Stu - Just wanted to let you know something I found kinda by accident , actually observation. On a piece of state forest land that I hunt occasionally, I noticed lots of buck sign in & around a line of spruce trees that someone planted. The majority of the forest is red & white oaks, maple, hickory, birch. Lots of mountain laurel, too. Faint trails meandered along this spruce line & many rubs were there as well. Then - on another piece of ground I hunt - in an area that had been logged heavily 15 yrs. before - Norway spruce had been planted along a skid trail. As time wore on, trees & brush grew in the logged area. But having a tree stand in view of that old skid trail revealed much deer travel along THOSE spruces. Scrapes, rubs, turds and an obvious trail was / is kept fresh by year-round use. Seeing the travel patterns around those 2 areas of spruce got me to thinking. Why not plant some on my camp property in a way that steers deer past favorable stand locations? If they like the dark, shadowy security of the spruces to travel thru, I'll plant some " yellow brick roads " past some stand locations. It works.
I planted a double row of spruce between bedding areas & food plots / apple trees. 2 blocks of spruce for bedding with a double row between the blocks. Deer WILL use them. We sprinkled some in a clearcut area - it became a great bedding area for us. Just some thoughts to chew on. ( we planted Norway & white spruce too! ) Good luck with the planting.