Hey folks, Getting started doing improvements on our property. Western Finger Lakes area of New York. 46 acres some select logging done along west line a few years ago. The beech shoots sprung up so bad the DEC came in and sprayed to knock them back.... so the majority of the Northen section of our property is mature parkland and holds little interest to deer other than nighttime travel and some acorn picking.
My thinking, after reading gazzillions of posts here, is to fill the need that deer are lacking right now. The big yellow circles are known bedding, especially the ones marked 1 and 2. The big problem with 1 and 2 is they don't get hunted at all so those deer rarely venture up the hill to our property. The other bedding areas do get hunted but sporadically.
The whole map is roughly 250 acres.... our slice highlighted in white is 46. Very little agriculture within a mile in any direction.
We have a meadow where the orange circle is and our camp is the red circle. Plan on a foodplot this spring, that meadow is about 1/2 acre.
so does it make sense to add to bedding or add to food? I feel that by opening up the woods with a goal leaning to releasing the ground,creating browse and additional plot areas, we may be able to bed the deer off site but make our property the feed and travel center. We have one slope that is probably 5 acres of mature maple that could be a foodplot of its own by cutting those things down.
Am I on a good track or one that will lead to frustration?
My thinking, after reading gazzillions of posts here, is to fill the need that deer are lacking right now. The big yellow circles are known bedding, especially the ones marked 1 and 2. The big problem with 1 and 2 is they don't get hunted at all so those deer rarely venture up the hill to our property. The other bedding areas do get hunted but sporadically.
The whole map is roughly 250 acres.... our slice highlighted in white is 46. Very little agriculture within a mile in any direction.
We have a meadow where the orange circle is and our camp is the red circle. Plan on a foodplot this spring, that meadow is about 1/2 acre.
so does it make sense to add to bedding or add to food? I feel that by opening up the woods with a goal leaning to releasing the ground,creating browse and additional plot areas, we may be able to bed the deer off site but make our property the feed and travel center. We have one slope that is probably 5 acres of mature maple that could be a foodplot of its own by cutting those things down.
Am I on a good track or one that will lead to frustration?