Hinge cutting

Finally the weather is breaking a little and I can get up to the farm and drop a bunch of basswoods for the deer to browse on. Last year when I did this they absolutely hammered the dropped trees. I am real excited to get up there and see how things are. Our sanctuary has a lot of basswood and maples in it that are quite mature and create quite a canopy. It will be good to get them down and let the understory grow up thick. I will try and get some pics before and after while I am up there. Snowshoes and chain saw are all ready to go….and a yote gun or two

Very cool. Obviously this isn’t something I do in SD. We are happy to have that one tree….

I’ll be interested to hear more about how you choose an area etc… My thinking, as I stand on my buddy’s land and look around, it’s trees, trees, trees. Where does a person start?

I am no expert, but I try to work on area with very mature trees that look almost park like because they have a massive canopy which blocks all the sun and doesn’t allow any growth of vegetation on the ground. I am looking for trees that are good browse(basswood, box elder, maple) that hinge well and will sprout many suckers from the stump when cut or hinged. Hinge cutting is cutting a tree part way through so that it falls over, but doesn’t disconnect from the stump. Often the tree is still able to draw nutrients from the roots and will grow new growth along the trunk. This creates a ton of browse low enough to the ground where deer can reach it. It also leaves great bedding areas for the deer with the tree laying horizontally.

Right now I am working in our 17 acre sanctuary where I have exactly these conditions. Huge basswood clumps with huge canopies and no understory to speak of. Spring is the only time we enter this area. There are also some very large oaks in there, but I am leaving those alone. Taking away their competition also helps the more desired trees.

It’s pretty thick in there already from the hinging I did last year, but I still have areas that need help. It’s an area I don’t even want to be able to see in. This is where we want the deer to go to hide, on our property, so the thicker it is the more comfortable they are.

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I am no expert, but I try to work on area with very mature trees that look almost park like because they have a massive canopy which blocks all the sun and doesn’t allow any growth of vegetation on the ground. I am looking for trees that are good browse(basswood, box elder, maple) that hinge well and will sprout many suckers from the stump when cut or hinged. Hinge cutting is cutting a tree part way through so that it falls over, but doesn’t disconnect from the stump. Often the tree is still able to draw nutrients from the roots and will grow new growth along the trunk. This creates a ton of browse low enough to the ground where deer can reach it. It also leaves great bedding areas for the deer with the tree laying horizontally.

Right now I am working in our 17 acre sanctuary where I have exactly these conditions. Huge basswood clumps with huge canopies and no understory to speak of. Spring is the only time we enter this area. There are also some very large oaks in there, but I am leaving those alone. Taking away their competition also helps the more desired trees.

It’s pretty thick in there already from the hinging I did last year, but I still have areas that need help. It’s an area I don’t even want to be able to see in. This is where we want the deer to go to hide, on our property, so the thicker it is the more comfortable they are.

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Great way to feed, protect and hold deer on your property

questioned above was “where to start”?

W#hen I did my farm, I took a satellite pic and charted out the travel routes, various seasonal feeding areas, and what should be suitable bedding habitat. Then the focus was on enhancing the bedding areas and added much more cover to it. We also had a storm that devastated many acres of mature trees and this altered some of the deers’ patterns. So instread of fighting mother nature, we capitalized on it and “fixed” it. I topped a lot of trees, harvested the truck, and made top piles that averaged 30-40 feet by 8′ tall. Worked amazingly for holding deer in a short period of time

Most people know this, I’m sure, but be VERY, VERY careful when felling a tree using only a partial cut. Make sure you have a clear escape path AND a secondary escape path that goes in a different direction and don’t get complacent and stand too close.

Since you’re not using the traditional wedge/back-cut method used to cleanly fell a tree, there are two problems that can arise:

1. The tree could be rotten higher up and break off as is starts to fall. This can cause the top part of the tree to fall in an unpredictable direction including coming back against the direction of the rest of the trunk and therefore on top of the escape path.

2. The tree can begin to fall in the intended direction, but then it can split in the last 5-15 feet of the trunk causing the tree to “barber chair” and the half of the trunk that travels upward can catch the unwary.

Also, be very careful of dead branches high up in the tree. Certain species are notorious for having large, dead branches way up and these are difficult to spot when there are no leaves on the trees. They don’t call these “widow makers” for nothing.

Be super careful out there. Cutting bigger trees and ones that may be near the end of their natural lives has some different risks.

Grouse

Thanks for the tips Grouse, those are excellent points!!!

I got some done, I was by myself so I had to work slow and be extra careful. Here are some pics of the area I cut. All the trees I dropped were basswood and maple. Some broke off and didn’t hinge, others hinged well. This brought a ton of browse down to were the deer can reach it and will provide great bedding cover for years to come.

Looks good!! Lots of great responses!! I have had my best luck hinge cutting when the sap is running. more live and I have fewer that snap of vs tipping over and saving the cambium outer layer of the tree that will still provide the need water and nutrients for survival.

Yeah, I was a little too early as I did have some snap off, especially the hard maples. I should have held off, but want to get some browse down for the deer. Checked the cam I had on this area and the deer are using it every day. New beds and quite a bit of browsing going on.

Not to beat a dead horse, but here are some pics of trees I hinge cut last year. Tough to see but the tree laying down is still very much alive, browsed quite a bit and beds under it. It also threw a bunch of suckers at the stump which are browsed heavily.