Landlord's habitat improvements (I hope)

[landlord]

Brush cutter called me last week... My tag alders are all mowed...8 acres. We will see how this affects deer movement this year. I may be hunting more public land if they move out until regrowth gets big enough. I have not had time to get up there to look at it.
At least the NRCS money will pay for food plot work I need done.

 

[bueller]

Sorry to hear about your spruces getting hard so hard. The deer got to most of the white pines I planted last spring. In talking to others it seems the deer were really rough on young conifers this winter for whatever reason.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Yep that sucks. I do find out of the spruces that norways are chewed on more than most. I tend to see that browsing stretches out the timing before they grow beyond the knee high stage. Like 5-6yrs instead of 3-4yrs. At least they werent down to the ground and will likely bounce back. I do find that I have to trim them back to a central leader multiple times once they are browse fodder. I wait until just before they wake up in the spring and other stuff is getting green so further browse is unlikely. If you just leave them be they still grow but veeerrry slow to get some height. All this depends on deer numbers and where they overwinter. Ymmv

Edit. I find the old adage sleep, creep, leap is more like sleep, creep, creep creep, creep, leap when browse happens most years

 

[landlord]

I just came back from 5 days of turkey hunting and habitat work. Picked up my order of 300 black spruce from the DNR, and got them all planted into some higher spots where the tag alders were mowed this winter. I am not sure, but I think the DNR either was short of 2-0 seedlings or ad excess older ones since a fair amount of the seedlings were 3/8 to 1/2" diameter. I don't think they grew that big in 2 years. Sorry, no pics since it was raining most of the time I left my phone in the cabin. Saw some nice gobblers, but did not take a shot. I will be ordering bud caps to put on the norways that survived the browsing.
Questions... how wet of an area can the black spruce tolerate? There should be no standing water once we dry out after spring, but I am not sure how tolerant they are of wet feet. Should I put the bud caps on the black spruce also, or do the deer leave them alone?

 

[landlord]

I also started working on a small woods food plot. This is a lot of work doing it all by hand. The plot is about 40yds by 30yds that has most of the trees cut other than the bigger oaks. I have been cutting and stacking all the cut trees for the screen which is coming along nicely. I will have to get pics on my next trip. I am dreading the blisters I will get from raking it, the small sections I did proved that. Then comes the pelletized lime , and hopefully I will have it ready to plant by July to be ready for the fall.

 

[landlord]

Sorry to hear about your spruces getting hard so hard. The deer got to most of the white pines I planted last spring. In talking to others it seems the deer were really rough on young conifers this winter for whatever reason.

Yea, I don't know if it was a low acorn year, but it seemed that there was enough browse, especially with all the hinge cut maples I did last year.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

My land in Rusk County has a black spruce swamp/bog on it and I've never seen any evidence of deer browsing on those trees. I don't think you'll need to protect them from browsing. Black spruce in my wet areas grow anywhere the ground is an inch or two higher than the standing water areas. They have extremely shallow roots when they grow in swamps since there is water just inches below the surface most of the year. They will be stunted in a really wet area, but it takes a lot of water to kill a black spruce.

 

[PassThrew]

They hit our white pines pretty good too. I am guessing the non existent acorns are to blame.

 

[landlord]

I got my rhyzomes last week. I will be getting them in memorial weekend. I will try to get some pics then of the work I have been doing this year.

 

[landlord]

Had a pretty good weekend. I started by adding logs to an access trail in the wet spots.
This should help keep the deer off the trail also. I don't think they will walk on the logs.

 

[landlord]

Planted the miscanthus screening. We'll see how this works, planted sprayed and fertilized 100 rhizomes. I'll take more pics later in the year after I get some growth.

 

[landlord]

My apple trees that I planted last year are looking good. Do I need to prune them back a little???

 

[landlord]

Clover came in a lot better this year, I planted it last spring and did not get much last year. Oats came in OK too. I am going to have it sprayed. Then disced when it dries up a little to incorporate the lime. Then the plots will be no till after that.

 

[landlord]

Also worked on a small woods plot. This is a lot of work all by hand. I'm sure I will be full of blisters next trip from raking. Then I will spray and put out pelletized lime before planting in July. I still have to move some of the logs to the side.
I took a nice panoramic pic but it is too big to upload.

 

[PassThrew]

The clover oats turned out good!

 

[landlord]

Was up last weekend. Missed a bear (damn) shot over the top of him. Sorry, no pics, but the MG rhyzomes are coming in good. We'll see if they survive winter. After having the tags mowed last winter there is a bunch of 3ft growth, but no buck pics this year. I hope this is temporary and they come back for fall. I'll get some pics of it all next trip up, and update... ordered bud caps this week to save the planted spruce from browse. Plot that I put in the woods this year seems to be coming in good with clover and chicory.

 

[John-W-WI]

the MG rhyzomes are coming in good. We'll see if they survive winter.

I have some growing in Northern Chippewa county and they do just fine in our winters. My oldest plants are 5+ years old and I don't believe I've lost any to the cold. I don't seem to get as much growth as our southern friends, but they do well. Nothing an extra row can't fix.

-John

 

[landlord]

sounds great, thanks John