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A substantial and increasing amount of rural land in the Post Oak Savannah region in Texas is (or is becoming) dense oak forest with an even denser woody understory of predominantly yaupon. The picture on the right shows what it looks like at the ground level in these forests. The ground is covered with leaf litter and quite open for the bottom few feet. This provides almost no food value for wildlife. It is so open at ground level, it is not even good cover for animals as their predators can see right through it. The ground looks like this because almost no sunlight is making it to the ground. The lack of ground-level solar energy means that even most insects (and the small animals that prey on them) struggle to survive.
One might argue that this is the natural state of land when human management (interference) is removed, but this is not the case. In earlier times, when bison roamed the area, there were periods of intense grazing. If natural wildfires were not enough, early people intentionally set them. Wildfires and bison would reduce the oak forests and suppress the woody growth dramatically while favoring a diverse mix of tall grass (mostly little bluestem) and forbs.
Current people have greatly altered the land, reducing its habitat value for all kinds of wildlife, mostly for good reasons. However, an emerging trend is to let an increasing amount of land to fall out of agricultural use. Unfortunately, as discussed above, just “letting the land go” does not return it to high-quality habitat. We cannot return to the wildfires and roaming herds of bison of past years, but we can do much to improve the habitat quality of our post oak savannah forests by using proper active management.
The goals of good management should be to: greatly reduce the woody understory, moderately reduce the forest density, and encourage diverse mix of native grasses and forbs to grow in open areas and under the trees. The following discusses how to do this in the Post Oak Savannah region of Texas, but much of what is described can be applied to other forest areas with a dense woody understory.
This discussion is based on an ongoing project to improve 140 acres at Cedar Hill Nature Preserve.
Habitat restoration is a lengthy and fairly difficult process. It consists of 4 stages requiring at least two years.
However, the results can make it all worthwhile!
The four-stage process is discussed below in the context of an ongoing project at the Nature Reserve to restore 140 acres. The project is being conducted in partnership with Texas Parks and Wildlife with the intent of expanding quality habitat for the endangered Houston Toad. However, the habitat improvement is ideal for all native flora and fauna.
This stage consists of using special forestry mulching equipment to mulch the woody understory. This is the most expensive stage and costs (in 2022) about $1,200 per acre actually mulched. We mulched about 75% of the project area, leaving strips and clusters that hopefully will be reduced over the years by prescribed fire. In a project with TPWD support mulching can only be conducted between July 1st and December 31st to avoid any possible overlap with the Houston Toad breeding season.
The goal of the mulching is to clear the woody understory just to the level that a UTV can drive over it.
Mulching machines are costly in both money and time out for repairs.
Habitat restoration is a lengthy and fairly difficult process. It consists of 4 stages requiring at least two years.
However, the results can make it all worthwhile!
The four-stage process is discussed below in the context of an ongoing project at the Nature Preserve to restore 140 acres. The project is being conducted in partnership with Texas Parks and Wildlife with the intent of expanding quality habitat for the endangered Houston Toad. However, the habitat improvement is ideal for all native flora and fauna.
Chancy Lewis broadcasts native seed throughout the mulched area.
Yaupon will re-sprout denser than before if it is just mulched. Re-sprouts must be properly treated with a Triclopyr (Remedy) herbicide mix. This should be done in May through September after the year in which the mulching was done. For smaller projects an individual plant treatment (IPT) process is practical and preferred. For larger projects a broadcast treatment is more practical.
Mix: 10% Triclopyr, 90% diesel and blue dye as needed
Application: about 2.6 oz of mix per plant applied to stems at the rate of 100 plants per labor hour. A diesel compatible sprayer must be used.
Cost: at 300 stems per acre this will take about 6 gallons of mix per acre. At this rate the mix will cost >$65 per acre. You may have much more than 300 stems per acre.
Mix: 2.8% Triclopyr, 2.8% Methylated Seed Oil (as a surfactant), 94.4% water, blue dye as needed.
Application: Broadcast 20 gallons per acre using appropriate broadcast spray equipment.
Cost: The chemicals will cost > $48 per acre. Due to the difficulty of our terrain, chemicals ran about $67 per acre as we applied nearly 28 gallons of mix per acre. Labor is difficult to estimate, but our project achieved about 2.25 acres per labor hour at $125 per hour for labor and equipment.
IPT, as described above, is almost 100% effective, but everything that is sprayed dies, except rough barked trees. IPT is even effective on large yaupon if sprayed on the trunks. The chemical and labor cost is much higher. IPT is preferred for follow-up and spot treatment. It may be very difficult to contract for a large (> 25 acres) project.
Broadcast is cheaper per acre, but the process misses a significant number of plants due to shading by other plants and errors in the spray route. A second spot treatment will probably be necessary. Broadcast will kill most other woody brush but may not kill grass and some forbs. Broadcast is only effective on smaller, bushy yaupon - it is not effective applied on the trunks of larger yaupon.
Chancy's broadcast sprayer.
On large projects the mulching/spraying process will not be 100% effective. On any project the woody understory will come back over time if not managed. Once an area is opened up enough to get good grass growth, prescribed burning is by far the most cost-effective management tool to improve or maintain restored areas. The first burn should be done in the 2nd winter after the spraying is done. It may take 3 or more annual burns to really get an area in great shape, and then burns can be done every 3-4 years.
Prescribed burns require careful preparation, planning and execution. Weather conditions must be in a narrow range on a burn day. There is also liability exposure.
Professional burn teams can be contracted with, or in some areas there are burn associations that can be leveraged. TPWD will provide some training and maybe some assistance.
We have not conducted a burn of the mulched area as of October 2024, but projected costs are $50 per acre for the 140-acre project area. Contracting with a burn team for a much smaller area will probably cost much more per acre.
The only alternative to prescribed burning is shredding on a one-to-two-year cycle. This will control the woody regrowth pretty well, but it will not lead to as much habitat diversity.
A prescribed burn led by TPWD in 2020.
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