Pine Point Woods

This project began as a prairie project, but has turned into a woodland succession project.

When we bought our land in 2000 Pine Point Woods was a pine plantation – with mostly red and white pines, and a few spruces.  It covered a rectangle of land below Big View Prairie, and above the farm field which we now call Pine Point Prairie.  In this photo, from the summer of 2000, the pines are the dark stripe just above the soybean field.

Here are photos showing the work we’ve done, and how it’s changing from year to year.
2013,   2012,   2011,   2010,   2009,   2008,   2007,   2006,   2005,   2004,   2003,   2001/2002,   2000

Summer 2000 – the interior of the pine woods.

 

In the winter of 2001/2002 we decided to have the pines logged so we could plant prairie there.

 

The loggers made such a mess – leaving tall stumps, piles of slash, and muddy tracks where they drove their machines – that we lost heart and just ignored it for several years.

2002

 

Now that there was more sun reaching the ground, a dense thicket of brush grew up covering the slash and stumps – making it even more difficult to get in.

8-9-09 1

We made a few attempts to cut away the brush, and cut the stumps.  It was a lot of work, and we got discouraged thinking about how long it would take to clear it all.

Finally we decided to hire someone to come in with a machine that would grind up everything in its path, so we would have a cleared space where we could plant prairie.  Before actually doing that, I thought I would make one more attempt to go in and see what it was like.

I was pleasantly surprised.  The small trees had grown and turned into a young woods.

9-27-13 2

Most of the trees were Wild Black Cherry, with a sprinkling of Burr Oaks and Box Elder.  There were some problems with exotic weeds – Honeysuckle, Buckthorn (not too much), and patches of Reed Canary Grass.  But I hated to tear all this down when it seemed to be doing well.  So we decided to keep the woods, and watch its succession.