80 acres into prime deer habitat?

[AugustJ]

My family owns and lives on a 80 acre property in northern Minnesota. Except for some trees we have planted and a wooded swamp, our property is just an old pasture.
I’d love to transform it into some prime deer habitat with maybe some grouse as a bonus. Being that lots of my neighbors are brown and down hunters, if I actually want to harvest a mature buck, it
would have to live most of, if not all of its life on our property.

I added some pictures below to show you the start of my plan:

The red border shows the property line of our 80 acres.
The green and yellow chunks at the bottom show where I’d like to plant corn and alfalfa, and the red spot with the star covers up our house, barn, garden and yard area.
The black arch is a windbreak of spruce we planted a while back, and now is about 20 ft tall.

Now on to the north half, which is what I want to focus on.
The white area shows where young aspen is starting to creep in from the neighbors woods, and the area that I might plant more aspen. The brown chunks show where Id like to plant some heavy bedding cover and woody browsing food for the deer. (haslebrush, dogwood, nine bark, plums etc.) And the black outlines show where I picture planting clusters of spruce or pine for some thermal cover. Lastly the blue shoes wet areas. The chunk shaped like an alien’s head is woody, with mostly alder and willow, the other two are not wooded at all, and just tall grass.

What do you think about this plan as a start? What’s missing? What would you change? What would you add? Some sort of grass like switchgrass mixed into the other cover?
And mainly what would you do with the blank area in the middle? Add more bedding cover? Plant some hardwoods? Plant aspen or pine and cut trails through it, funneling the deer down to the crops on the south end?

Any advice would be a huge help,
Thank you!

 

[buckdeer1]

I don't know exactly what plants you can grow up there but really need to see whats around you.If mostly cover then plant more food and vice versa. What nis the big open area south of brown and black? Do you have water?

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Being that lots of my neighbors are brown and down hunters, if I actually want to harvest a mature buck, it
would have to live most of, if not all of its life on our property.

This isn't going to happen, so my first advice would be to be realistic about your goals.

Sounds like you have a great blank slate to work with, but 80 acres is just not big enough to hold mature bucks for all (or even most) of their lives.

And I agree with buckdeer....knowing what's around you is going to help....if it's mostly cover, then go with food. If it's ag, go with cover.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

A buck covers about 900 acres when not rutting. 2-3x that when rut hits. All you can do is make your property attractive enough that they want to spend some time there and hope you’re there when they do. Trying to hold free ranging deer for 99.9% of landowners is a fools errand.

 

[sandbur]

I think you could harvest a mature buck on your property, but it could take many years. You will not keep a deer on your property for his lifetime.

I would check your property at this time of year, for buck sign. Rubs, particularly big ones, scrapes, and travel lanes. Document them and then work to strengthen them.

Your property needs to be different from adjoining land in some way. Denser cover, no hunting pressure or human pressure until a strategic time to strike, maybe conifers if you are surrounded by hardwoods or vice versa, maybe alfalfa or standing corn if the surrounding area has none, maybe a few apple trees planted for dropping apples at a strategic time.

You need to know what areas or travel lanes are used by bigger bucks now and how to strengthen them in a way that gives you access for different winds.

Thirty plus years ago, I started with a farm very near the center of Minnesota and my plantings have created much better habitat. My habitat has now gone past prime, but we are lucky to still have deer.

I think you should focus on making your property the best it can be and focus on harvesting any bigger bucks that would move through there. You won’t hold them on 80 acres. But you could provide some sanctuary during heavy harvest situations on surrounding lands.

Check your messages in a bit.

 

[sandbur]

Study aerial photos of adjoining blanks to see what habitat might be missing in your area.

 

[AugustJ]

Thanks folks, I appreciate you opening my eyes to the fact that I won’t be able to hold a buck for its whole life, but maybe I could make a little sanctuary for them.
To the north of my property there is some dense cover that I assume deer bed in a good amount. To the west there is an 80 acre field that had soybeans in it last year. To the east there is aspen that was clear cut a probably 4 years ago and now has grown up, south of that aspen, still along the east of my property, there is an Alfa field. To the south there is a road and some oaks that cattle have been grazing in.
There is not much young spruce or pine in my area so that could definitely be something different I could add in.

 

[sandbur]

Further thoughts…

In most parts of Minnesota, the most intense hunting pressure occurs during the firearm/rut hunt.

This approach might work for you. Concentrate on management that provides food and cover for doe groups during this period. Then hunt the pinch points leading to these groups as well as the routes where mature bucks will travel downwind to scent check these groups.

Neighbors will take advantage of this and kill bucks near the edge of your property, but you will also attract bucks from 2-3 miles away or further.

From what I see, mature bucks will scent check in a much different way than 1 and two year old bucks.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Strictly on the aspen - I have a state forester as a family member. He told us at our camp to cut down the biggest aspens on our property, which will make loads of new aspens begin to sprout from the root systems of the older aspens we cut down. The idea was to get thicker cover and young aspen to browse on at deer level. Great for our grouse population too. Periodic cutting of aspen on a regular basis might keep young, thicker aspens on your land and be attractive to your deer. I saw this very thing happen on a large tract of state game land here in Pa. Best area I ever hunted bar none. Deer were in those aspen slashes / regen like flies. From a distance I saw mature bucks bedded with several does in that thick aspen regeneration in late October archery seasons.

As for spruces trees - I think you can't beat them for thick cover & windbreaks. Spruce created some major security & bedding cover on our mountain acreage here. Started planting those in 1997, and continued until this Spring 2024. Like Sandbur has done at his place, we like to keep a succession of younger spruce coming along at different age classes. When leaves drop on deciduous trees - spruce, balsam fir, and hemlock will be gold for security cover.

 

[homerj]

Maybe run a disc through the large open/unplanned section to jump start natural re-gen. Probably be a thistle field the first few years though.

 

[jsasker007]

I would try to work on planting some evergreens around the property border to give the deer a good visual screen from the neighbors. Wooded swamp is a great place for deer to go and spend most of their time in seclusion so that's a plus right there. Planting things like clover,chicory,rye,oats would give the deer something to eat most of the time and is easily maintained with simple mowings(except the oats). I would let the deer have the swamp area and don't go in there at all if possible. Beating your neighbors out to the stand is a big deal if you can do it. Let the neighbors bump and move the deer to you. Experiment with different ideas and keep what works for you.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Beating your neighbors out to the stand is a big deal if you can do it. Let the neighbors bump and move the deer to you. Experiment with different ideas and keep what works for you.

THIS!!! I've done this for years. I like to be in my tree stand before any others even get out of bed. In tree by 4:30 AM - listen to the owls hooting ...... waiting for first peep of light. First day of rifle here in Pa. it's an advantage to be early.

 

[AugustJ]

I don't know exactly what plants you can grow up there but really need to see whats around you.If mostly cover then plant more food and vice versa. What nis the big open area south of brown and black? Do you have wat

I don't know exactly what plants you can grow up there but really need to see whats around you.If mostly cover then plant more food and vice versa. What nis the big open area south of brown and black? Do you have water?

The blank area is where I’m not sure what to plant. There is a pond on the south end of the alien shaped swamp. It will hold water all year on a wet year but dry up by August on average.

 

[AugustJ]

Strictly on the aspen - I have a state forester as a family member. He told us at our camp to cut down the biggest aspens on our property, which will make loads of new aspens begin to sprout from the root systems of the older aspens we cut down. The idea was to get thicker cover and young aspen to browse on at deer level. Great for our grouse population too. Periodic cutting of aspen on a regular basis might keep young, thicker aspens on your land and be attractive to your deer. I saw this very thing happen on a large tract of state game land here in Pa. Best area I ever hunted bar none. Deer were in those aspen slashes / regen like flies. From a distance I saw mature bucks bedded with several does in that thick aspen regeneration in late October archery seasons.

As for spruces trees - I think you can't beat them for thick cover & windbreaks. Spruce created some major security & bedding cover on our mountain acreage here. Started planting those in 1997, and continued until this Spring 2024. Like Sandbur has done at his place, we like to keep a succession of younger spruce coming along at different age classes. When leaves drop on deciduous trees - spruce, balsam fir, and hemlock will be gold for security cover.

Thanks, I’ll definitely think about adding more aspen and spruce

 

[jsasker007]

THIS!!! I've done this for years. I like to be in my tree stand before any others even get out of bed. In tree by 4:30 AM - listen to the owls hooting ...... waiting for first peep of light. First day of rifle here in Pa. it's an advantage to be early.

Boy does the time go by slow when you are waiting for the sun to come up and then watch everything come to life. Things like that just make you glad to be alive.

 

[AugustJ]

Maybe run a disc through the large open/unplanned section to jump start natural re-gen. Probably be a thistle field the first few years though.

The whole field is unplanted at this point, just some aspen along the edges. It looks exactly like it does in this picture.
The lines is just where I’m planning to plant.

 

[jsasker007]

The blank area is where I’m not sure what to plant. There is a pond on the south end of the alien shaped swamp. It will hold water all year on a wet year but dry up by August on average.

Not too many options if it's wet that long. Fall grains?

 

[AugustJ]

I would try to work on planting some evergreens around the property border to give the deer a good visual screen from the neighbors. Wooded swamp is a great place for deer to go and spend most of their time in seclusion so that's a plus right there. Planting things like clover,chicory,rye,oats would give the deer something to eat most of the time and is easily maintained with simple mowings(except the oats). I would let the deer have the swamp area and don't go in there at all if possible. Beating your neighbors out to the stand is a big deal if you can do it. Let the neighbors bump and move the deer to you. Experiment with different ideas and keep what works for you.

Should I plant some willow, alder and dogwood in the 2 wet areas with nothing but grass in them now?

 

[homerj]

The whole field is unplanted at this point, just some aspen along the edges. It looks exactly like it does in this picture.
The lines is just where I’m planning to plant.

Exactly. Lightly discing it will kill some of the grass and allow other things to grow from the seed bank. Weeds will appear first. Then shrubs. Then trees. Natural succession. Instead of discing you could spray with glyphosate and likely achieve the same results.

 

[AugustJ]

Not too many options if it's wet that long. Fall grains?

The pond is the spot that holds water until August, not the field. The blank area is all high and dry, good for planting anything.