Derek Reese 29
5 year old buck +
I have a bag of switch that might be a bit old but I guess I could spread it after spraying this spring..
Jump-starting succession in a field with brush piles?
- Thread starter Derek Reese 29
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Telemark
5 year old buck +
Spray it ruthlessly to knock out everything that is growing. Then drag your tree tops in and spread a light dose of switch in the open areas. Plant a few dozen desirable shrubs in the tree tops. Maybe add some conifers loosely on the screen side. You should end up with a medium thick bedding/staging area that the deer love but is relatively easy to hunt.
Derek Reese 29
5 year old buck +
I think the neighbor whose house is at the end of that field might object…otherwise I probably woulda done it already
Brian662
5 year old buck +
They are the enemy of habitat. Slow down succession, choke out other more desirable forbs, limited habitat for just about everything, no diversity, etc.
They have their place, but they don't do much for habitat people or critters.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Brush piles are great for attracting birds and other critters, including deer. (They bed next to them sometimes) You mentioned more hawthorns - why not do a 2-fer. Plant a few hawthorns how you want to place / pattern them, and build brush piles around them. The brush will keep deer from browsing the young haws, and once the haws get some limbs & red berries on them, the birds will perch in the haws, eat those berries, and poop some free baby hawthorns for you. Birds love hawthorn trees for perching, nesting, and eating the berries. You might end up with a few nice hawthorn trees, and whatever else the birds drop in & around the brush piles.
Jsasker007 (post #12 above) suggested planting a few spruce in the middle of some piles for protection - and later cover. Perfect idea. Mix (alternate) some haws and spruce in those piles and use them to direct deer toward your stand location(s). Big win.
Derek Reese 29
5 year old buck +
Love the idea of using brush piles to keep the deer away from my planted trees I’ll see if cold stream has any bigger ones left..I got lots of brush and it’s free to use too! A lot better than cages, weed mats and window screen ;)…this could be bad as usually it’s my lack of screen or caging that keeps me from planting..now I’m even thinking of transplanting some white pines or getting some spruces cheap at a local place..my only issue might be most of my brush is invasive honeysuckle and walnut, which are both alleopathic..think that will be a major issue to newly transplanted trees?
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bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
I am combining brush piles with apple tree plantings up north, no reason it cant be done wth other plants.
Rake up mulh under shrubs, then spread it. Always a good source of seeds. sumac is another tree that can be used. You trying to make this spot huntable? Running a brush hog with the 3 point up high every few years in stripes can be keep it brushy enough for deer, without growing trees.
Poplar can be used if you chainsaw prune it every other year.
Rake up mulh under shrubs, then spread it. Always a good source of seeds. sumac is another tree that can be used. You trying to make this spot huntable? Running a brush hog with the 3 point up high every few years in stripes can be keep it brushy enough for deer, without growing trees.
Poplar can be used if you chainsaw prune it every other year.
Derek Reese 29
5 year old buck +
I want this to be thick and nasty..cover is the one thing I don’t have in abundance I could definitely cut some shooting lanes into it my apples/food are about 65 yds east of this intended thicket..my goal from the beginning was to have them bed just over the rise in the thick stuff then I can sneak in and get set up on the plot before daylight and whack em as they come into the plot to feed
Gravel Road
5 year old buck +
Brush piles do work great for protecting young trees, but don't forget to use some screen around the trunk. Rabbits WILL get right in there and destroy them. After all, they will be protected from hawks, owls and coyotes by the brush 
GoldenTriangleIL
5 year old buck +
Spray out all of the cool season grasses and see what's in your seed banks. Not sure on the go-to shrubs in PA, but Plum, Dogwoods, Viburnum, Hazelnut, Elderberry, etc may be good choices for fast food/cover. You can plant them directly into the trees you down but may want to provide additional protection until establishment. Don't promote non-native invasive shrubs, yes they can provide cover, but they will eventually dominate the landscape and quite honestly have zero place on the North American landscape.
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
If I remebr going home, there's one spots where there's rows of tree taken over with thick grass in between. Like it used ot be an old orchard, but they still mowed around the dying mess of trees.
Huge deer magnet in there.
Maybe making the brushy spots and letting the tll grass take over for a few years might not be horrible. Brush creates the major seclusion, while the grass makes up quickly for the rest.
One thing in PA state forest I always look forward to seeing, a spot of pine or spruce. Preferably pine. Seem deer love to bed under them, great insulation below them and above them, with some rain protection too. I'd put small clump of them in there caged, then remove th ecages in about 5 years. Maybe protect the trunk from rubs. I have a foodplot up north I do that to. There was a scotch pine growing out of the blue in the middle of this old log landing. Left it there, but trimed a few low branches so deer could crawl under a bit easier.
Huge deer magnet in there.
Maybe making the brushy spots and letting the tll grass take over for a few years might not be horrible. Brush creates the major seclusion, while the grass makes up quickly for the rest.
One thing in PA state forest I always look forward to seeing, a spot of pine or spruce. Preferably pine. Seem deer love to bed under them, great insulation below them and above them, with some rain protection too. I'd put small clump of them in there caged, then remove th ecages in about 5 years. Maybe protect the trunk from rubs. I have a foodplot up north I do that to. There was a scotch pine growing out of the blue in the middle of this old log landing. Left it there, but trimed a few low branches so deer could crawl under a bit easier.
Attachments
Obie
A good 3 year old buck
I've had 100 ideas about this farm. The first year just had random sorghum screens as you can see on the full property view and some good clover and rye plantings. Seemed to work, we had multiple encounters with good deer, until the corn came off that is. The second year I had done anything, I planted some switch in the south west corner, planted a screen in some spots, and a few food plots. I had the two biggest bucks in the area chasing does in the same plot on the same day. I'm sure they would have continued the rest of the week had I not buggered the place up shooting the older of the two. But once again, corn goes down and the deer have very little cover.
This year will be much different. The borders are lined with a ton of black locust and hedge(Osage orange) I will be cutting the honey suckle and black locust off at the stump, not treating it, and letting the area explode in new growth. Stump sprouts of both will be good cover and browse. I've tested this in a small section removing a half an acre of thick 4" to 6" tall straight locust and it was a hot spot all year and over 6 foot tall to this day.
I'm in the manage what you got crowd when it comes to invasives. (brush honey suckle, autumn olive, and mfr ect) I will never make a noticeable dent in the population outside of my 20 acres, and it's the main type of cover in my area. I may as well use it for its benefits while managing it so it fits my goals. This area will likely be a subdivision in 25 years along with the surrounding miles of land due to the boom in Central ohio economy.
The tops and brush from doing this will be drug into the over grown field connected to the rest of the green. Still undecided on how to place them. I'll likely be planting alder and spruce in the piles so they will be protected for a few years. I want to plot it off as much as possible. Making random sized blocks that have every side lined with down trees and openings at the corners. Maybe ill get fancy and put a clover/chickory mix trail throughout the whole thing. Yet to be decided
This year will be much different. The borders are lined with a ton of black locust and hedge(Osage orange) I will be cutting the honey suckle and black locust off at the stump, not treating it, and letting the area explode in new growth. Stump sprouts of both will be good cover and browse. I've tested this in a small section removing a half an acre of thick 4" to 6" tall straight locust and it was a hot spot all year and over 6 foot tall to this day.
I'm in the manage what you got crowd when it comes to invasives. (brush honey suckle, autumn olive, and mfr ect) I will never make a noticeable dent in the population outside of my 20 acres, and it's the main type of cover in my area. I may as well use it for its benefits while managing it so it fits my goals. This area will likely be a subdivision in 25 years along with the surrounding miles of land due to the boom in Central ohio economy.
The tops and brush from doing this will be drug into the over grown field connected to the rest of the green. Still undecided on how to place them. I'll likely be planting alder and spruce in the piles so they will be protected for a few years. I want to plot it off as much as possible. Making random sized blocks that have every side lined with down trees and openings at the corners. Maybe ill get fancy and put a clover/chickory mix trail throughout the whole thing. Yet to be decided
Attachments
Obie
A good 3 year old buck
The south east corner( top left on the who property view with dark lines) will be corn with beans inside, corn along the western property line that used to be ag, and I'm thinking corn surrounding the clover plot in front of the house up to the house almost in corn also.
I've got multiple pounds of early producing oaks and hybrid chestnuts stratifying as we speak to plant into the tops and some clear cut areas I'm planning along the west treeline behind the house.
There are a few nice white oaks maybe 30 foot tall but choked by pin oaks locust and choke cherry. I want to clear cut 15 yards in every direction and place the Tops in a circle and drag the remaining to line the pockets in the switch.
I want to plant 50 pines a year, 50 spruce, 50 rod and 10 fruit trees a year to make my property as diverse as humanly possible and only hunt from scent sealing blinds accessible from the central farmstead. With the added screening foor and cover, id hope to hold atleast 2 mature bucks a year with almost zero intrusion after top dressing with rye on labor day. I like the challenge of designing small properties.
Derek Reese 29
5 year old buck +
Little bit of Christmas habitat work! Made a pile towards the NE and SW corners of the field..plan to thicken them up when I get my wheeler and saw up there later this winter…
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Sorry for this late reply, Derek. I don't know if walnut & honeysuckle dead brush will harm newly planted things. I've never used those 2 species for natural fencing before. The things we used at camp were brushy tops from red maple, white pine limbs, oak tops, birch tops, hickory tops. When I ran out of metal fencing, I switched to brush "fencing" and it's worked fine. We have some Norway spruce that survived deer browsing / rubbing by using brush for protection. As it decays - it helps the soil too.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
If you want some thicker cover so deer feel safe & maybe bed in it or at least travel through it, try some gray dogwood and silky dogwood, mixed with Norway spruce & Washington hawthorn. The spruce will get the tallest, so plant according to where you want sun to hit your other plants. Haws only make light, dappled shade - so not really a problem. The dogwoods will supply some browse for the deer, and their berries will feed lots of bird life, including grouse & turkeys.
