I think it really depends on your deer density - if you have a fair many deer, you probably arent going to attract or hold many more - the ones you have will probably just enjoy the new food source.You guys better hope my wife never reads this. I disagree because anything that you do to improve habitat should increase the numbers and overall health of all species so in turn you should be able to utilize this to improve hunting
There is a club for that, and we have secret meetings.I don’t have a good buck on my private property so I was out scouting public yesterday. My expectations are always low, but I found two bedding areas with fresh sign and miraculously no hunter sign. I began strategizing how to attack these areas in the coming months and years and began to wish I had 5-10 more of these spots. But finding and prepping those spots takes a tremendous amount of time. I normally put a tremendous amount of time into habitat work in the off-season and have neglected the time to scout. Then I wonder what I spend all that time doing . And I have an epiphany. TREES! (and shrubs). I have bought, planted and protected hundreds of the damn things, and they haven’t helped my deer hunting for squat! Sure they help with aesthetics and have been a labor of love, but with no tangible payoff. Kind of like dating a succubus. I have no apples or crabs or pears or nuts or acorns or anything to show for my efforts, and my deer hunting isn’t 1% better. 7 years into “managing” ~70 acres and the only projects with significant ROI are chainsaw work and food plots, those definitely have helped. So therefore my conclusion is that planting trees and shrubs does not improve deer hunting success. It’s not a total waste of time because I do enjoy it, but from an effective, time efficient land management perspective, it is a massive waste of time and money. Ok, you can fire away. Hopefully I don’t get my habitat card rescinded for putting this thought out there.
I had one more thought on this subject. You have probably read where I have posted this before - but planting some shrubs that you don’t have can cause them to spread via the birds pooping the seed. It has worked really well on my place where I kill undesirables and have better stuff pop up to replace them.
You guys better hope my wife never reads this. I disagree because anything that you do to improve habitat should increase the numbers and overall health of all species so in turn you should be able to utilize this to improve hunting
What pear varieties do you recommend?I have experience with multiple properties apple trees in Northern Wisconsin on two properties planted 25 years ago most definitely have helped deer hunting. My home property in Kansas I planted apples, pears and peaches 20 years ago definitely have deer eating out of orchard bow season pretty much gone by rifle but our rifle season is early December. Peaches where a bust no longer have any of them pears had fireblight issues because I choose poorly on verities the trees I replaced them with have at least been better in that regard but drop earlier than I’d like. I’ve planted 60 apple and pear trees on one farm and many other oaks, chestnuts. On the new farm just purchased this summer I’ve already planted 30 apple and pear trees. Definitely I’m playing the long game in my tree plantings best bang for your buck or time spent is probably crown release of existing trees and thinning areas to promote undergrowth. I have time to devote to playing the long game and my kids will inherit all the farms even if they sold them my plantings should up the resale value.
I could write a long story about this. I’ve planted 35,000-40,000 + trees on 148 acres . ..Survival maybe 80%
Sandy soil farm in Minnesota with nothing for wildlife when I bought it. An occasional deer, and I’d say 5-6 pheasants.
Fast forward 20 years and I have shelterbelts with trees 20 feet tall or more… ..spruce, cedar, pine, plum, chokecherry, oak, crab apple, tamarack, etc…..good numbers of deer, and pheasants are pretty thick . Although I’m not seeing as many this year . We were shooting 30 roosters a year.
I have one or more big bucks on this place each year… a few pics attached. Trees changed the property from nothing for wildlife to what I’d consider a really good farm for our county .View attachment 47535View attachment 47537View attachment 47538View attachment 47539View attachment 47540