How would you screen this?

[HoosierHunter07]

I'm looking for advice on screening my property border and food plot. I've attached some pics to hopefully show the obstacles I'm dealing with. In the property map, my property is the north side of the road. The red triangle represents the the food plot I'm working on. It's a south facing slope that is visible from the road during winter. It's about 50 yards from the road and quite a bit lower than the road.

For starters, I live in a heavily wooded area. I don't mind taking down the small saplings, but there's really not much I can do about the big trees next to the road. So sunlight will be an issue.

The second complication is the terrain. The ground slopes off at a pretty steep grade almost immediately. By the time I'm out of the 20' utility right of way, I'm probably 6' below the road and getting into brush.

Any input is appreciated.

 

[Native Hunter]

For a situation in the woods like that I would cut big trees at the edge of the plot and get regeneration started. Get sunlight hitting the ground and you should get a good flush of growth in thick saplings, which would be a great screen.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Hazelnuts work great for semi wooded cover. They have a pretty high stem count and if you layer them it will work as a screen. The only downsides to hazelnuts are that you have to protect them to get them started and they would probably take five years before they're effectively screening anything. Something you may not want is that because they are a great deer browse, maybe you don't want to encourage deer to be up by the road.

 

[HoosierHunter07]

For a situation in the woods like that I would cut big trees at the edge of the plot and get regeneration started. Get sunlight hitting the ground and you should get a good flush of growth in thick saplings, which would be a great screen.

Thanks for the feedback. My concern with that approach would be the change in elevation. The food plot is below the road, and sloped facing the road. So the screen would have to get pretty tall to block onlookers from seeing over it. I think the screen needs to be up near the road. And I'm not confident in my chainsaw skills to drop the big trees near the road.

 

[HoosierHunter07]

Hazelnuts work great for semi wooded cover. They have a pretty high stem count and if you layer them it will work as a screen. The only downsides to hazelnuts are that you have to protect them to get them started and they would probably take five years before they're effectively screening anything. Something you may not want is that because they are a great deer browse, maybe you don't want to encourage deer to be up by the road.

Thanks for the idea. I don't know much about hazelnuts and never considered them. I don't love the idea of food in the screen, but considering they won't be right on the road, it would probably be OK. I'll probably only be hunting the stand up the road if the wind is coming from that direction anyways. They're listed on our DNR tree program in the spring, so I should be able to get some.

Any idea what kind of spacing and how many rows? Given the length of the road and volume needed, I feel like this is something I'm going to build and add to each year. I don't think I'll be able to swing it all next spring.

 

[Native Hunter]

Thanks for the feedback. My concern with that approach would be the change in elevation. The food plot is below the road, and sloped facing the road. So the screen would have to get pretty tall to block onlookers from seeing over it. I think the screen needs to be up near the road. And I'm not confident in my chainsaw skills to drop the big trees near the road.

It might be worth hiring a couple of guys with chainsaw experience for a couple of hours to help. Afterwards you should be able to do maintenance yourself. Best wishes.

 

[bigboreblr]

Nobody wants a food plot that faces the road. Yours is nt that bad at all though.

What grows well in your local soil? I'd go with white pine and cage them. Find some in your woods this fall and transplant them. ON the downhill side of the tansplant get a 8ft chunk og 8 inch or so log and drill holes and stake the log with 2 metal rods. PRevent erosion from happening. Downhill of the opening I sugest you look into crown vetch. Deer eat it and it good for stabilizing banks.

You can spread some lime now if the soil needs it.

I suggest you rune the tops of the pine trees and make them more bushy than vertical tree. Spruce is an option too. A row of pine then a row of spruce deeper in would be a good mix.

How big is that little spot? Opening it up from the south a bit would be helpful.

Tht little spot is low on the road hunter list in my opinion.

 

[cbw]

We have a similar situation in that we have a road that runs on the east boundary that slopes dow with timber and field. We ended up doing an EQIP contract that allowed us to edgefeather along the road, and also plant additional shrubs and conifer trees. In the parts that slope away from the road, we planted a mix of faster growing willows and pine. We finished the project last fall. This summer, we have seen the understory explode, and while it will take several years for the newly planted trees to grow, the growth from the stumps we cut is already taking off. I’m hopeful in a couple years, there will be a good screen.


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[HoosierHunter07]

Nobody wants a food plot that faces the road. Yours is nt that bad at all though.

What grows well in your local soil? I'd go with white pine and cage them. Find some in your woods this fall and transplant them. ON the downhill side of the tansplant get a 8ft chunk og 8 inch or so log and drill holes and stake the log with 2 metal rods. PRevent erosion from happening. Downhill of the opening I sugest you look into crown vetch. Deer eat it and it good for stabilizing banks.

You can spread some lime now if the soil needs it.

I suggest you rune the tops of the pine trees and make them more bushy than vertical tree. Spruce is an option too. A row of pine then a row of spruce deeper in would be a good mix.

How big is that little spot? Opening it up from the south a bit would be helpful.

Tht little spot is low on the road hunter list in my opinion.

Thanks for the response. I'm not really worried about someone trying to poach off my property. The terrain is so rough, it's not like they could just pull it out of a field next to the road and be gone. It would take a lot of work, and my house is pretty close by. But I have a lot of public land around me that currently doesn't see much hunting pressure. I don't want someone to spot a nice deer in my plot and start hunting nearby. As for the size, I think it's about a 1/4 acre. I plan to try to expand it a little bit each year. It was wooded when I started. I cleared it all this year with a chainsaw.

I tried what you're suggesting this past spring. I did a row of white pine and a row of norway spruce. The results have been pretty poor, but mainly due to my execution. I got them in late, and we had a couple week period with no rain this summer that I think did them in. I think if I tried it again next year I would go about it totally different. Less trees with better preparation and execution.

My DNR tree program lists a Pitch x Loblolly pine that I was thinking about trying instead of the white pine this next year if I go that route again. The limited information I can find online about it seems promising.