When do you start your habitat work?

The stuff I was driving through is real world switch grass.

And weeds. :)

The more I learn about this stuff, the more I come to appreciate the weeds


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I actually started last Sunday since we had our deer. Cut some wood and worked an my perimeter trail. Still have about 120 yards to go but will be out there Saturday clearing the trail and marking potential spots for new plots. This unseasonal warm weather is perfect in Wisconsin to be out doing this stuff. I will wait until mid-winter to do some hinge-cutting and hope to plant a bunch in spruce in the spring.

Chuck
 
I usually start as soon as our deer season is over and the weather permits. We have some big OLD pines that are no good for cover or timber, so they're coming down to make room for several Chinese chestnuts. I'm also taking down some pitch pines that are shading apple and crab trees that are planted in a great bow hunting location. The apple trees are just starting to bear fruit and need more sunlight. Stihl time for those pines. Winter is a good time to do the tree cutting - no hot weather, bugs, snakes, etc. The brush piles I make with cut trees serve to make good nesting cover for turkeys, grouse, and other birds in spring - and maybe some cover for fawns if mom doe wants to park them there.
 
The day after season ends and before there is to much snow
 
End of August I trim paths to stands, trim shooting lanes and put seat pads on stands. Sept 1st to end of January I only go into woods to fill feeders and change cards. And try and play the wind while hunting.

I bunny hunt and cut wood in late winter, spring we mushroom and turkey hunt. Plant trees and plots in spring mow a circle one mower width wide around pasture and ponds early August. Other than filling feeders I stay out of the woods. I’m very low impact on my properties.
 
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Started today with some hinge cutting in open hardwoods. No chance of disturbing deer, they don't hang out there anyway. working on changing that.
 
Late Feb early march here, all dependent on the weather.

Hoping to get the chainsaw work done in Feb an move on from there.

Weather finally went into the crapper today. Was 53 degrees on Dec 2, felt like tee shirt weather.

White out conditions now.
 
I don't do anything on my property habitat wise until all seasons are over. I don't want to push deer off to the outfitter surrounding me or onto other properties if I don't have to.

However with that said if the only time you have is before seasons are over, then that's when you have to work/play.
 
After sitting in a deer blind 7 days during gun, and 3 days during ML this past weekend, looking at only does and small bucks, in 50 deg F weather, I started habitat work yesterday. :emoji_wink:
 
With the warm weather last weekend I was able to get my east trail pretty much done plus cut a bunch of wood. I am about 95% done with a perimeter trail around my 80. Now I can do more plot work in the spring. I also plan to do some himge-cuttimg late winter early spring

Chuck

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I was looking at some of the same activities. I looked into hing-cutting but then through research I learned that it's best to hinge trees when they aren't frozen to avoid them from cracking. I guess that makes some sense. So I was going to do some, but am going to wait. Instead
  • I grabbed some soil and I'm going to get it off for testing.
  • I'm laying some things out on paper (what I want to plant where and why).
  • I made a call to our local DEC/Forestry Service and will have them out int he spring for a walk through and share my plans.
  • I looking up tree availability from the local extension and have my order prepped and ready to go (I can't order until January).
I'm chomping at the bit.
 
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