Work Day Vlog: Invasives Management & Woods Tour

A quickie video for anyone vaguely interested in the woods behind the garden space at my house. Some big stuff happening out there right now...?!

HISTORY:

In early 2021, my husband and I bought a property with about 2.5 acres of woodland. I've never had woodland (or just general land lol?) to manage before, so I was a bit lost on what needed to be done with it. Luckily, the state of Kentucky has a FREE program that allows homeowners to meet with a local forester and draw up a forestry management plan. We were looking for three things for our forest: 

•  Beautiful/healthy trees 
•  Wildlife habitat
•  Recreation space (for camping/shooting) 

Our forester met with us in 2021 to discuss all this and gave us a written plan to explain what steps we needed to take to achieve it. 

Prior to this year, we didn't have the budget/time to do much with the plan we received. But this summer we decided to get started. We hired a forestry mulcher to come through and physically remove the worst of the invasive species at the very back of the property (honeysuckle, winter creeper, multiflora rose, etc). This video was taken a few weeks after this process, as I begin the chemical control for any residual invasives. 

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FOOTNOTES:

• The area in the back is going to be a camping/shooting spot, and we want to attempt to keep it a bit more sparsely tree'd compared to the dense forest in the front. That being said, I'm hoping to pick up some more saplings at the Kentucky forestry sale later this year, so we can speed up the beneficial growth process around the edges of the camp area. More shade will be welcome, and I'd love to get some native evergreen trees to enjoy in the winter.
• I spray on sunny and windless days, usually in the evening, so I can ensure that the herbacide works as expected and that I'm not disrupting pollinators (as much as I can prevent that, anyway).
• BECAUSE I spray when it's sunny/windless, it was exceptionally hot out when I recorded this. But I should've been wearing a long sleeve shirt while spraying. While I did have on long pants, tennis shoes, and eyeglasses, I think it's recommended to wear long sleeves as well. Don't be a dumb dumb like me.

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RELEVANT LINKS:

•  https://eec.ky.gov/Natural-Resources/Forestry/forest-stewardship-program-and-landowner-services/Pages/default.aspx 
•  https://eec.ky.gov/Natural-Resources/Forestry/forest-health/Pages/Invasive-Plant-Threats.aspx