Logging recovery
- Thread starter Luckybuck
- Start date
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
^^^^ The logging looks pretty good, Luckybuck. Are you thinking of planting anything in that area or letting nature take it's course ?? Stump shoots are great if the deer don't browse them to death.
We made piles of tops very much like you did. Deer used them for bedding spots in and around them. Looking at prevailing wind and bed locations, it seemed the deer used the piles as backstops to block the wind. We jumped deer among those piles where before logging, we wouldn't have a prayer of seeing deer in that area. I'll bet you see deer using those piles in some way.
We made piles of tops very much like you did. Deer used them for bedding spots in and around them. Looking at prevailing wind and bed locations, it seemed the deer used the piles as backstops to block the wind. We jumped deer among those piles where before logging, we wouldn't have a prayer of seeing deer in that area. I'll bet you see deer using those piles in some way.
weekender21
5 year old buck +
Luckybuck, just looking at your pictures makes me think how many habitat types and different situations there must be across the country. Our 160 acres is in the mountains of western NC. It's almost all hardwood and largely dominated with tulip poplar, oaks, hickory and maple. My logged areas look much different than yours. We get lots of early successional growth the first year and it doesn't take long for the stump sprouts and seedlings to catch up and take over. I'd say the first summer mainly provides food and seasonal cover (summer). Then by year two or three the young forest is thick enough to provide security cover in the fall and winter.
weekender21
5 year old buck +
This picture shows a 2016/2017 clear cut, picture take September 2018. You can see the stump sprouts scattered throughout the early successional growth (mainly jewel weed). We had an exceptional year for rain which really allowed this section to take off. I bumped 7 deer from this south facing hillside in November. It's still pretty thin but the tops and hardwood regeneration are already providing some cover.
weekender21
5 year old buck +
A few close-ups from the clear cut. All pictures taken mid September. This younger clearing definitely provides more cover summer through early fall but there is enough cover for fall/winter bedding in some areas.
Luckybuck
Yearling... With promise
Here are some shots from my sons drone. The big open area was scattered pines, the other opening my father and I cut in 10 yrs ago and the hill top shot is my uncles box blind.
The plan for the opening is to be put in as alfalfa and clover for hay bales, logging trails in clover / rye mixtures to help stop run off and gullying. The little opening is a mixture of radishes and brassicas.
The plan for the opening is to be put in as alfalfa and clover for hay bales, logging trails in clover / rye mixtures to help stop run off and gullying. The little opening is a mixture of radishes and brassicas.
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weekender21
5 year old buck +
Cool shots, you should get an explosion of new growth in the thinned areas this summer.