Newbie Land Tour

[j-bird]

Interesting place. Because every place is different and my experience probably is very different than your (your sat photos show more trees than I have in the entire county block (square mile) of my place). So, just some general thoughts based on my own hard headedness and beating my own head against a wall:

1 - do a proper evaluation of your place. I was too eager and swayed by the food plot industry early on. I didn't need foodplots......I needed cover. Yet, I didn't want to see/hear that. Only once I wised up and addressed or improved my cover did I really see an impactful change. 2 best things I ever did was a timber harvest and plant native warm season grasses.

2 - plan EVERYTHING with access in mind. Small parcels especially. I was way too active on my place and I was hung up on more hunting meant more opportunity. And that isn't true with sloppy access. You will also learn that seeing deer and killing deer are two totally different things. Sometimes we educate the deer way too much and create our own problems......I know I sure did.

3 - listen to your deer and think like a deer. Follow your deer trails, follow the sign, and make notes of what they are eating and when. The world is a different place when your only 4 feet tall and everything is out to get you! You can learn a lot about how the deer use your property, when and why and then use that info to your advantage.

4 - understand we don't live on islands. Unless you have a huge amount of land or a huge fence.....you have to share the deer. As such there is only so much we can control. Most of us can't manage deer like we see on TV. We simply don't have the resources and we don't control enough land. Bucks are mostly going to wander when the time comes. Does will tolerate a lot more disturbance than a mature buck will....and lets face it, not all of us (me especially) are going to hold a mature buck, those are just the cards we are dealt.

5 - remember this is a hobby....we do this for fun. When the fun gets sucked out of it because we are hung up on the neighbors killing deer we don't want them too, or we stress about the $$ involved in a project or the time. Dial it back. Pace yourself......Rome wasn't built in a day, your deer paradise is no different. Most of us are NEVER going to become famous from killing deer. Most of us are NEVER going to make our living killing deer. Most of us want to be remembered once we are gone as being much more than a deer hunter.

6 - this is a journey in most cases.....not a destination. Focus on long term improvements that will require much less maintenance down the road. There will come a day when you don't want to, or even can't be out messing with a foodplot. It's OK to keep projects small and then expand on them down the road as resources become available. Do it right the first time, even if you have to scale back......otherwise you will have to find time and resources to do it again.


Good luck, and enjoy the ride!

 

[Newbie]

Interesting place. Because every place is different and my experience probably is very different than your (your sat photos show more trees than I have in the entire county block (square mile) of my place). So, just some general thoughts based on my own hard headedness and beating my own head against a wall:

1 - do a proper evaluation of your place. I was too eager and swayed by the food plot industry early on. I didn't need foodplots......I needed cover. Yet, I didn't want to see/hear that. Only once I wised up and addressed or improved my cover did I really see an impactful change. 2 best things I ever did was a timber harvest and plant native warm season grasses.

2 - plan EVERYTHING with access in mind. Small parcels especially. I was way too active on my place and I was hung up on more hunting meant more opportunity. And that isn't true with sloppy access. You will also learn that seeing deer and killing deer are two totally different things. Sometimes we educate the deer way too much and create our own problems......I know I sure did.

3 - listen to your deer and think like a deer. Follow your deer trails, follow the sign, and make notes of what they are eating and when. The world is a different place when your only 4 feet tall and everything is out to get you! You can learn a lot about how the deer use your property, when and why and then use that info to your advantage.

4 - understand we don't live on islands. Unless you have a huge amount of land or a huge fence.....you have to share the deer. As such there is only so much we can control. Most of us can't manage deer like we see on TV. We simply don't have the resources and we don't control enough land. Bucks are mostly going to wander when the time comes. Does will tolerate a lot more disturbance than a mature buck will....and lets face it, not all of us (me especially) are going to hold a mature buck, those are just the cards we are dealt.

5 - remember this is a hobby....we do this for fun. When the fun gets sucked out of it because we are hung up on the neighbors killing deer we don't want them too, or we stress about the $$ involved in a project or the time. Dial it back. Pace yourself......Rome wasn't built in a day, your deer paradise is no different. Most of us are NEVER going to become famous from killing deer. Most of us are NEVER going to make our living killing deer. Most of us want to be remembered once we are gone as being much more than a deer hunter.

6 - this is a journey in most cases.....not a destination. Focus on long term improvements that will require much less maintenance down the road. There will come a day when you don't want to, or even can't be out messing with a foodplot. It's OK to keep projects small and then expand on them down the road as resources become available. Do it right the first time, even if you have to scale back......otherwise you will have to find time and resources to do it again.


Good luck, and enjoy the ride!

Wise words! Thank you so much for the thoughtful response. This is certainly something I surely should keep in mind, its far too easy to get caught up in exuberance and miss the bigger picture (whether that be access, cover vs. forage, or something even more important like enjoying the journey). I understand we mostly discuss habitat improvement & deer hunting but in reality these are words to live by. Thank you very much for sharing.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Do it right the first time, even if you have to scale back......otherwise you will have to find time and resources to do it again.

Truer words on habitat work were never spoken. Repeat $$$, labor, and years lost = headaches, grumbling, and PITA stress.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Newbie -

Concerning the stilt grass, barberry, etc. - our camp is in the first 1 to 2 years of an EQIP program with USDA / NRCS. We hired a contractor to spray for ferns, barberry, stilt grass, and TOH (tree-of-heaven). We also did some fine-tuned spraying of those invasives ourselves, around spruce trees and other trees we planted and caged in logged areas on the property. We did our own fine-tuned spraying to protect the trees we planted from broad-based spraying by the contractor.

What we've found is that periodic spraying of specific spots to head-off any "flare-ups" of any of those invasives might be necessary to keep a treated area free of them again. TOH seems to be the easiest to kill & control, using hack & squirt or basal bark spraying. We used triclopyr 4 and diesel for that spray. Barberry gets spread easily due to birds eating the seeds & pooping them out anywhere. Keeping an eye out for any new barberry & spraying right away with either gly or triclopyr + diesel will kill it. Barberry tends to spread over large areas, so unless your township is clear of it, you'll likely get new pop-ups of it.

Stilt grass is a newer invasive to us. It appeared after logging several areas of camp property, which disturbed the soil. From what I've researched, the seed bank can hold several years' worth of possible re-growth. Spraying with gly over several years may be needed to eradicate it for us, since where it is on our place can't be mowed (steep and rocky). Spraying before it goes to seed will help with future seed problems.

Ferns ...... we'll always have, as I suspect you will in your location. (You told me privately what county you're in) Our plan is to spray to kill / minimize the ferns in areas we want our planted seedlings - and some natural seedlings - to get established. Fern spores travel on the wind, and we're surrounded by miles of mountains with ferns all through them. We'll have to temper our goals to keep ferns to a minimum in specific areas we want forest regeneration to be successful. We're hoping that by controlling ferns in targeted areas, we can get native forbs & seedlings to get established with less fern competition. This is all advice from our local Pa. State forester.

 

[Newbie]

Newbie -

Concerning the stilt grass, barberry, etc. - our camp is in the first 1 to 2 years of an EQIP program with USDA / NRCS. We hired a contractor to spray for ferns, barberry, stilt grass, and TOH (tree-of-heaven). We also did some fine-tuned spraying of those invasives ourselves, around spruce trees and other trees we planted and caged in logged areas on the property. We did our own fine-tuned spraying to protect the trees we planted from broad-based spraying by the contractor.

What we've found is that periodic spraying of specific spots to head-off any "flare-ups" of any of those invasives might be necessary to keep a treated area free of them again. TOH seems to be the easiest to kill & control, using hack & squirt or basal bark spraying. We used triclopyr 4 and diesel for that spray. Barberry gets spread easily due to birds eating the seeds & pooping them out anywhere. Keeping an eye out for any new barberry & spraying right away with either gly or triclopyr + diesel will kill it. Barberry tends to spread over large areas, so unless your township is clear of it, you'll likely get new pop-ups of it.

Stilt grass is a newer invasive to us. It appeared after logging several areas of camp property, which disturbed the soil. From what I've researched, the seed bank can hold several years' worth of possible re-growth. Spraying with gly over several years may be needed to eradicate it for us, since where it is on our place can't be mowed (steep and rocky). Spraying before it goes to seed will help with future seed problems.

Ferns ...... we'll always have, as I suspect you will in your location. (You told me privately what county you're in) Our plan is to spray to kill / minimize the ferns in areas we want our planted seedlings - and some natural seedlings - to get established. Fern spores travel on the wind, and we're surrounded by miles of mountains with ferns all through them. We'll have to temper our goals to keep ferns to a minimum in specific areas we want forest regeneration to be successful. We're hoping that by controlling ferns in targeted areas, we can get native forbs & seedlings to get established with less fern competition. This is all advice from our local Pa. State forester.

We surely are fighting the same battles. They're certainly tenacious species of plants. I've got to do some more research and planning to see what I can do to mitigate their proliferation here. I'm surrounded by them on nearly all fronts so it is certainly an uphill battle.

 

[Newbie]

Picture of the hinge cut screen I did last weekend. Narrow corridor that deer use to access the lower fields and food plots. Theres a perfect hallway marked with scrapes and rubs from years past. You may see the building on the right, that’s a big lean too/wood shed that’s tucked back in the woods. Doesn’t seem to bother the deer much at all, they use this corridor routinely even before the screen. It’s a real narrow pinch point between a pond bank & a steep 40ft ravine

 

[Bowsnbucks]

View attachment 78860
Picture of the hinge cut screen I did last weekend. Narrow corridor that deer use to access the lower fields and food plots. Theres a perfect hallway marked with scrapes and rubs from years past. You may see the building on the right, that’s a big lean too/wood shed that’s tucked back in the woods. Doesn’t seem to bother the deer much at all, they use this corridor routinely even before the screen. It’s a real narrow pinch point between a pond bank & a steep 40ft ravine

Nice cover & browse with those hinged trees. If that area is a narrow "hallway" with old scrapes & rub scars along it ..... great place to put up a tree stand!! Sounds like a perfect set-up, Newbie.

 

[Newbie]

Nice cover & browse with those hinged trees. If that area is a narrow "hallway" with old scrapes & rub scars along it ..... great place to put up a tree stand!! Sounds like a perfect set-up, Newbie.

Thank you! I'm happy with the way it turned out. I cut around a couple tree stands and corridors to food plots in other areas as well. When I have some time, I'm gonna really go to town on it up in the larger section of woods above and try to develop some more cover and bedding options. I'm fortunate to have some very nice mature oaks on my property, one of the largest on the property in fact is right on the ravine edge where I took that picture. Come fall, it sounds like it's hailing down there, I can even hear it from the porch of my house. Despite having nearly 3000 acres of undisrupted land out my backdoor, hanging from a tree right next to my wood shed might be one of my better spots hahah!

 

[Newbie]

Slow day at work and just came across some old photos from when I bought this place. This hunting stand was coined "The Taj Mahal" by the previous owner who built it. It's got walk up steps, covered front and back porch, built in propane heater etc. I thought it was a pretty neat feature when we bought the place. In reality, I think I've sat in it only a couple times over the years. Can't hunt from the comforts of the inside because the line of sight is nothing short of horrible, if you're sitting on the front "porch" a buck is almost guaranteed to go behind the stand and vise versa. I've shot a couple doe out of it, mostly head up there during rifle season and drink a hot coffee and watch the world turn by. Maybe someday I'll tinker with it some to make it better suited for hunting, but for now, I'll probably suffer atop my rusted out budget hang on stands from the early 2000s

 

[Newbie]

I think I have a pretty good idea of my overall habitat objectives throughout the property. I'm dedicating a sizable portion of my property to cover/bedding paired with some strategic hinge cutting to direct deer flow to/from feeding and bedding areas. Lower portions of the property will be dedicated to food plots and fruit trees to keep food around a good majority of the year, especially into late fall and winter. My goal with the plots is to keep deer traveling across my property, not necessarily to hunt over top of, but to encourage them to frequent my property routinely. Majority of my hunting will be along travel corridors, I don't anticipate killing too many from the food plots themselves during daylight hours.

The one area of my land that I'm still undecided on is at the higher reaches of my land. This was a large ash stand which was lost to emerald ash borer & subsequently has been blow down and invasives have moved in. This section is 2 acres, about 40yd wide and 200 yd long. It backs up to about 3000 acres of contiguous forest.





My property line reaches straight "down" from the outline, the two fields to the left are neighboring property which are often planted food plots. Aside from these two plots, and the ones I've been working on, there's virtually no ag miles around.

I'm conflicted as to what I want to pursue here. I am sure with a few weekends of work I can get it cleared up and prepped for an isolated wooded food plot, but I can for see weeds/invasives making it a high maintenance plot. I can get equipment to it easy enough on a logging road, but may be limited as to when I can get on it due to it getting pretty soft in the spring into early summer months. My other thought was to try to establish it as an orchard. Filling it with dozens of apple, crabs, chestnut, pear trees etc. With the right mix of species, I'm sure I could provide a draw from Sept-Jan with less effort over the long term than managing a clover/grain plot in the woods. Maybe a mixture of fruit trees and plot is the ideal scenario, I'm not sure.

I'd love to get this established into something that will draw deer predicably during archery. Due to the isolation and other geographic features, I catch deer in here during daylight hours already, including a few half decent buck during the season. If I had a good food source I think it would pull deer during the day & catch deer staging before moving down the mountain to larger fields. With a couple different stand locations for different winds/conditions, I think this can become the best hunting area on my property if I can figure out how to manage it correctly.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Any thought of planting some ROD in that open area where the ash died off? If that ground is decently moist, ROD should take off in there. ROD is a good browse plant year-round. If you don't want a lot of babying of fruit trees, crab apples might be the ticket. That's what I'd try in an area like that. In my experience, crabs are less fussy & tougher than "regular" apples for feeding game. Fruit & nut trees need lots of sunlight to produce well.

If there's no other AG around for miles, good food plots ought to draw deer like flies.

 

[Newbie]

Any thought of planting some ROD in that open area where the ash died off? If that ground is decently moist, ROD should take off in there. ROD is a good browse plant year-round. If you don't want a lot of babying of fruit trees, crab apples might be the ticket. That's what I'd try in an area like that. In my experience, crabs are less fussy & tougher than "regular" apples for feeding game. Fruit & nut trees need lots of sunlight to produce well.

If there's no other AG around for miles, good food plots ought to draw deer like flies.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is ROD?

 

[T-Max]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is ROD?

Red Osier Dogwood


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is ROD?

T-Max got it. ^ ^ ^ ^ Many of us are so used to some of these acronyms, we forget some guys aren't tuned-in to many of them. Apologies, Newbie! I believe there's a thread on here explaining what many of the common acronyms are that are used on this forum.

EDIT: That thread is the first one at the top of the Native Habitat category. It has "Acronyms" in the thread title.

 

[Newbie]

Got out this weekend and got the first spray of gly on the food plot expansion. Once I get a good kill I’ll either throw and mow, or wait a few weeks spray again then throw mow. I’ll decide after I see how effective this spray is. We’ll see how the weather wants to cooperate as well. 6bu of rye and about 90lb of clover/chicory going on about 3 acres. The thatch will be decently thick but I don’t think they’ll get buried, may mow twice once with the brush hog high and again down tight. There’s a good bit of exposed soil under the standing vegetation from a round of gly early this spring knocking out some of the early growth.

 

[Kdog]

90# of clover/chicory on 3 acres?

 

[Newbie]

90# of clover/chicory on 3 acres?

Yes, at least I won't have the concern of being stingy on clover seed as an excuse if it doesn't work out. Also, I got a little carried away on Welters Seed catalog.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I don't think you'll have thin clover / chicory!! Keep your eye on Channel 16 for the rain forecasts.

 

[Newbie]

I don't think you'll have thin clover / chicory!! Keep your eye on Channel 16 for the rain forecasts.

Thinking I’m going to broadcast buckwheat and roll. Let that go for 30-45 days then spray, seed clover chicory rye mix at more traditional Aug timeframe. I’m a little worried of clover burning up this summer

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I get it, Newbie. We usually seed our clover mixes around Labor Day. Seems they like cooler weather to get established. I learned that seed timing from others on this forum.