G Hurk

Hey Brian,
I'm just southwest of you in Western NY and was about to ask the same question. I'm considering planting a few trees in the spring - hazel especially - to import coppicing species onto my woodlot. But outside of a few videos like this one from Cornell - - I haven't seen much for North American woodlot management through coppicing and pollarding. Thankfully, the Cornell course is pretty thorough.

Box Elder, being a maple, is probably the best bet for you, especially given how plentiful and fast-growing it is. I'm not sure if you get Box Elder bugs like we do down here, but its one of the reasons why I'm looking at mine as the best candidates for the process right now.
If you have any ash that are still clinging to life after the ash borer infestation, it might actually be beneficial to coppice them, before disease can further sicken the tree and kill it entirely. I certainly wish the previous owner of my land had thought the same - most here are already dead, and I am loathe to risk the remainder on an experiment.
Depending on other intentions you have for your woodlot, I would shy away from trees with other uses, such as walnuts and silver and sugar maples. As you mentioned, if you have American Chestnut, please leave it be and plant the chestnuts, it is endangered.

I'm interested to see how you fare. I am still in the first months of my ownership of this property, so I havent had time for detailed species survey; however, I know trees work in longer spans of time than my garden, and I'd really like to do something this year

Adding the sit-down sulkies to these machines is a stroke of genius.
I have no animals as of yet (grazing or otherwise), but this gave me some great ideas for when I do.

The scythe would likely be the best choice. Scythes are supported by the ground, and use the whole body for the swing, spreading the effort out across your body. Grass whips use largely arm speed and strength, and you will tend to tire faster.

Farmhand's Companion just had an interesting pair of videos on this (bookmarked to his comments on the slingblades/grass whip):

Hello from Western NY
My name is Greg and my background is in IT, but I've always loved the outdoors. I spent my youth splitting time between playing in the woods, reading of great adventures and explorers (real and imagined), and tinkering with computers. In nearly my 40th year of life, after a youth spent in study, video-watching, dreaming, and saving, I recently bought a long-neglected 9ac horse farm, and intend to make it my own. The true and final catalyst was the 2020 riots. As I kept guard over my last house, smelling the smoke and hearing the sirens come and go into the night, I made a silent promise that I would leave life in the suburbs behind, and be an example of freedom, independence, and self-sufficient living to my children. It took 3 years to find and buy the right place, but we are here, and I am ready to start.

My passion is the marriage of the old a new: the agricultural life of our ancestors coupled with technology that has the potential to make that lifeway easier, yet still rewarding. Offline, local, homebrew home automation of all stripes is part of what I'm hoping to accomplish here; with technology acting as the farmhand I otherwise couldn't afford.

I have about a year of work to hew a functional piece of land out of what nature has tried to reclaim, and I want to share in the experience of ideating and improvement with a community of like-minded people like those here. I used to run a forum, have moderated one, and was a member of many more, but haven't been in a place like this for almost 15 years, when Facebook subsumed most online communities and left empty cyberspace in its wake. I have been social media free for 2 years, and am finally ready to return to my roots in a community forum.

About me: I love reading and writing. Firearms history is a passion of mine, and I worked as an "old gun" gunsmith for 5 years. As mentioned before, I am a dad and husband. I have strong, specific, and private philosophical and political beliefs that I keep to myself - unless asked for them. I am more interested in learning from others than fighting with them over things. I'm happy to be here.