How to Use the Hack & Squirt Technique | Timber Stand Improvement

The hack and squirt technique is an effective method of terminating undesired trees in a stand of timber. It is also a very simple process and requires minimal tools, making it useful no matter your experience level or property size. I’m not a forester; I’m just a guy who’s passionate about improving his little plot of earth, making it beneficial to the creatures that call it home.

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Our farm is dominated by trees like hackberry, sweet gum, and privet. These tree species are not marketable timber and offer little benefit to our native wildlife. Using the hack and squirt technique allows us to remove these undesired tree species so that other trees, like oaks and walnuts, may thrive.

Select a herbicide based on the tree species you are targeting. Always read the label and follow all necessary safety precautions. Strike the tree (hack) about one inch below the bark, into the cambium (I pronounced this incorrectly in the video, sorry) layer of the tree, and then apply the herbicide (squirt) into this fresh wound. By applying the herbicide in this way the tree will be terminated without felling it, thereby saving many man hours.

After a year or two, once these trees have begun to decay, we’ll fell them and throw them in the burn pile. In the coming months I’ll be implementing this technique in a larger block of timber (about half of an acre). There are a few black walnut trees growing in this grove and we are working on marking them so that they may be preserved. Thinning the trees will promote better plant growth on the forest floor which is better for wildlife, and it will allow us to make necessary repairs to our livestock fencing. There’s lots of work to be done and we hope you’ll subscribe to the channel and follow along. Thanks for watching!
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