Felled holly tree uses?

[Prismseed]

All the insight and advice found here is really helping my gumption and brainstorming.

Anyway in my woods there is an under canopy of American holly(Ilex opaca). It survives in the shade but looks rather scraggly to me. I'm tempted to clear out all or just the scraggly ones to open up the woods a little. So two questions this round.

Does felled holly wood have much use? The checking I did revealed it's mostly decorative applications. I figure I could whittle it and burn some in an outdoor firepit. I have a friend with a wood stove, would holly burn good or is it to sappy?

Goats and hogs are a future pet project of mine. If I ground down the holly stumps would the goats and hogs eat any sprouts that popped up? What little I've read hollies root deep and far and sprout back up readily, ain't much point of chopping them down if I can't keep them from sprouting right back.

[NCLee]

Holly is a valuable lumber, because it's white and in high demand. If you have decent sized trees, encourage them to grow, rather than chopping them down.

Personal opinion, FWIW, unless you're doing something specific for your woods, like fire prevention, growing lumber / firewood to harvest in a few years, just leave the woods alone. Doesn't matter if some of the under story looks "scraggly". A healthy forest has a combination of many species of trees and other plants at all height levels. Each serves a purpose in the grand scheme of things. Provides food/shelter for a balance in wildlife, so that one species doesn't normally get the upper hand over their preditors (sp). Some of that wildlife (both plant and animal) may be a future food source, if times get bad for people.

If you want to kill the holly, just apply Roundup to the stump after the tree is cut. You may to reapply to new growth if it emerges. Here sweetgum is hard to stop after the tree is cut down. Roundup takes care of it.

If you do get goats, they will take care of the understory plants (not sure about holly) as they are browsers rather than grazers.

Lee

Edit: Roundup and tree stumps - use the concentrate at full strength, rather than using the ready mixed versions.

[reese]

This is a great question, we have the same issue.

Thanks for asking...

Our issue is the blown over from hurricane Holly trees, not enough to bother calling someone out to harvest. So, I'll repeat the question, is that wood good for self-harvesting for the fireplace, or is it only good for wood working projects?

[steel]

Hi -
Holly is a beautiful white relatively hard wood. It is popular in the southeast with some woodcarvers. A friend gave me a gorgeous holly spoon that I cherish. Try to make something nice from it - experiment! Good luck.

[NCLee]

As far as I know any hardwood is OK for burning in a wood stove or fireplace. If you have any woodworking stores in your area, you may want to talk to them first. If nothing else, it may be a good barter item. I very rarely see holly as a speciality wood in the one where I shop. They have many types of wood available for wood crafting.

Lee

[arcticow]

Vampire Stakes!!!

[quietstar]

For a long time, I've heard Holly provides some of the best wood for making wooden kitchenware. I really like the look of growing Holly from the smooth pattern of the bark, to the cheerful evergreen leaves in winter. Like Lee said, I would keep most and enjoy it...Glen

[reese]

OK, this is good to know.

We have a lot in our woods, and yes they are beautiful. It's good to know dh will have free wood to play with and what he doesn't want for playing with, we can burn with out the too much sap issue.

[Bfly Farmer]

Originally Posted by Prismseed

Goats and hogs are a future pet project of mine. If I ground down the holly stumps would the goats and hogs eat any sprouts that popped up? What little I've read hollies root deep and far and sprout back up readily, ain't much point of chopping them down if I can't keep them from sprouting right back.

Holly is toxic to goats. I am not sure about hogs. Mine have never shown an interest though. I have personally found that I can graze my goats through an area with holly because they will avoid it, unlike other toxic plants which evidently taste like candy. That being said, I would becareful until you know whether your particular goats will attempt to eat it or not.