Post-season habitat projects?

[SD51555]

I know it's not over yet, but the wheels have been turning as I gather intel from each sit. Starting to put together my post season habitat project list in the event winter doesn't come crashing in with a vengeance too quickly. Being in far northern MN, I could be under show stopping amounts of snow with one bad storm.

Pretty simple list from me:

Get the cabin put back together and cleaned up for shutdown
Get the maintenance done on the wheeler
Do some maintenance on old saw work (whack back tag alder regrowth)
Advance the size of the sanctuary select cutting
Note the high spots for wild white spruce translocating (that doesn't count as tree planting if you don't buy them)
Make 2023 firewood
Scout out locations for blinds/stands that will be moving or added

Anyone else gearing up for a quick post season land push?

 

[Teeder]

I won't be doing anything until after new years, then it will be select cutting to release desirable trees and gain firewood.

 

[fishin coyote]

My season won’t end until mid January unless I tag out. After that there’s a bunch of soft maple that have an appointment with Mr. Stihl and I

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Every year as I sit in my deer stand, I dream up what I want to do before next season. I found my list in my phone last night, I didn’t do any of it. So looks like I can start off with a list already.

I won’t start cutting firewood until January-March depending on snow depth. The plan is always go out and cut back Aspen and soft maple, but we ended up with a quite a few wind blown trees, that will keep me occupied a good month. I have been pecking away at the dry ones to add to this seasons firewood pile, but the green stuff can dry in the woods for a little while.

 

[sandbur]

I have a small area of popple that I should drop for winter feed and future cover.

I will be doing a post season walk this next week and work on plans. I don’t like to do much until after muzzy season, but it seems like hunter numbers have dropped off all ready.

As I get older, I do less and less.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SD51555]

I have a small area of popple that I should drop for winter feed and future cover.

I will be doing a post season walk this next week and work on plans. I don’t like to do much until after muzzy season, but it seems like hunter numbers have dropped off all ready.

As I get older, I do less and less.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

One thing I forgot to mention is my browse assessment. I have been cutting pretty aggressively the past few years. I want to do a deep dive on how hard my browse has been hit and use that as a guide for how fast to keep going. I kinda hope I'm showing some signs of surplus finally so I can also ease up a little too and maybe shift more to maintenance.

Last year I had a goal of plowing through a whole gallon of saw fuel, and I made that, plus about an extra 5 saw tanks. It takes a really long time to use up that much fuel when you're cutting brush and tiny trees.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

How long are you seeing it take for browse to fill in the cut back areas? I cut back about a half acre in one spot last winter, and I didn’t see hardly any regrowth. I was expecting the maple stumps to sprout, and the aspen to sucker. I never saw any of that. I even set a game camera up in the area to see if it would draw in more deer. Just a couple random passer byers.

 

[Teeder]

My season won’t end until mid January unless I tag out. After that there’s a bunch of soft maple that have an appointment with Mr. Stihl and I

That's what I'm talking about!
Smaller stuff gets hinged and larger stuff gets burnt.

 

[SD51555]

How long are you seeing it take for browse to fill in the cut back areas? I cut back about a half acre in one spot last winter, and I didn’t see hardly any regrowth. I was expecting the maple stumps to sprout, and the aspen to sucker. I never saw any of that. I even set a game camera up in the area to see if it would draw in more deer. Just a couple random passer byers.

Depends what you're cutting I suppose. I have lots of balsam poplar and tag alder. That comes back immediately, a foot a week it seems the first month or so of warm weather. My ash stumps sit idle for a full year before they really get to suckering. However, when they finally do, they bring it in a big way, and the deer love it.

Keep going, and keep watching it. You'll see it change a lot for the first three growing seasons. Depending on what comes back, I go back into those spots in year 2 or 3 and knock back the most aggressive regrowth to keep the sun on the good trees, shrubs, and woodland broadleaves.

 

[SD51555]

It really changes as you get ahead of the deer. This past year I had a bunch of Grade A browse go unused on the edge of my property, and I took that as an indication that I'm finally turning the corner. I'll know more when I do a spring survey of my native ROD.

 

[b116757]

I’m going to crown release oaks and walnuts on the new farm this winter after my fence construction project is completed hopefully that will happen in December. I’m taking nearly the entire month off for vacation. I also have a fenced pond on the new farm that I’m going to take out nearly all the trees in the fenced area and use that area around the pond as a food plot the cattle can’t access. I will leave some trees any walnuts and most trees along the north line.

 

[3I0]

Planning to smash down tons of mountain maple with my brush cutter. It is definitely a primary browse species on my property and I have large amounts of it in the understory of mature closed-canopy forest that exists as 3"-4" diameter stems. Did an experiment on a patch last winter where I cut some while leaving all the mostly aspen mature trees, and it resprouted very dense and in more of a bush form.

Attached a picture from a North slope mature aspen patch and I found the regrowth pretty impressive. This is way easier than manually clearing other areas of my property that were logged 20 years ago and are now dense aspen stands of 3-6" trees. Will try and leave more of those either to the heavy equipment as budget allows, or wait longer until I have a few big trees instead of tons of medium sized trees to clean up.

 

[356]

While my hope is to continue to enjoy the season through muzzleloading in early January, I have some TSI hack & squirt work this spring, plus frost seeding and dropping next years firewood. I am going to restore 200 yards of old trail (20 years old) through the pack part of the property. Predator trapping will also be on my to-do list.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

One project I didn’t get to last year that I regret is clearing last years storm trees off the deer trails. Trees have fallen over the main deer trails before last hunting season, and I never cleared them, and still haven’t, well now my main trails go around my hunting shack. The deer still come to my food plot, and I can shoot them out of the plot, but I liked to see, and shoot the deer on the trail, prior to entering the plot. I know many bucks don’t go into the food plot during rifle season, so I will miss out on them.

Last winter and spring I had a huge list that just kept growing bigger every time I took something off, I added 3 more. So far this year I am not so far behind, and hope I can get to projects such as clearing trails.

But all those wind blown trees make for some good cover, and during the rut, the bucks spend a lot of time cruising my land. Much more then anytime prior to all the downed trees.

 

[g squared 23]

I’m going to set a couple of permanent stands on my 5 acre permission property, I’m tired of hang ‘n hunts in the dark. Something with a nice spacious seat and a foot rail good enough for an all day sit. Saw a shooter just outta range today at 1140, so it’s a spot I need to put in some time to be successful.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Maddog66]

After Christmas I’m going to do a couple of big burn piles. One from clearing out a new section of trail, and another pile of invasives and garbage trees shading one of my plots….that I still have to build.

Have to be really careful though, because I’ve been known to get knee walking drunk at a good bonfire.

Then, in Feb or March I too have a date with a few acres of over mature basswood and soft maple. Dropping and hinge cutting.

That should take me right up to frost seeding clover :)

 

[Turkey Creek]

Walk the property after season closes in December, hopefully with some snow on the ground. Learn where deer are currently traveling and bedding a bit better. See how thick an area is that I will leave as a sanctuary area and possibly doing some work to thicken it up. Start transplanting some cedars for screens and to improve a couple of areas that I would like to encourage bedding in. Get a few acorns seeded and fruit trees planted. Get a couple of food plots in once that time of year rolls around. Build one permanent box blind that I feel pretty confident now will cover the shooting areas for the kids when gun hunting. I am sure my list will grow and be more ambitious than I have time for!

 

[buckdeer1]

I have a list way too long already and then I started watching The Whitetail Group,really pretty good from what I've seen.It's all I need is more ideas

 

[b116757]

Maddog mentioned burn piles. I have pushed out 3/4 mile of fence rows burn piles I have in excess this year. Should make for several good Friday/Saturday evening bon fires this winter.

 

[TreeDaddy]

After Christmas I’m going to do a couple of big burn piles. One from clearing out a new section of trail, and another pile of invasives and garbage trees shading one of my plots….that I still have to build.

Have to be really careful though, because I’ve been known to get knee walking drunk at a good bonfire.

Then, in Feb or March I too have a date with a few acres of over mature basswood and soft maple. Dropping and hinge cutting.

That should take me right up to frost seeding clover :)

Is that the same as snot slingin' drunk?

bill