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Effort managing native landscape?

SD51555

SD51555

5 year old buck +
Jumping off the oaks conversation…

As a percentage of your annual days of effort improving your land, how much time do you spend managing the naturally occurring stuff?

I don’t look at all the threads, but it seems managing natives is a less popular topic among all discussed. I think it’s among the fastest, most affordable, and easiest way to change the landscape and impact the system. My contention is there’s always something good on every acre. We just have to figure out how to unlock it.

It’s also fun to watch when you find stuff that has been struggling in the understory and it’s got years of root system built up waiting for a shot of sun to go like hell. It’s like starting on year 5, 10, or even 15 when u find them vs planting new.


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I give 1 day per year to plot work, 1 day per year to trail work, 1 day to planting ditch trees, and 3-5 chainsawing on the native landscape.

None of this counts the years I’m doing earth work.


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Besides having our property managed for timber we really don’t do any native habitat management.

Unless letting hayfields return to ESH counts. And then cutting all trees down every few years to maintain early growth.
 
I don’t have much work for property management period.

My year generally starts with clearing a south facing hillside in an ongoing attempt at restoring an oak savanna.

Spring burns

Spring plots

Tree stand maintenance/hanging

Fall plots

Hunting


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Taking a lot from your postings @SD51555, I have spent the majority of my time the last two years managing native habitat.

In longleaf sections I kill thousands of oaks.

In hardwood sections I kill thousands of soft mass and release oaks. I am seeing lots of mast producing trees jump in even 2 years time. Lots of acorns behind produced.

In the south, I don’t think the deer need food plots as much. I use them to hold deer on my property longer and keep the does happy. Also to congregate does for my 6 week rut.
 
I really enjoy doing what you are talking about. I had an area where a storm hit two years ago took down a bunch of trees, which opened up the ground to sunlight. I'm managing what comes back up and survives in that area. If I do occasionally plant anything there it will be just moving something that comes up naturally to a better spot. The whole job consists of killing unwanted volunteer trees like sweetgum and promoting good volunteer shrubs such as viburnums, chinkapins, hazelnuts, dogwoods and elderberry. This is done with saws, spot spraying and stump treating. If something like a maple comes up, I usually won't kill it immediately, even though I don't want it to mature there. I will hinge it so that it provides browse for a while - yet, it doesn't interfere with the stuff I want to grow..

My maintenance jobs over the years have evolved and changed. Here is my current routine:

1. My biggest job is managing and maintaining a 60 acre NWSG and forb prairie. I probably spend 7 days a year mowing, spot spraying and eliminating unwanted species. It seems like too much work until cold weather hits, the leaves start falling, and deer start piling in.
2. Food plots are not much time - maybe 3 days a year.
3. Keep shooting lanes in the timber cleared of underbrush and leaning trees - probably 2 days a year.
4. Maintaining early successional woody habitat as I mentioned above. Maybe 2 days a year.
 
SD51555 said:
I give 1 day per year to plot work, 1 day per year to trail work, 1 day to planting ditch trees, and 3-5 chainsawing on the native landscape.

None of this counts the years I’m doing earth work.


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Click to expand...
I take you don't have a lot of invasive crap in your neighborhood just waiting for sun to explode. Some other thread on here talks about bad plants and animals. By me the evil list goes
Jap barberry
Prickly ash ( but at least native)
Jap honeysuckle
Autumn olive
Finally something useful like elderberry
And now trying to show up last five yrs buckthorn and multiflora rose.

Yes my neighborhood is invasive hell just waiting to stuff the ballot box and come on top but plus side there is a real nice mix of woods to ag land. If you are way far north and maybe less ag and not woods with cows run thru for decades you might be able to preach go native a bit more easily. No so here. At least not in short term, aka 15 yrs and less
 
rocksnstumps said:
I take you don't have a lot of invasive crap in your neighborhood just waiting for sun to explode. Some other thread on here talks about bad plants and animals. By me the evil list goes
Jap barberry
Prickly ash ( but at least native)
Jap honeysuckle
Autumn olive
Finally something useful like elderberry
And now trying to show up last five yrs buckthorn and multiflora rose.

Yes my neighborhood is invasive hell just waiting to stuff the ballot box and come on top but plus side there is a real nice mix of woods to ag land. If you are way far north and maybe less ag and not woods with cows run thru for decades you might be able to preach go native a bit more easily. No so here. At least not in short term, aka 15 yrs and less
Click to expand...

There’s almost no ag by me. What is there is 10 acre hay fields that get cut once or twice per year. I don’t have any invasive brush species, and only one tree I’d consider invasive, the balsam poplar.

That being said, my place was grazed for a lifetime, and the rutted up wet spots will show hoof damage for the rest of time. When I got it, it seemed like I had maybe 4 primary species and none of them super. It was all swamp ash, poplar, tag alder, and diamond willow. No reds, no pine, no cover worthy spruce, no soft mast, no fruit, no browse. On the literal other side of what was the fence line, there are big patches of chokecherry. I did/do have a ton of bur oak, but they do not produce in average to wet years. Drought years were the only ones they did produce come to think of it.

Fast forward 8 years, my biggest success has been bringing back ROD, getting ahead of deer on browse, and big increases in ground cover. The chainsaw was the number one tool that made it happen.


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Yah, the grazing really reduces the diversity but unfortunately it is more stacked to graze natives vs the nasty thorny invasive stuff. So my seed bank has little good stuff to release. At least in short term. Given time some good stuff can make a guest appearance here and there but that "given time" is measured in decades. Cows and later high deer numbers is a one two punch on whacking native diversity.

Jap barberry is most evil however since it thrives in full sun but can still slowly spread in full shade. There are pics of woods in New England where the entire understory is that stuff. And they sell at landscape nursery all over.

Glad you have some good diversity nearby to fill in gaps.
 
Someone had made a comment about using brush piles to make exclusions for plantings in spring. I'm hoping to get extra days in this season (early winter) to do chainsaw work. I've got to take down a bunch of ash for my neighbor for firewood. Those ash tops seem durable enough to be a good dogwood exclusion long enough for them get above the deer. I wouldn't mind building some of those if they don't take too much time. There are also massive pockets of ROD along the ditches up by me. I could pull hundreds of RODs in an hour or two. So that won't be a limiting factor.

I'm following a natural band of swamp grass buried in my understory and getting it released. That makes incredible cover once the sun hits it and the brush gets back to about 6'. Very durable into the late fall and even winter.
 
SD51555 said:
Someone had made a comment about using brush piles to make exclusions for plantings in spring. I'm hoping to get extra days in this season (early winter) to do chainsaw work. I've got to take down a bunch of ash for my neighbor for firewood. Those ash tops seem durable enough to be a good dogwood exclusion long enough for them get above the deer. I wouldn't mind building some of those if they don't take too much time. There are also massive pockets of ROD along the ditches up by me. I could pull hundreds of RODs in an hour or two. So that won't be a limiting factor.

I'm following a natural band of swamp grass buried in my understory and getting it released. That makes incredible cover once the sun hits it and the brush gets back to about 6'. Very durable into the late fall and even winter.
Click to expand...
What is the swamp grass? Reed canary?
 
Jlane35 said:
Besides having our property managed for timber we really don’t do any native habitat management.

Unless letting hayfields return to ESH counts. And then cutting all trees down every few years to maintain early growth.
Click to expand...
What is ESH?
 
It’s interesting to read the various perspectives on what is beneficial for deer. I am familiar with SD’s type of habitat and also ag country about 100 miles south of there.

In SD’s type of area, timber harvest, especially popple cuts at staggered times is great. Even clearing a small area for firewood harvest makes a difference. Plant some conifers if you don’t have any pockets of them.

I see no benefits for deer during critical periods ( like late winter) in the north country for NWSG and for oak savannah.
 
When I first bought my land, I had opened up 3, 3/4 acre food plots, then planted a bunch(30) of apple trees, and patches of conifers. Now I live on my land, and heat with wood. I have an abundance of mature aspen trees, not the best firewood, but dry it burns good, and where I have been cutting down the mature aspens, it really has created an explosion of ground cover. What was thinner woods of 80+ foot aspens, is now a thick mess 10-20 foot tall mix of everything.

My biggest pain as far as a plant on my land is Braken ferns. They grow to 5 feet tall and shade out anything shorter. As far as animals, bear, racoon, squirrels, and lets not forget about mosquitos, ticks, gnats, and deer flies.
 
SD, what does one day of year planting ditch trees look like. Do you clear brush, what species planting, in woods or fields, how successful? Thanks
 
On my ground, I have about a little less that 20 acres of pasture converted to nwsg. Work effort varies by year. I have spent quite a bit of time this year trying to reduced nwsg density and removing some johnson grass, mowing, spraying, etc - maybe a solid week so far and not done yet.

I have about 30 acres of deer plots that take about ten days a year - spraying, mowing, planting etc. ten acres of dove fields take maybe three days. 12 acres duck holes take maybe five days including pumping

Cattle and logging country around here - no row crop. Cover is endless. Time is best spent trying to get them out of cover - food - not making cover. No shortage of mast - I back up to 60,000 contiguous acres of bottomland hardwood. Defensive baiting is a big thing. Everyone baits - as do I. Try to keep them on your property as much as possible. As much bait as I haul - I have killed one deer over bait. I have about about 45 fruit trees and the work in the “orchard” never ends - mowing, spraying, pruning, fruit thief prevention. It is a work pit with no reward
 
4wanderingeyes said:
When I first bought my land, I had opened up 3, 3/4 acre food plots, then planted a bunch(30) of apple trees, and patches of conifers. Now I live on my land, and heat with wood. I have an abundance of mature aspen trees, not the best firewood, but dry it burns good, and where I have been cutting down the mature aspens, it really has created an explosion of ground cover. What was thinner woods of 80+ foot aspens, is now a thick mess 10-20 foot tall mix of everything.

My biggest pain as far as a plant on my land is Braken ferns. They grow to 5 feet tall and shade out anything shorter. As far as animals, bear, racoon, squirrels, and lets not forget about mosquitos, ticks, gnats, and deer flies.
Click to expand...
When we burned firewood, popple was used during the day when we were around. Hardwoods were saved for the night.
 
sandbur said:
When we burned firewood, popple was used during the day when we were around. Hardwoods were saved for the night.
Click to expand...

I have a wood boiler, when it is below 0 I feed it 2 times a day with popple, never have a problem. When I leave for the weekend, I fill it with oak, and it lasts about 2 days, I can leave Friday night, come back Sunday evening, and still have coals. 3 days is pushing it, and it tends to be pretty much out when I get back, but I wont have to relight.

Since I started heating with popple, my neighbors tend to give me their popple as well. It isnt helping my land by managing my trees, but they cut them down, I get them and cut them up, less work for me, and it feeds the same deer.
 
sandbur said:
What is the swamp grass? Reed canary?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what it is. I have canary grass in a couple pockets on my land, but this isn't it. It gets tall and stands nicely into late fall.
 
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