Yeti GOBOX Collection

Dewatering Podcast

Gellar

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 31, 2014
Messages
6,203
Location
The Driftless Area
Randy, I have listened to the Dewatering podcast about Juniper encroachment 2 times now and may listen to it a third. Cedar encroachment is a huge problem in the midwest, unfortunately it seems like a lot people like the cedars taking over their property and pastures because it seems thick and looks like good habitat for deer. Most do not realize how badly the negative side affects outweigh the positive.
 
I planted trees through the REAP program almost 20 years ago and cedars is one tree the forester recommended. Now I'm curious to what the negatives are?
 
If they are controlled they can provide good habitat but when out of control they will take over an ecosystem. The amount of water each tree sucks up is devastating. Sometimes drying up springs and small creeks. In the Driftless cedars have encroached on habitats called goat prairies. Sandy, rocky south facing slopes so steep only a goat can stand there. The cedars are so thick they shade all other native plants out. Those native plants are used by pollinators like bees and butterflies. Many of which are threatened or endangered. Native timber rattlesnakes who are threatened in Iowa live on the goat prairies and ruffed grouse like to live and feed in native aspen and birch stands which have been succeeded by cedars. Ruffed grouse numbers were never very high in Ne Iowa, but they are virtually nonexistent now.
 
A wildfire in 2016 burned hundreds of thousands of acres in far southern Kansas near Medicine Lodge, did the land and ranchers a huge favor as it nearly wiped out the Eastern Red Cedars when it burned the pastures. Starting that next spring, natural springs that had dried up over the last 30 years of encroachment started producing again, and the small tributaries of the Medicine Lodge river that would dry up every summer have not run dry, even in the drought years of 2017/18. Both species of deer have returned in better numbers, now that the severe drought has broken.
 
Too much of anything is never good. But I wouldn't mind some cedar on my property. They provide some decent winter cover for a lot of species, among other things.
 
I just signed a juniper thinning encouragement survey here. Now, I kinda regret it.
I've seen the pinion mowed down too and a bleak landscape left. No cover for anything. No bands of trees left.
Poor practices and poor range management is as bad as no management.
My best grass growth is around & between the pinions.
 
Too much of anything is never good. But I wouldn't mind some cedar on my property. They provide some decent winter cover for a lot of species, among other things.
Diversity is good. But when given the chance cedar/junipers will take over.
 
I just signed a juniper thinning encouragement survey here. Now, I kinda regret it.
I've seen the pinion mowed down too and a bleak landscape left. No cover for anything. No bands of trees left.
Poor practices and poor range management is as bad as no management.
My best grass growth is around & between the pinions.
Probably because they provide shade in arid environment. If you thin them, not eradicate, you will have more grass between them
 
Back
Top