Hinge Cutting, Timber Stand Improvement and Bedding Cover on Michigan Hunting Land: What Each Does and Where the Mulcher Fits
The Gibson Environmental Services crew
More than 10 years clearing land, cutting trails, and running forestry equipment in Southeast Michigan.
Three kinds of cutting improve a Michigan hunting property, and they do different jobs. Hinge cutting fells small trees partway so they stay alive on a hinge of bark and wood, laid over at deer height: instant bedding cover and browse. Timber stand improvement, the cull of the weed and crowding trees a forester prescribes, gives the oaks, hickories and cherries the light to grow and drop mast. And mulched openings and feathered edges, the work a forestry mulcher does, put the food plots, the travel lanes and the soft edges where you can hunt them. The property that holds deer through the season has all three.
This guide covers what each tool does, how a hinge cut is made and the five ways it goes wrong, which trees to keep and which to cull, where the forestry mulcher fits around the saw work, the oak caution that governs the spring, and a year on a Southeast Michigan hunting property. It joins our guides to hunting trail and shooting lane clearing and food plot clearing, and the hunting land clearing page.
What Each Tool Does
| Tool | What it is | What deer get | Where it goes | Who does it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hinge cutting | Small trees cut most of the way through at waist height and laid over, alive, on a hinge | Bedding cover and browse at deer height, the same season | A third to half an acre on a flat, elevated spot, off the access trails, with two ways out | A saw and a careful cutter |
| Timber stand improvement (TSI) | Culling the weed, cull and crowding trees so the crop trees grow | Acorns, hickory nuts and cherry in ten years; a healthier woodlot | The whole woodlot, a section at a time | A saw for the big ones, the mulcher for the small ones and the understory |
| Mulched openings and edge feathering | Brush and saplings ground to the ground in a shape: a plot, a lane, a soft edge | Food, travel lanes and a brushy edge between cover and food | Where you hunt, where the wind works, where the ground grows a plot | The forestry mulcher |
| Food plots | Ground cleared, chips settled, planted | Food | The mulched opening | The mulcher, then the drill or the seeder |
| Screening | A strip of brush, switchgrass or hinged trees between the road and the deer | Privacy | Along the road and the neighbor | The mulcher clears the line; the planting or the hinge cut fills it |
Hinge Cutting, Done Right
A hinge cut is a felling cut that stops before it finishes. The cut goes about two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through the trunk at waist height, at a downward angle, and the tree is pushed over so it lies with the top on the ground and the trunk still attached by a hinge of intact wood and bark on the far side. The cambium under that bark keeps moving water and sugar, the tree leafs out lying down, and the deer have a brushy roof at their own height and fresh browse on the tips. The deer-management guides that have measured it report far more deer use in hinge-cut stands than in untouched woods beside them, most of all in spring and in the hunting season.
- Species that hinge: maple, ironwood, basswood, box elder, elm, ash saplings, hackberry. Species that snap instead: aspen, birch, cherry and most pines; their tops still make cover but they die.
- Size: wrist to forearm thick. Bigger trees are dangerous to hinge and are felled or left; a tree that snaps back is the injury the guides warn about.
- Timing: late winter, before leaf-out, when the sap is down and the hinge heals; the trees survive best cut then. Moderate spring and fall weather is second.
- Oaks: keep them. An oak worth hinge cutting is an oak worth keeping for the acorns, and a spring oak wound is an oak wilt wound; see the oak caution below.
- Shape: a third to half an acre on a flat, elevated spot, with the trees laid so a deer has two ways out and no dead ends, and not along the trail you walk to the stand, or the deer leave every time you do.
- Amount: open about a third of the canopy. A hinge-cut woodlot with the whole canopy down is a tangle nothing uses.
Timber Stand Improvement: Growing the Trees That Feed Deer
The forester's version of the same woodlot is a cull: the weed trees, the culls and the stems crowding a good oak are taken out so the crop trees get the crown space, and the state wildlife and forestry guides to timber stand improvement put the number of crop trees to favor at dozens per acre, picked for mast and timber, with everything that touches their crowns removed. White oak, red oak, hickory, black cherry and black walnut are the keepers; box elder, elm, ash, mulberry, tree of heaven and the invasive shrubs are the cull. Our guide to weed trees and trash trees in Michigan has the species list, and which trees stay and which go before mulching covers how we flag a woodlot. A written plan for the woodlot, the kind a consulting forester draws up with the goals of the owner on page one, is the starting point of the state forest-stewardship program, and a hunting property is a good reason to have one.
Where the Forestry Mulcher Fits
The understory
The buckthorn, honeysuckle, autumn olive and sapling weed trees between the keepers come down to the ground in one pass, which is the TSI nobody wants to do with a saw. The oaks and hickories get the light; the chips keep the ground. See invasive growth removal.
Openings for plots
A plot is a mulched opening with the chips settled and the ground seeded, in the shape and the spot the wind and the stand call for. See food plot site prep.
Edge feathering
A hard line between woods and field is a line deer cross at a run. A mulched strip along the edge, with the saplings ground and a few left, is a soft edge they browse and bed against. The hinge-cut bedding goes behind it.
Lanes and trails
Shooting lanes, stand access and the quiet trail in: mulched corridors that are walkable the day they are cut and stay dry. See shooting lane clearing and stand access trails.
Screening lines
The strip along the road or the neighbor cleared and planted, or hinged, so the deer are out of sight.
No piles
Everything the mulcher takes down becomes a chip layer. The hinge-cut tops stay where they lie; the saw work and the machine work leave no brush pile to burn in the woods.
The Oak Caution
Oak wilt moves between trees on sap beetles that find fresh wounds, and the risk window in Michigan runs from mid-April to mid-July, peaking in May and June. A hinge cut on an oak in May, a scuff from a machine on an oak trunk in June, a pruning cut on a stand tree in April: each is a wound at the wrong time. So the saw work on a hunting property is late-winter work, the mulcher stays clear of the keeper oaks you flag, and anything that has to be done among oaks in the window gets its wounds treated right away. Our guide to oak wilt and land clearing covers the window in detail.
A Year on a Southeast Michigan Hunting Property
| When | The work |
|---|---|
| December to February | The big woodlot work on frozen ground: understory mulching, dead ash down, the cull of the weed trees, lanes and trails cut; hinge cutting as the sap goes down |
| March | Finish the hinge cutting before leaf-out; walk the property and plan the plots |
| April to mid-July | Oak window: no cutting among oaks; pull garlic mustard on the woods floor; plot ground cleared and mulched on dry ground |
| Late July to August | Plots planted for fall; sapling sprouts in the openings mowed; the edge strips refreshed |
| September | Lanes and trails touched up; the quiet trail in cleared; screening checked |
| October to November | Hunt. Nothing runs in the woods |
The 12-month clearing calendar puts the hunting-land work beside the field, fence row and invasive-plant timing for the same months.
Common Questions
Does hinge cutting work for deer bedding?
Yes, done right: small maples, ironwood, basswood and box elder cut two-thirds through at waist height in late winter and laid over alive, on a third to half an acre with two ways out, off the access trails, opening about a third of the canopy. The deer-management studies that measured it found far more deer use in hinge-cut stands, most of all in spring and in the hunting season.
When is the best time to hinge cut?
Late winter, before leaf-out, when the sap is down and the hinge heals. It is also the one season an oak can be cut without an oak wilt wound, which matters because the saw is already in the woods.
What trees are best for hinge cutting?
Maple, ironwood, basswood, box elder, elm, hackberry and ash saplings hinge and live. Aspen, birch, cherry and most pines snap and die, though the tops still make cover. Keep the oaks standing for the acorns.
Can you hinge cut oak trees?
They hinge, and the guides say to cut only the surplus and poorest ones, because an oak is worth more standing for its acorns, and an oak cut from mid-April to mid-July is an oak wilt wound. Late winter only, and only the ones you would cull anyway.
What is timber stand improvement?
The forester's cull: removing the weed, cull and crowding trees so the crop trees, oak, hickory, cherry and walnut, get the crown space to grow and drop mast. On most Southeast Michigan woodlots the understory of buckthorn, honeysuckle and sapling weed trees is the first thing to go, and the mulcher does that in a pass.
Mulching or hinge cutting?
Both, in different spots. The mulcher clears the understory, the openings, the edges and the lanes and leaves chips; the saw hinge-cuts the bedding block behind the edge. A property with a mulched soft edge, a plot in front of it and hinge-cut cover behind it holds deer through the season.
Do you do habitat work on hunting land?
Yes: understory mulching and the weed-tree cull, food plot openings, edge feathering, shooting lanes, stand access and screening lines, timed for the frozen ground and the oak window. Hinge cutting is saw work; we plan it with the mulched edge so the bedding block goes where it does the most good.
Sources and Further Reading
The hinge-cut method, its cautions and the deer-use findings come from the deer-management guide below; the timber stand improvement vocabulary and crop-tree rules from the state and university forestry pages; the oak window from the Michigan oak wilt bulletin. Our own work on hunting land is stated in the text.
National Deer Association: The Right and Wrong of Hinge Cutting for Deer Habitat
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources: Timber Stand Improvement for Wildlife
Mississippi State University Extension: Timber Stand Improvement (P1281)
Michigan State University Extension: Forest Types of Michigan: What Is a Management Plan? (E3202-17)
Michigan Department of Natural Resources: Forest Stewardship Program for private landowners
Michigan State University Extension: Oak Wilt in Michigan's Forest Resource (E3169)
Where We Do This Work
The work in this guide is done across eight Southeast Michigan counties from our base in Royal Oak. Every county page lists the townships we work in most, with a page for each.
Want the Property Set Up for the Season?
We clear the understory, the openings, the edges and the lanes on frozen ground, and plan them around your stands. The quote is free.