Kitty Hudson

Been a hectic month, so I just now saw this. I' m in western Kentucky, and have a LOT of both trees on my property. In fact, a nice mature black mulberry that fruits nicely is about 50 yards from where I now sit--it's about 16-20" in diameter, with a slightly larger black walnut within 12' of it. Their branches and certainly roots as well intermingle. Several other young mulberries are coming up beneath walnuts, so they appear to do quite well with one another.

Noah, if that's the invasive ligustrum species like what I have here in KY, it sprouts from the roots terribly and will take over an area even without flowers. In fact, stressing the plant by preventing it from reproducing sexually may actually cause it to redirect its energy into root suckers. If I were you, I'd dig it up and as much of the root as possible.

Take note that those are wild plum trees. If they are the same as the native species I have, they sucker from the roots, so there is always an excess of young ones to play with, they attract bees with their multitude of blooms, and they bear small fruit suitable for preserves.

Check out this guy--his trees double as furniture, sculpture, and art.

http://pooktre.com/

Honestly, to me, the bark is too deeply furrowed for Black Walnut. Looks more like a big ash to me. (Have a big one by the driveway-->3' in diameter, 60+' tall...one of equal size had to be cut down as it was leaning over the highway.)

Cranberries also grow in seasonal bog areas.

Keep in mind that Eastern Red Cedar is a lovely habitat tree. I deliberately moved some small ones years ago to make a wind/sound break at the edge of my property. By the time they were 5-6' tall, I was finding lots of praying mantis egg cases and a few small bird nests in them. One fine morning, I also spotted a baby eastern blue bird puttering around near one--as my dog and I walked by, it hopped under the lowest branches for shelter.

wayne stephen wrote:Best noisemaker to get them to your side of the tree is a cur dog.

My FIL swears by his Chihuahua.

I've seen Wayne's suggestion of a double fence (though not in real life) doing double duty. The space between fences was used to house chickens that ate insects and garden scraps. Supposedly it helped with insect problems in the garden, and the birds could be turned into the garden after harvest to help clean up vegetation/overwintering insects in the soil, as well as fertilizing the ground a bit.

When you say "hit the jackpot" I assume you mean a big return fast without a huge investment of time and energy. Not possible, I'm afraid. There are ways to make money from a forest while working responsibly with nature, but I'm afraid they're just going to take time and effort, and the return will not be a huge one.

The one way I can think to make some fast cash with a stretch of woodland would be to lease it to hunters during hunting season. Kind of depends on how big an acreage you have, if you have any houses bordering the property that would be hit by a stray bullet, and if any pastures border your property (a big brown calf or a 6 month old filly can look like a deer when views through a screen of brush--hunters have been known to shoot at what they think is a deer only to run to their kill and find they were near the edge of the woods and hit something NOT a deer.) You would have to make clear that the hunting party was not to nail makeshift stands to the trees and had to police their brass and trash, as well as sign waivers of liability so that they could not sue you for any accidents. Also, it would have to be made clear what dates they had reserved the property, if you wanted to rent to another party later, so that you'd not have more than one group shooting on the same days unaware of one another. Considering that deer season has archery, black powder, and rifle seasons in fall, and that there are also 2 turkey seasons, and squirrel season, it would be possible to make a bit of money there. (Arrows don't go as far as bullets, so a smaller acreage could support archery hunting when firearm hunting isn't possible.)

If you are in an area afflicted with feral pigs (an invasive and destructive and flat out mean critter) you might be able to make an arrangement with a person or 2 to pay a small fee to set up pig traps--they get to subsidize their grocery bill with organic free range meat, you get a small fee and get rid of a pest at the same time.

Other than that, Black walnuts trees produce large crops and also support certain groups of wildlife, as do shagbark hickory trees; black walnut wood is also valuable--takes about 10 years for a BW to bear nuts, and 15-30 more to reach the size for a good wood harvest, so it would be 10 years before you got a return from seed grown trees.

Pawpaws are a good tree for understory growth and they do tolerate the presence of BW trees. The fruit is rather delicate for shipping, though it does have quite a bit of demand in some areas. Mine, which are seed grown, are about 6 years old and I'm hoping to see blooms on them for the first time this spring. Container grown grafted varieties are available and would bear in a few years.

Native plums are a good plant to market as a wildlife feeder and an erosion control plant. The plants grow fast and then begin to sucker from the root. The suckers can be dug when young, potted up and sold after they develop some roots of their own. Fair bit of work there, but it does work with the plants natural tendencies and promotes good stewardship of the land.

Ginseng is a highly desirable medicinal that grows wild in the forests, and it is possible to seed hillsides with it, though the best and most profitable specimens are several years old, and the seed can take a couple years to germinate.

In all of this, you do have to factor in your time and efforts (planting, maintaining, harvesting) as well as advertising. With the rent to hunt option (if possible in your situation), you would have to clean up anything the hunters left behind (you could add a clean up deposit to be returned if they leave the property tidy). Good luck.