Discussion: What have been some habitat projects that you believe have had the greatest impact on herd quality and quantity?

I will add what I believe to be what has changed my properties the most.

In my journey through habitat I have yet to notice one project succeed more than the other (maybe open edge feathering into fields). One thing I will note that I can honestly say helps me see more deer is being a freak about access, wind direction, and stand location. It is what has made our properties different than the neighbors. Stay out and be calculated about when you intrude. You do not belong there and everything in the woods knows it. It sucks, we all want to be out in the woods.

I have witnessed neighbors, on different properties, do silly things to get out into the woods. Walking on the upwind side of bedding, riding four wheelers to the stand, hearing two people talking to each other from a couple hundred yards away. and worse yet..... Walking.... The death of literally everything. I know some guys are good at it. They can attribute all their success to driving deer or steady walking through the woods. I would never do it though. I am too clumsy lol.
I've been viewing this site for years but not contributed any comments to speak of. I am now 72 years old and have 62+ years of hunting behind me. Much of our early hunting was on public land, wildlife refuges, and big woods. When logging was more prevalent the hunting was pretty good. No food plots, just a lot of native browse. For the past 35 years or so I have been slowly adding to some old family land originally only used for waterfowl hunting on a small lake. I've read all I can on habitat management and what can be done to improve land for wildlife. We now have about 587 acres split by a tar county road. The area is in a transition zone between prairie to the west, hardwoods, and northern forest. East is big woods, west is farm land. It is excellent deer habitat with grouse, waterfowl, turkeys, and the usual meat eaters like some bear, coyotes, fishers, and not far, wolves.

The comments so far have been excellent. Forums like this are a great help to anyone trying to "improve" land for wildlife use, hunting, etc. There are a lot of things I have done that have helped our land support more deer, healthier deer, and hold some good bucks and previous suggestions above all help. We are surrounded by neighbors who are very nice folks but NOT on the same QDM page as us. In fact, some friends who hunt with me are not and that is a little stressful when we hope a young buck with promise lives another year or two and gets shot by our hunter. Luckily, my hunters are seeing that passing younger bucks (2.5 age and under) results in several 3.5 or older bucks. Our bucks travel on and off our land freely and often get taken by others, but that is fine. We are a little more serious hunters and if we exercise some trigger control, those bucks have a greater chance of getting older than if they lived full time elsewhere.
The major things I have done to improve our hunting and habitat is:
1. Trigger control. Learn to age bucks on the hoof by body configuration and behavior. 2.5 age and younger is easy. Getting bucks to 3.5 on our land is common. They need to get to 5.5 to reach maximum or near maximum development, and a few do. I consider a shooter to be 4.5 age. Most of our hunters have figured out the aging to a degree. A 3.5 buck here in NW MN will weigh over 200# on the hoof, and dress around 180# and up. Our best buck on 11-7 was 260# live on a scale, 8 points, maybe 126" score. Think about hunting age and not just antler score.
2. Selective Logging. Try to keep the woods growing younger plants within deer reach. Rotational cutting to the scale of your land is important as mentioned.
3. Access: Almost all our stands have clean access such as mowed trails or at least brush cut. Avoid leaving ground scent. Set up stands so you can approach the stand into the wind and DO NOT hunt a stand with the wind wrong. I have a chart for every stand with which winds work for it and have gotten my hunters to buy in.
4. Mow lanes in tall grass and swamp areas to encourage new fresh grass prior to late fall, sight lines, etc. If possible, I have mowed (brush hogged) lane across willow and grass sloughs to connect one side to the other. Deer will follow religiously and are easier to hunt.
5. Food Plots: We are weak in this now due to lack of time. I have a farmer cash rent some open land and he leaves bout 2 acres of corn or soybeans, whatever is planted. To that I have added some plots on the woods edges or in the woods on the way to the larger plot.
6. CRP type plantings. I turned 312 acres into a perpetual conservation easement with Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM). We had to take 16 acres out of farm production and replace it with CRP grasses, flowers, etc. I could plant two 2+ acre food plots, which, due top health issues, are still in clover and timothy grass. Also, we planted a 20' or wider firebreak around the whole open area, which is like another 4 acres of transition and food plot. The deer heavily use all the fringes for travel and feeding. This has really improved the deer usage over row crops, as once the crops were harvested, it was plowing. Now we have deer using it till snow gets too deep.
7. Sanctuary: Our land is not set up the way consultants would recommend, since our access to the two major sides are through the middle, on a woods road, or on a snowmobile trail. Our best bedding is on the edges, along a county road, or along a neighbor's land. As long as we stay to the same road or trail access, do not linger coming and going, the deer do not seem to mind too much.
8. Deer seeing you in a stand: DON'T LET IT HAPPEN! It is hard to hunt a field edge. If we do and deer are in the open, we may sit for an hour after sunset atill they leave. Usually we have a "back door" into stands that allow stealthy access and egress.
9. Off deer season use: We do use the land some, but stay to "regular" areas. Deer tolerate vehicles if in spots not a surprise. People traipsing all over they don't like.
10. Stand sites: We do our best to scout, trim, and set up in the spring when the sign and trails looks like the previous fall. Too much activity in the last few weeks before hunting the land is to be avoided.

There is a lot more, of course, but we have had much better hunting than most in our area doing the above. Mainly, learn and understand deer and don't be afraid to pass a deer for fear someone else will shoot it. Have a goal and the discipline to meet it. And let others who hunt with you have their standards, young or new hunters, etc. Shooting a deer is not the tough part. Managing your land to YOUR standards is fun, and the goal is to make memories. Good managing hunting to all of you from an old dog still enjoying the hunt!
Dave.
 
I've been viewing this site for years but not contributed any comments to speak of. I am now 72 years old and have 62+ years of hunting behind me. Much of our early hunting was on public land, wildlife refuges, and big woods. When logging was more prevalent the hunting was pretty good. No food plots, just a lot of native browse. For the past 35 years or so I have been slowly adding to some old family land originally only used for waterfowl hunting on a small lake. I've read all I can on habitat management and what can be done to improve land for wildlife. We now have about 587 acres split by a tar county road. The area is in a transition zone between prairie to the west, hardwoods, and northern forest. East is big woods, west is farm land. It is excellent deer habitat with grouse, waterfowl, turkeys, and the usual meat eaters like some bear, coyotes, fishers, and not far, wolves.

The comments so far have been excellent. Forums like this are a great help to anyone trying to "improve" land for wildlife use, hunting, etc. There are a lot of things I have done that have helped our land support more deer, healthier deer, and hold some good bucks and previous suggestions above all help. We are surrounded by neighbors who are very nice folks but NOT on the same QDM page as us. In fact, some friends who hunt with me are not and that is a little stressful when we hope a young buck with promise lives another year or two and gets shot by our hunter. Luckily, my hunters are seeing that passing younger bucks (2.5 age and under) results in several 3.5 or older bucks. Our bucks travel on and off our land freely and often get taken by others, but that is fine. We are a little more serious hunters and if we exercise some trigger control, those bucks have a greater chance of getting older than if they lived full time elsewhere.
The major things I have done to improve our hunting and habitat is:
1. Trigger control. Learn to age bucks on the hoof by body configuration and behavior. 2.5 age and younger is easy. Getting bucks to 3.5 on our land is common. They need to get to 5.5 to reach maximum or near maximum development, and a few do. I consider a shooter to be 4.5 age. Most of our hunters have figured out the aging to a degree. A 3.5 buck here in NW MN will weigh over 200# on the hoof, and dress around 180# and up. Our best buck on 11-7 was 260# live on a scale, 8 points, maybe 126" score. Think about hunting age and not just antler score.
2. Selective Logging. Try to keep the woods growing younger plants within deer reach. Rotational cutting to the scale of your land is important as mentioned.
3. Access: Almost all our stands have clean access such as mowed trails or at least brush cut. Avoid leaving ground scent. Set up stands so you can approach the stand into the wind and DO NOT hunt a stand with the wind wrong. I have a chart for every stand with which winds work for it and have gotten my hunters to buy in.
4. Mow lanes in tall grass and swamp areas to encourage new fresh grass prior to late fall, sight lines, etc. If possible, I have mowed (brush hogged) lane across willow and grass sloughs to connect one side to the other. Deer will follow religiously and are easier to hunt.
5. Food Plots: We are weak in this now due to lack of time. I have a farmer cash rent some open land and he leaves bout 2 acres of corn or soybeans, whatever is planted. To that I have added some plots on the woods edges or in the woods on the way to the larger plot.
6. CRP type plantings. I turned 312 acres into a perpetual conservation easement with Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM). We had to take 16 acres out of farm production and replace it with CRP grasses, flowers, etc. I could plant two 2+ acre food plots, which, due top health issues, are still in clover and timothy grass. Also, we planted a 20' or wider firebreak around the whole open area, which is like another 4 acres of transition and food plot. The deer heavily use all the fringes for travel and feeding. This has really improved the deer usage over row crops, as once the crops were harvested, it was plowing. Now we have deer using it till snow gets too deep.
7. Sanctuary: Our land is not set up the way consultants would recommend, since our access to the two major sides are through the middle, on a woods road, or on a snowmobile trail. Our best bedding is on the edges, along a county road, or along a neighbor's land. As long as we stay to the same road or trail access, do not linger coming and going, the deer do not seem to mind too much.
8. Deer seeing you in a stand: DON'T LET IT HAPPEN! It is hard to hunt a field edge. If we do and deer are in the open, we may sit for an hour after sunset atill they leave. Usually we have a "back door" into stands that allow stealthy access and egress.
9. Off deer season use: We do use the land some, but stay to "regular" areas. Deer tolerate vehicles if in spots not a surprise. People traipsing all over they don't like.
10. Stand sites: We do our best to scout, trim, and set up in the spring when the sign and trails looks like the previous fall. Too much activity in the last few weeks before hunting the land is to be avoided.

There is a lot more, of course, but we have had much better hunting than most in our area doing the above. Mainly, learn and understand deer and don't be afraid to pass a deer for fear someone else will shoot it. Have a goal and the discipline to meet it. And let others who hunt with you have their standards, young or new hunters, etc. Shooting a deer is not the tough part. Managing your land to YOUR standards is fun, and the goal is to make memories. Good managing hunting to all of you from an old dog still enjoying the hunt!
Dave.
Great first post, considering u joined in 2015. Should really chime in more often.
 
For you guys doing TSI/creating thick bedding areas are you maintaining/mowing trails in and around these areas? The reason I ask is I have done this to about 5 acres and now the deer tend to avoid the area. They seem to go around it when moving through the area. I am thinking I need to cut and maintain some trails throughout the thick stuff.
Thanks!
I have a farm with an area on it that i will swear up and down is too thick. Sounds crazy. I will be mulching it this winter.
 
I have a farm with an area on it that i will swear up and down is too thick. Sounds crazy. I will be mulching it this winter.

Rather than mulching the entire area with a forestry mower, I'd suggest leaving strips of thick cover. Deer will travel along it. The only caveat is that you need good fawning cover in the general area so does are not tempted to fawn in those strips.
 
For you guys doing TSI/creating thick bedding areas are you maintaining/mowing trails in and around these areas? The reason I ask is I have done this to about 5 acres and now the deer tend to avoid the area. They seem to go around it when moving through the area. I am thinking I need to cut and maintain some trails throughout the thick stuff.
Deer use the trails I cut with a riding mower set to it's highest blade height. I cut trails in weed fields, ferns, brushy areas - and the deer take to those trails. Less noise when THEY walk to & from? Ease of walking? I just know the deer USE the trails regularly - whatever their reason.

Some areas we have here are also too thick for deer to travel through them. Deer are just as lazy as people when it comes to "easy walking." Trails, pipelines, forest openings, clearings, logged areas - they all make for easier travel for deer. Maybe try a trail or 2 through your thick area and see what the deer do with them.

I can't agree more with what "Cotton" said above in post #81. I like all that info !!!
 
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It is hardwords that is being timbered. There are no pines around. I have planted about 12-14 apples and pears and am planting some late dropping persimmons this spring. My current property is about 7 acres woods and 5 acres field. I planted fruit trees in full sun near the woods in the back of the field. Then about 50 or so yards from the fruit trees I started planting 100 oak trees from there to the road as well as somewhere near 100 EO acorns that started sprouting. I also picked up about 100 viable acorns from various species as well as some (10) hickory nuts and 30-40 beech nuts that are in stratification right now. The farmer to my left has 100 acres but it is all ag, no trees. Not sure if all he plants is hay or if he occasionally plants crop. I did find an old well on the property that the farmer told me he will look at with me to see if there is anything I can do to get it operational. I like the idea of doubling my acreage, my worry is how much work will it take to convert the other piece (if I buy it) to something that will help hold deer.

Hmm... isolated piece of cover next to a 100 acre ag field sounds like a potential mature buck bedding spot. But if there is a large tract on the other side of you recently logged, it would be tough to compete with that cover.

Adjacent 12 acre parcel could be turned into a good switchgrass field + small food plot. Hunt via elevated blind.

Proximity to road may be limiting.. About all the advice I could give without seeing how it all lays out.
 
It is a combination of hinge cuts, hack and squirt and just dropping the trees. The trees are all still there either on the ground or standing dead/dying. I treated most of the trees that I read the deer didn’t really browse to heavy and left a few of the preferred species. I attempted to create pockets of tops so there would be areas to move throughout area. The more open areas really took off with new growth. All this was done 2 years ago. The deer really don’t utilize my property during the summer so I feel the lack of pressure on the undergrowth really allows it to take off. Then around September/October they begin moving back in once the crops start coming out.

I did about 10 acres once and did have to go back and clear them trails through it. It was to much of a tangle when we finished.

Since much of the downed timber has rotted away and it’s an early successional mess.
 
I became a believer in old field/early succession fields a little over 30 years ago. The neighbor had passed away and they took the cows off his pastures. His back 20 acres, they let go to grow up into briars and other sun loving plants. I was in high school and they let me ride my horses there. We didn't have many deer around. Well, as that field got more rank, the deer population took a dramatic increase. I went from not ever seeing deer, to seeing a couple regularly on my rides down the trails I kept open by riding every day. I knew one day, that's what I'd try to re-create. Now, that 20 acres has been taken over by pines and doesn't hold the deer it used to.
 
I did about 10 acres once and did have to go back and clear them trails through it. It was to much of a tangle when we finished.

Since much of the downed timber has rotted away and it’s an early successional mess.
I try to do 1-2 acres of my 15 acre sanctuary each year. At first, I just dropped stuff with no regard. The objective was sun-on-ground and I didn't pay attention to anything else. Now, I pick an area I want to work and before i start cutting, I look for trails through it. If there are no trails through it, I pick some and keep them open by dropping the trees perpendicular away from the trail. I try very hard to not make any long walls of brush, but rather small clusters of trees and brush that get dropped towards a common center.

It seems to be helping. Not only are numbers going up, but I'm also seeing pressure come off my native ROD population. The deer are really having to work to keep up with all the new browse, and one of two things will ultimately happen. Either I'm going to get a bunch more deer that will stay on that browse and stifle my regen, or it'll regen well and become fantastic bedding. I'm excited to see which it is.

I've also got to go back this year and spend some time cutting regrown tag alder and some kind of aspen regen the deer don't eat. I'm not certain which one it is, but it's the one that grows extremely fast and has huge leaves. I'm having more luck getting deer to eat tag alder sprouts, but they don't take them all. If I get on them within the first two years, it's amazingly fast to zip them off with a silky, like one pull.
 
I have property in MN, Iowa & Missouri. The #1 most important issue in my opinion is leaving an undisturbed area (sanctuary) … just simply not overhunting your land.

Once we figured this out. We have shot more quality/big bucks.

Food is a close second. Lots of food options will attract deer to your parcel . Standing beans seems to be a great draw.
 
Let me add if you can(plant pine/spruce/cedar trees) in places where they will survive . Huge help !!
 
I pick some and keep them open by dropping the trees perpendicular away from the trail. I try very hard to not make any long walls of brush,

There is a lot of important information in those two sentences. Deer don’t do walls.
 
I have property in MN, Iowa & Missouri. The #1 most important issue in my opinion is leaving an undisturbed area (sanctuary) … just simply not overhunting your land.

Once we figured this out. We have shot more quality/big bucks.

Food is a close second. Lots of food options will attract deer to your parcel . Standing beans seems to be a great draw.
Food plots have been a big one for me. I'd put that right up there in a tie for first place with the chainsaw work. The hardest lesson to learn was not only growing food that will attract deer, but more importantly, food that will attract them at the right time. We did beans years ago, and they were awesome, and then they were gone 6 weeks before we were going to hunt. I now focus on what they'll leave alone until I start bowhunting and what will last through rifle season.

Brassicas, acorns, peas, beans, corn. All are awesome, but I don't have enough space, nor will I ever, to grow enough that they will go the distance in hunting season. In my neck of the woods, clover, barley, and wheat will put deer on the X at the right time and make it till the snow buries it. I'm starting work on my no-till, no-spray, no-fertilizer pumpkin project this weekend. I'd sure love to have a few thousand pounds of pumpkins laying in the clover come November next year.
 
So I only have 12 acres, but the farmer next to me said he will sell me some of his land, probably another 12, but the issue is, it is all ag. Some sort of rye/wheat or something that he round bales. Anywa, my concern is what do I do with it? I can’t keep it that way because I don’t have any equipment. On my 12, I planted apples and pears so far. Getting some late season persimmons and putting in some screening in the spring. On the other side of me is 96 acres that the lady doesn’t let anyone hunt (for now). Hoping she doesn’t decide to sell anytime soon. She will be timbering as I saw timber boundary tape. i like the idea of adding to my existing property but not sure what to do with it that will benefit what I currently have.
You're in the same situation as me. I have 12 acres but I'm surrounded by a 150 acre farm that doesn't let anyone hunt. It's pretty nice.
 
I agree! I shot a decent 9 point earlier this month. not bad for only owning it for a couple of months! I just bought some crabapples and the wife is buying some late dropping persimmons (mid November). I planted about 13-14 apples and pears in sept. So as long as I can bring the doe in, I should be solid. I’m hoping to plant about 10 more apples/pears and I should be done.
 
I have property in MN, Iowa & Missouri. The #1 most important issue in my opinion is leaving an undisturbed area (sanctuary) … just simply not overhunting your land.

Once we figured this out. We have shot more quality/big bucks.

Food is a close second. Lots of food options will attract deer to your parcel . Standing beans seems to be a great draw.

Same Bwoods..

Staying out + food had the largest buck we’ve ever had bedding on our property this year. That the neighbor promptly shot opening morning of gun season.

Had an even larger big 10 point move in after he was shot. Hope he stays..
 
As far as deer, the habitat project that was the biggest benefit to the herd that I’ve seen has been the 15 acres of mixed native grasses we put in along with shrub strips bordering it.
We have ten times the deer on our place now year round compared to when it was just rotated crops.

Big and little Bluestem couple varieties of switch and couple varieties of Indian with cone flowers mixed in, along with understory base of mixed clovers birds foot trefoil and partridge pea.
 
As far as deer, the habitat project that was the biggest benefit to the herd that I’ve seen has been the 15 acres of mixed native grasses we put in along with shrub strips bordering it.
We have ten times the deer on our place now year round compared to when it was just rotated crops.

Big and little Bluestem couple varieties of switch and couple varieties of Indian with cone flowers mixed in, along with understory base of mixed clovers birds foot trefoil and partridge pea.

Did you scatter the Big and Little Bluestems or layer them in strips….?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Did you scatter the Big and Little Bluestems or layer them in strips….?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Scattered, everything is mixed.

You can see pics of the progress of it my land tour The Big Woods. The last couple years it has really come on strong.
 
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