Northwoods Habitat

[SD51555]

We took a pretty simple approach to our property when we bought in the fall of '13. I immediately wanted to get to work on the trees. My brother insisted we do trails first. I saw no sense in that at first, but after we did it, I realized it was key to simply being able to get to all parts of your property to do the work you want to do.

From there, we have focused our energy on getting the longest duration projects going first, and that's the trees. Some trees are going to take as little a few years to start paying dividends (berries, dogwoods, apples) and some will take upwards of a decade or more (oaks, spruces). I wanted to get year one in the ground so we could start watching and waiting for those multi-year-duration projects to begin to materialize. So we maximized our spring planting window each of the last two springs and put about 750 trees in the ground. 750 more this year, and we'll have our first phase going.

We also took the opportunity to try a spray and pray this last summer and it worked pretty darn good for what we had into it. Now, we've realized we can work almost year round to keep all facets of the plan moving forward. Spring is for tree planting, summer is for plotting, and winter is for chainsaws and pruning.

My $.02 is to get your trails in first, long-life trees in the ground second, lime spread anywhere you even think you'll put a plot third. The things that take time need to go first.

 

[Greta&Gus]

We took a pretty simple approach to our property when we bought in the fall of '13. I immediately wanted to get to work on the trees. My brother insisted we do trails first. I saw no sense in that at first, but after we did it, I realized it was key to simply being able to get to all parts of your property to do the work you want to do.

From there, we have focused our energy on getting the longest duration projects going first, and that's the trees. Some trees are going to take as little a few years to start paying dividends (berries, dogwoods, apples) and some will take upwards of a decade or more (oaks, spruces). I wanted to get year one in the ground so we could start watching and waiting for those multi-year-duration projects to begin to materialize. So we maximized our spring planting window each of the last two springs and put about 750 trees in the ground. 750 more this year, and we'll have our first phase going.

We also took the opportunity to try a spray and pray this last summer and it worked pretty darn good for what we had into it. Now, we've realized we can work almost year round to keep all facets of the plan moving forward. Spring is for tree planting, summer is for plotting, and winter is for chainsaws and pruning.

My $.02 is to get your trails in first, long-life trees in the ground second, lime spread anywhere you even think you'll put a plot third. The things that take time need to go first.

Quality atv trails are a must, I agree with SD, put them as a high priority.

 

[PackerBacker]

Thanks for all the great insight on the way to go about this. Think I will focus on getting the 10,000 plus trees in the ground this spring, get the main food plot areas sprayed, tilled and planted this summer, build the little hunting shack in fall and leave the MFL cutting and access roads to the loggers in the winter. Follow-up next spring with the cuttings from John for the brush and shrubs, plant more trees for thermal cover and go from there.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Packer,

First, thanks for the kind words. Also, I need to thank you for the idea of including a priority list on these write ups. I've included them in the plans I've done since yours, and it was definitely something that was missing. I wish I could come up with a good excuse for not including them for the 20 some years before you, but I can't.

The very least I can do is help you prioritize your projects. After all, you improved my product by making me realize that I should include them in every writeup.

Since your plan is posted here, I hope you don't mind if I do it here, instead of via email. That way some others may benefit some from it.

2015
Personally, I'd begin picking away at the hinge cut bedding areas first. I'd do that simply because you should be able to break a weekend or two free before you can begin planting trees and it will result in instant cover and browse.

Obviously, planting the 10,000+ trees needs to be a priority this year. They are already coming and you don't want to waste them. That alone makes it a default top priority. Also, NoFo is correct that they take time to pay off, and I'd add that they are a key part of the plan. So, getting them in the ground right away will help get you to results that much faster.

I get what others are saying about the roads first, but, so long as you can snake around the woods in an ATV, I think the idea of having the loggers make the access roads and help on the blockades is a fine approach. If I recall, you have fairly limited time you can spend on this and getting others to do your work for you can certainly help stretch your time further.

Those 3 food plots in the north half of the property are the ones I'd focus on this year. I'd want to get them established, to both start building your soils and train the deer to start looking there for their food. Just remember that the travel too and from that food won't be as predictable or consistent as when the other cover enhancements begin taking hold (spruce, browse and WSNGs).

2016
You get those 3 things done this year and you'll be doing well. Then, you can get the loggers to make access and help with the blockading next winter. When they are done, you can slip in behind them with a dozer or backhoe to open up those in woods food plots and frost seed them in clover.

The spring of 2016, I'd focus on continuing the spruce planting and the browse/cover planting (John's products). Before the ground freezes in the fall of 2016, I'd work up the areas going into switch grass. That way, the spring of 2017, you can frost seed it, which, outside of hiring a service to plant switch in the areas it is actually required (remember, the areas that are already grown up well don't require the switch), is the easiest and quickest way to get it established.

The late winter/early spring of 2016, I'd also focus on finishing the doe bedding areas and start on the sidewalks.

2017
Keep picking away at tree and shrub plantings. This is when I'd start working on those apple trees. Sure, it'd be nice of you got them in this year, but no sense killing yourself trying to get this all done. Instead, pick away at it at a rate you enjoy, not at a rate that seems like work. Remember, if it's not fun you are pushing too hard, and this should always be fun (OK, not a lot of fun when EQ breaks in the middle of a job, but you get what I mean).

Now is also when I'd finish off those blockades. As someone mentioned earlier, they won't be "done" after you're done, as they will require maintenance each year, but now you should have a little less pressing needs and be able to invest some time in them, and a lot of the other improvements should start taking effect.

Hope that helps some. Just don't hold it against me if you do renew and I suggest a different order a year from now. There really isn't a cut and dried order that any of this must be done in. So, I can't promise I'll remember exactly what I said today.

 

[PackerBacker]

Thanks Steve - greatly appreciate the additional insight. The cost of the evaluation was worth every penny. Especially for a novice like myself.

I won't hold you to the order of events when I do renew. Even thought I got this great plan, I can see myself reading something on here that I'm just going to have to try out and we'll have to change the order to fix my experiment anyways.

 

[PackerBacker]

Been a little slow with the habitat improvements since I put the 9,000 plus trees in this spring. You can't tell it put the trees are all out there.

The field on the my 80 is about 30 acres. This is the view from top of the hill down towards the road.



This one is just to the left of the picture of above. The brushy pine on the right is the same as the one on left above.


Continues around a little further.


This is from top of the hill towards the south of the property. There is a food plot just below the bushy pine in the middle of the picture. The property runs back into hardwoods before turning into cedar swamp.


This is a view from down by the road back up the hill towards to south of the property. All of the pines and spruce are planted from here to up to the 1st bushy pine in the middle of the picture.

 

[PackerBacker]

I planted four dunstan chestnut last year that my brother picked up for me at Walmart. Didn't think they would make the winter but each seems to be doing okay so far.

 

[PackerBacker]

We also started a small apple orchard with 6 trees last year that I picked up from a local guy that is trying to start his own fruit nursery. I don't have the sheet with me so I can remember which is which but he did graft them so he tells me they are set-up for both early and late droppers.

 

[PackerBacker]

This spring we planted 25 wild apple trees from http://n40wildapples.com/. No idea what type they are but were rather inexpensive. Bought the plastic mesh from Menards (they sell it as a deer fence). If you do buy it - I highly recommend picked up some metal t-posts to hold it up. We already had to replace all the plastic corner posts because they snapped in the wind and will be replacing the middle ones next time up.



I'm going to need to go in and treat around the trees again with round-up as grasses seem to be taking over.

 

[PackerBacker]

This our main food plot. My property is in the middle of the Nicolet and other than the neighbors directly north of the property, there is very private property in the area.


This is the view from the edge of the woods back towards the road.


The clover and rye came in rather well. Not sure if it will be an issue or not but a doe family has decided to bed in the rye under the bushy white pine.

The milkweed bounced back and the amount of bumble bees and butterflies in the field is rather ridiculous.

 

[PackerBacker]

Before getting to the work for the day, I wandered back to one of the 3 ponds on the property to see if there was any sign.

Hard to see in the picture but plenty of deer tracks in addition to all the bear prints.

 

[wiscwhip]

Looks like it is starting to shape up nicely PB! Great work!

 

[PackerBacker]

Finally got to work after checking the pond and switching out a few cards on the trail cameras.

Last fall we tilled this little area and threw out some Antler King mix (don't remember what) that I picked up at Tractor Supply for $4. Mostly clover came up with spring.

Our main plot is only about 1/2 acre (it is to the right of the bushy pine in the middle of this picture). I wanted a little more food plot in addition to the two 1/2 acre plots that we are going to put in on the northern end of the property.


We mowed an area to the left of the picture above. You can see the goldenrod (at least that is what I think it is) in both pictures. The clover was growing really thick in it so we decided to leave it alone.


When we were done mowing, I sprayed with gly to kill any grasses underneath and the stuff that was to big for the mower to cut. The sprayer lost pressure as I was going along so hoping got enough on to kill everything.


Hope is to come up on Labor Day weekend and get the new area tilled and planted. Still debating what to plant due to the late planting.

 

[wiscwhip]

Rye for sure, that far north and anything else would be a toss up, you may get frost within 10-15 days of labor day up there, so most seedlings would be toast if that happened. Maybe a combo of rye and some type of hardier pea(AWP or Frostmaster peas) just to give the deer a little ice cream before the frost kills everything but the rye? Radish maybe and pray for late frost.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Labor Day weekend ?? How about a mix of winter rye grain, winter wheat and some red clover ? Good for fall - winter - early spring chow.

 

[wiscwhip]

BnB has a great suggestion as well. The WR and WW will do fine and the red clover, though not really providing anything of substance for this fall, will be ready to take off in the spring along with the WR and WW. Mow it next June and you should have a nice clover plot for next summer and fall. Could still throw some peas in there as well.

 

[SD51555]

How are the pines doing that you planted? Were you able to hook some rains to get em settled?

 

[PackerBacker]

Labor Day weekend ?? How about a mix of winter rye grain, winter wheat and some red clover ? Good for fall - winter - early spring chow.

Yeah - Labor Day weekend. Between the activities for my four daughters and the 5 companies that I own and/or invest in - it has been hard to get a free day to get any habitat work done. Labor Day weekend is actually a small family get-away but the girls are happy to run their little 4wheeler up and down the trail for a few hours while I get the plots taken care of. While all the family is in town, might try to talk my brothers in to helping me put up a few blinds too.

 

[wiscwhip]

We used to do tons of plot work on Labor Day weekend as well, sometimes through necessity, sometimes by choice. Got to do it when you can and if you can get some help that is even better.

 

[PackerBacker]

How are the pines doing that you planted? Were you able to hook some rains to get em settled?

I tried to snap a few pictures of the trees but with the grass so high, you can't see them from a distance.

The 3,000 white pine that I planted the spring of 2014 are coming along great.

The majority of 9,500 red pines and spruce this year seem to be coming along. I think I mentioned previously that I thought the state nursery really sent me about 10,000 red pines. We sorted them by size before planting - large, medium, and small. The good majority of the large and medium are doing great. The small ones (probably ones that most people would just toss) died after the first two weeks of planting because we didn't get any rain. Since then, we have been getting consistent enough rainfall to keep everything green.

In addition, I haven't taken the nursery's recommendation to mow the grass around the trees. I'm sure it stunts the growth a little since they aren't getting full sunlight but I think the shade and moisture the grass provides and holds in help get the trees through the dry Augusts. My buddy follows their instructions to a "T" and has about a 40 to 50% survival rate. So far, I figure we are in the 70 to 80% survival rate with our trees.