Native Meadow vs Woodland

Nov 16, 2021 09:35:13

I have a quarter acre clearing that I’m working on turning into a native meadow for pollinators. I noticed from historical areal imagery that this was recently a larger clearing in 2016 and prior. But the additional 0.10 acre was colonized by Osage Orange, Red Cedar, and an understory of Beauty Berry. I see three options.

1.) Clear this recently colonized area, back to the line of hardwood species, and bonfire the wood (because I’m not interested in fighting the Osage thorns for small firewood I don’t need and the Red Cedar aren’t big enough for firewood either.)
2.)Hiring a guy to come in with the machine that grinds up the trees. Not likely cost effective for a small job since they are usually a base rate just to get them on site.
3.) Leave it alone and just work on the already open quarter acre.

I’m leaning towards the “slash and burn” option even though it feels contrary to Permaculture. My justification being the greater good of native meadow at the lowest cost. Wondering if anyone else has a take on this?

Nov 16, 2021 09:47:47

I would either go with your 3.), or rent a chipper and chip it myself. I personally will never have as many wood chips as I need, and this smaller ramial wood makes perfect wood chips. That's the route I would go, but if that doesn't interest you, I would use the current opening as you said. You can always make that area bigger later if you want to.

Nov 16, 2021 10:40:03

I agree with Trace. Rent and chip it yourself.

The native wildflowers will probably like the woodchips.

That also lets you decide if some of those trees have some value for wildlife and pollinators.

Nov 16, 2021 10:45:32

I rented a chipper once, thinking I'd make a big ol' pile to start my food forest. Ran that thing ALL DAY and the amount produced was lackluster at best.

So I'm totally jaded with wood chippers...BUT that's my blind spot.
In this case, I wouldn't be renting it to produce chips. It would be for constructively getting rid of trees back into the soil. Good thinking.

Nov 18, 2021 18:36:24

I’d start with the already cleared area and decide later whether you want/need to clear the additional space. It sounds like a good natural transition between the forest and the soon-to-be meadow. I don’t know about Osage orange but the red cedar and beauty berry also support pollinators and other wildlife.

I think the only real advantage to clearing it from the start is if you know for sure you want to, then getting it planted to native wildflower meadow ASAP makes sense. It takes a couple years for some native perennial wildflowers to really get established, since they need to focus energy underground at first. On the other hand, if you decide to clear it a couple years down the line, you can then scatter seeds from your meadow, since it should be productive by then, at least some of the plants.

Nov 19, 2021 13:01:38

If you want slash'n'burn but permaculture style, you could go for slash'n'char... For just burning in a trench, I suppose the thorns might be less of a problem?

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