Practical Woodlot Improvement: Mulching, Drainage Work, and Long-Term Maintenance

[Jeremy Edmister]

Many rural landowners I talk with want to improve woods access, reclaim overgrown edges, or start grazing in a section without making a mess of the land. I’ve found that choosing the right tool depends on your goal, and having a long-term plan is just as important as the first steps.

Forestry mulching works well if you want to manage vegetation without disturbing the soil much. It turns brush, saplings, and thick understory into mulch right where they are, which is useful for trails, fence lines, and cleaning up areas where you want to protect the soil.

An excavator or skid steer bucket is better when you need to move soil or change its shape, like for removing stumps and roots, fixing drainage, installing culverts, digging ditches, shaping slopes, or building and repairing roads. This usually causes more disturbance, so it’s important to plan for timing and erosion control.

When it comes to silvopasture, clearing land is often the easy step. The real challenge is keeping understory from growing back. Managed grazing or browsing can help with this after you’ve done the mechanical work. Rotating animals and giving areas time to recover can keep brush under control and help maintain good forage, as long as you protect the trees you want to keep and watch out for soil and wet spots.

I’m Jeremy from Edmister Enterprises in the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier. I’m here to learn, share what I’m seeing in the field, and hear what’s working for others.

For anyone managing woodland edges in New York, what’s been your biggest challenge: the first clearing, drainage and access, or keeping regrowth down? Has anyone tried combining mechanical work with rotational grazing or browsing and had good results?