native fields

[SwampCat]

Then why plant? Just let the field be what it will without adding aggressive grasses.


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I dont plant nwsg - when I kill the fescue, it comes in by itself. To be honest, when I bought the place ten years ago and the cows had it eaten to the ground - the plant diversity was much greater than it has been since I started controlling other grasses in favor of nwsg. The nwsg basically takes over so very few other plant species can compete.

 

[weekender21]

I plan to add food plots to the landscape eventually but our stem count is so high currently I can't imagine being able to replicate the amount of available food. The majority of our property has been timbered during the past 4 years and while we get the good with the bad, M-rose for example, there is excellent available food in stump sprouts, poke weed, blackberries, etc. Basically LOTS of sunlight hitting the ground and nature handles the rest.

This is obviously temporary. I'll have to aggressively manage these select and clearcut areas as the available food grows out of the deers reach and the hardwood canopy closes. I'm planning to burn small areas and maintain early successional habitat in those areas. Other areas will be aggressively thinned when the canopy closes with pre commercial thinning (me with a chainsaw).

Current breakdown:
-60 acres of maturing forest, ~40 years old. This includes SMZ’s I don’t plan to harvest.
-35 acres of clear/select cut that’s 3 years old
-35 acres of clear/select that’s 0-12 months old
-25 acres of clear/select that’s 4 years old.

The 4 year old clearcuts are already losing value. They still offer lots of cover but most of the stump sprouts have grown too high and the young saplings aren't as tender as they once were. The rapidly maturing forest is also out-competing a lot of the forbs that are available the first few years following a clear cut. With that said, I doubt my property will ever offer as much food per acre as it does in it's current state of "young forrest".

It's worth mentioning that I did nothing to contribute to the current deer buffet. I bought the property in its current state which enabled me to purchase more land for less money and buy a property that was already feeding wildlife in a big way.

 

[SwampCat]

I plan to add food plots to the landscape eventually but our stem count is so high currently I can't imagine being able to replicate the amount of available food. The majority of our property has been timbered during the past 4 years and while we get the good with the bad, M-rose for example, there is excellent available food in stump sprouts, poke weed, blackberries, etc. Basically LOTS of sunlight hitting the ground and nature handles the rest.

This is obviously temporary. I'll have to aggressively manage these select and clearcut areas as the available food grows out of the deers reach and the hardwood canopy closes. I'm planning to burn small areas and maintain early successional habitat in those areas. Other areas will be aggressively thinned when the canopy closes with pre commercial thinning (me with a chainsaw).

Current breakdown:
-60 acres of maturing forest, ~40 years old. This includes SMZ’s I don’t plan to harvest.
-35 acres of clear/select cut that’s 3 years old
-35 acres of clear/select that’s 0-12 months old
-25 acres of clear/select that’s 4 years old.

The 4 year old clearcuts are already losing value. They still offer lots of cover but most of the stump sprouts have grown too high and the young saplings aren't as tender as they once were. The rapidly maturing forest is also out-competing a lot of the forbs that are available the first few years following a clear cut. With that said, I doubt my property will ever offer as much food per acre as it does in it's current state of "young forrest".

It's worth mentioning that I did nothing to contribute to the current deer buffet. I bought the property in its current state which enabled me to purchase more land for less money and buy a property that was already feeding wildlife in a big way.

To be honest, in the south, unless your your land is in a huge block of mature forest - deer probably dont “need” food plots to get them through the year. But, even with a veritable buffet of food created from logging or other silvicultural treatments - our deer will heavily use food plot plantings of wheat, beans, or clover. It is our way of getting them to expose themselves. And in our area of lower deer densities, it also attracts deer from logged areas off our property - increasing our deer density and chance of seeing deer.

 

[pointer]

I'm doing something I have named "Ditch Farming." In the ditches between my native grass fields I killed the large useless trees like maples, gums, etc. so that a flush of new native growth would come up. Then once or twice a year I just drive by in my pickup truck and spray tanks in the back and nuke anything coming up that is not good - leaving the plants that I want. Here are some reasons I do this:

• Ditches are usually wasted space. Now we can make them useful.
• The soil is generally very fertile because nothing is ever taken off of it.
• The moisture is good in ditches.
• Sunlight is good.
• It's easy to drive by once a year with a sprayer and take care of what you don't want.
• You can also use a pole saw from the edges to cut stuff down if you don't want to spray.
• Great native plants come up - jewel weed, persimmon, blackberry, elderberry, hazelnut, sumacs, vining honeysuckles, arrowwood viburnum, dogwoods, etc.
• It's basically free and easy. You would not even need to spray every year. I could do it once every three years or even more.
• It's fun seeing what pops up next.
• You can balance the plant community to suit your wants. Blackberry is good, but if you start getting too much of it, you can kill a section and let other plants come up to replace it. Basically you can do anything you want easily.

Some of the best habitat I have is in ditches. I've set in the stand many times and watched the deer walk along the edges like a buffet line. Not sure why more people aren't doing this. Best wishes.

I have a creek that parallels the road in that bisects our place. If I could get the time to get the larger trees dropped along the creek, I think this would be a neat interesting way to go. I'm thinking it wouldn't take long for the Ditch Farming method to provide me a bit of a screen along that road as well. Thanks for the idea!

 

[weekender21]

I plan to add food plots to the landscape eventually but our stem count is so high currently I can't imagine being able to replicate the amount of available food. The majority of our property has been timbered during the past 4 years and while we get the good with the bad, M-rose for example, there is excellent available food in stump sprouts, poke weed, blackberries, etc. Basically LOTS of sunlight hitting the ground and nature handles the rest.

This is obviously temporary. I'll have to aggressively manage these select and clearcut areas as the available food grows out of the deers reach and the hardwood canopy closes. I'm planning to burn small areas and maintain early successional habitat in those areas. Other areas will be aggressively thinned when the canopy closes with pre commercial thinning (me with a chainsaw).

Current breakdown:
-60 acres of maturing forest, ~40 years old. This includes SMZ’s I don’t plan to harvest.
-35 acres of clear/select cut that’s 3 years old
-35 acres of clear/select that’s 0-12 months old
-25 acres of clear/select that’s 4 years old.

The 4 year old clearcuts are already losing value. They still offer lots of cover but most of the stump sprouts have grown too high and the young saplings aren't as tender as they once were. The rapidly maturing forest is also out-competing a lot of the forbs that are available the first few years following a clear cut. With that said, I doubt my property will ever offer as much food per acre as it does in it's current state of "young forrest".

It's worth mentioning that I did nothing to contribute to the current deer buffet. I bought the property in its current state which enabled me to purchase more land for less money and buy a property that was already feeding wildlife in a big way.

To be honest, in the south, unless your your land is in a huge block of mature forest - deer probably dont “need” food plots to get them through the year. But, even with a veritable buffet of food created from logging or other silvicultural treatments - our deer will heavily use food plot plantings of wheat, beans, or clover. It is our way of getting them to expose themselves. And in our area of lower deer densities, it also attracts deer from logged areas off our property - increasing our deer density and chance of seeing deer.

Agreed 100%. I live 4600 miles from our NC property and will not have time to dedicate towards food plots over the next few years. I’ll be retired in 5 years and turning this property into the best possible deer habitat will be my new day job. I’m really looking forward to it!

At that time food plots along with fruit and nut orchards (already planting) will become a big part of my hunting strategy.

Right now only one neighbor has a “food plot” and from what I’ve seen it’s really a 1 acre ryegrass greenfield with a 50 gallon corn feeder. I’m hoping offering quality food will really keep deer concentrated on my property when the time comes.

OP, sorry for the rabbit hole. Back on topic!




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[Davewp]

for you guys that have planted hazelnut, elderberry or other shrubs, have you been able to manipulate travel patterns based on the PATTERN of plantings and/or TYPE of plantings?

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I haven't used hazelnut, elderberry, etc. for that purpose. I have used evergreens to create " walkways " in otherwise open areas of woods or overgrown fields. From tree stands or elevated ground locations, I've watched deer use available natural evergreen cover to work their way through open hardwoods and cut-over areas. They would go from pine to hemlock to hemlock, etc. like connect-the-dots. They would even linger under or next to those evergreens to look around & check for danger before moving on to the next cover. I'm sure it would work using other types of plants.

Seeing that, I planted Norway spruce at camp to create " invitational walkways " to steer deer movement toward our food plots & apple trees. Placing tree stands at suitable locations along those evergreen " trails " affords shot opportunities. Deer like secure cover for travel. If we provide it in a pattern that works for us when hunting or taking pix, they'll travel using that cover.

This plan works especially well when the leaves have dropped and the woods are bare except for those evergreen " security trails ". Another gent who's seen this and posted here about his observations is Sandbur. He's commented that he sees it most after leaf-drop as well.