Our property was clear cut years ago and is getting into pole timber stage. Mostly beech, maple, black birch, cherry and hemlock growing back. Trees are from an inch diameter to maybe 6 or 7 inches. How big would the trees have to be to benefit from hinge cutting? And which of these species? I'm assuming maybe just the birch and maple?
I wouldn't hinge the hemlock. The others you could hinge. I think most 7" diameter trees is too large to hinge safely. I would just cut those down and let it stump sprout. I feel better hinging the 4" and smaller.
For safety the worst you can try to hinge is large diameter Aspen especially hard leaners.
If you do not bore cut them, you run a high risk of them barber chairing while you are cutting them and could be seriously injured.
I wouldn't hesitate to hinge cut a 7 inch tree. Have plenty of wedges, something to drive the wedges. A habitat hook helps too. I never hinged a aspen, but I know ash is one to stay away from, barber chair city.
What are you hinging for? Bedding, travel corridors, blockades?
Hinge cutting can be a great tool for providing food,cover and creating travel corridors.
It can also be very dangerous so do some research before starting and be careful.
I am no expert but really enjoyed the work actually ,you can really change a property if done properly.
Maples are what I hinged mostly start with smaller trees until you get a better understanding of what to do.
My cousin made me a pole with a wooden "hook" on the end of it which extends to 15 ft or so.
I use it after making cut to to pull tree down from a safe distance with a lil practice it works great.
I will post a pic of it later...
It does not look fancy but it works great...I guese you can buy a tool like this or use something else.
I definitely suggest having something like this if your doing a lot of hinging
I want to hinge because our property is turning into all pole timber. It was clear cut years ago and the browse was amazing. Now it's mostly pole timber. Not a lot of browse and no mast yet. I want to add some food.
Maples aren't worth anything once the leaves/buds are out of the reach of the deer....therefore, maples are excellent candidates for hinge cutting where you want to create food and cover. Maples tops suck up a lot of sunlight, so knocking them onto their sides will help with additional browse growth around the tree...in addition to the maple stump sprouts that you will get on the hinge cut.
I don't have an experience with birch, so I can't really comment there. You might be able to get away with just hinging the maples, depending on how much of the population they constitute.
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