees (IMO).