Food plot/habitat management on national forest

[Possum]

I’ve found a site on chatahoochee national forest near my house that has a small opening in the forest canopy where a good bit of sunlight is coming through hitting the forest floor. There is a lot of exposed rock so I’m thinking the large trees in this spot died a couple years ago when there was a bad drought due to them not having a good root system.
I was thinking about clearing out some of the small trees with machete, and using leaf blower to blow off the leaves exposing the soil. And then adding some lime/fertilizer toget some native grasses established maybe throwing out some wheat/oats this fall.
Could doing this get me in any trouble with the USFS?

 

[Crakajak]

I would talk to the area manager before I did anything.What would keep someone else from planting kudzu?

 

[JackSprat]

You will find the response of the USFS interesting if you are caught removing live trees from the national forest.

 

[livinoutdoors]

Yep thats a big no on cutting down green trees. The other stuff? I guess it just depends on your local rangers. Could be hard on ya.

 

[NCHillbilly]

There are a lot of folks here who make little clearings in the national forest and plant interesting things in them. They usually go to jail if they get caught.

 

[Possum]

There are a lot of folks here who make little clearings in the national forest and plant interesting things in them. They usually go to jail if they get caught.

Are they going to jail for making the clearings or the species of what it is they are growing.
From the responses of everyone sounds like it’s a bad idea carrying a machete on the NF.
Ive done it for years, guess I was ignorant that I was breaking the law.

Hope I don’t step on any flowers walking around out there.

The forest rangers up here are jerks so I’m not even going to bother asking them about anything.
I just won’t do it.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Are they going to jail for making the clearings or the species of what it is they are growing.
From the responses of everyone sounds like it’s a bad idea carrying a machete on the NF.
Ive done it for years, guess I was ignorant that I was breaking the law.

Hope I don’t step on any flowers walking around out there.

The forest rangers up here are jerks so I’m not even going to bother asking them about anything.
I just won’t do it.

The species of what they are growing.

It is, however, illegal to cut any live trees on NFS land, unless you have a timber harvest permit, then you can clearcut the mountainside.

 

[livinoutdoors]

Possum you said in your original post a good bit of sunlight in hitting the forest floor. I would just skip the tree cutting and throw out some cow peas now or some oats and clover in the fall. I aint no expert but i have growm all three of those items in some pretty heavy shade and they did fine! The oats even made seed!

 

[JackSprat]

From the responses of everyone sounds like it’s a bad idea carrying a machete on the NF.
Ive done it for years, guess I was ignorant that I was breaking the law.

Hope I don’t step on any flowers walking around out there.

it's not illegal to carry a machete (or an axe, or a chainsaw for that matter).

You can cut dead or downed material for a campfire. You can't cut firewood to haul out without a permit.

Thanking you in advance for looking out for the flowers.

 

[Crakajak]

We are here to help keep you out of trouble
Remember to tiptoe thru the tulips.

 

[j_seph]

Go by and get a Collection permit, your collecting small trees, the planting will be your rehabilitation plan for the forest
https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/ethics/permit.shtml

 

[7Mag Hunter]

I did the same thing on the ONF 20 yrs ago.....found an old loading deck that was grown up with brush (no pines) and used sling blade and yard rake to clear out a 20'x20' and threw out some no till alfalfa and clover mix.....did good and deer mowed it down as soon as they found it....