There are mostly two types of cedar in Texas that I am aware of. Redberry and Blueberry. The Redberry does not grow in the Hill Country to my knowledge but the Blueberry cedar does. The ones with the berries are the females and the ones without the berries are the males. The males are responsible for the pollen that affects so many allergy sufferers. I am only familiar with the Hill Country blueberry type. The blueberry cedar is easily killed by getting all of the green on the plant gone. The redberry cedar is like mesquite. It has a root system that has to be grubbed to kill it just like mesquite. The blue berries can lay dormant for several years and when the soil is disturbed by machinery or livestock the little cedars come back with a vengeance. It's a constant maintenance problem. Nippers and saw bladed gas weed eaters are the best when they are small. After a few years of non-maintenance, the cedars are back thicker then when you removed them the first time. A cedar captures rain in it's leaves and doesn't allow water to get the ground. I've worked in cedar brakes after 3 inches of rain that night and the ground was powder dry where the cedars were standing.

I have removed a lot of cedar on our ranches and others. On our ranches, we leave game sanctuaries which are 5-10 acres normally in rocky areas that would require hand cutting and would be of no benefit to clear. Sometimes in good country, I'll leave an area with mesquite, bee brush and persimmon. These areas provides cover for all of the animals during the day and in the evenings they venture out into the grassy areas to feed or hunt.

I have used excavators, dozers, mulchers, tree shears and hydraulic saws for cedar control. The one thing I have noticed in clearing cedar. The infestation always leads back to a big female tree (berries) with a large number of smaller cedars under it. These I just push over in place and make it the anchor point for a brush pile and push all of the surrounding cedars into for later burning. On our places, I leave scattered brush piles for quail and birds and other sanctuaries for the smaller animals.

I hate cedar with a passion. It's the devil of the Hill Country. The fire hazard it creates makes us a California fire waiting to happen.

Double yes on the water table............I have seen springs come back to life.

I saw an older TPW show and it covered the land steward winner on that episode. He had a place in Johnson City and he would selectively take out cedars and he had multiple springs pop back up. He also replanted native plants so in turn the wildlife population boomed.