Quick rewards from logging

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

The last couple Saturdays I have been working on a project to create some cover in and area and on and edge of some habitat that we don't really hunt or go into during the season. Part of this area is just a 100 by 100 yard box with no ground cover and we would just like some mess so that deer don't run through it so quickly.

One of the trees that came down was a giant cedar that was perfectly in the wrong place for a long gun lane into some of that unhunted cover. It was down for about 3 days before being discovered and over the next 10 days it was stripped bare under 5 feet of height and I have thousands of pictures. Up to 7 baldies in one picture and 4 different bucks.

Here are some shots of deer using the overgrown hemlocks for bedding and the big cedar for browse.
Pretty cool the way they have used it so far.
The cedar.


Small buck and does. Action there was all non stop and a lot during daytime since the deer were bedding in a safe zone about 100 yards away. I wish I would have cut that tree down with 2 weeks of season so go!


This tree was down for a week. I cut it purposely to block a 35 yard trail along the bottomside of a ridge and push the movement down to 20 yards of the stand. This is also where I killed my bowbuck this year. A 50 yard stand move made and realizing I had to get in the stand stupid early made for the most consistent hunting on my property in the 10 years we have had it.


The new trail, worked perfect.

 

[wiscwhip]

Amazing what you can do with just one well placed swoop of the saw. Nice blue!

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

On your main entrance and also along the property line we put a few more evergreens down. We have to access from here and it should help cover up some movement and noise on the way in and out.
I wish it was a smaller trail but its 4 wheeler/tractor/old firewood trucks size.


View one side. There is actually a poorly placed plot there that we really just use for winter feeding deer with late season crops. Easy spot to clear and plant. Not so hot for hunting.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Back to that single tree I laid down to push the movement closer to the stand...here is the shot minutes after I killed my archery buck this year.
In that lane imagine one 60 foot bushy tree laying down the hillside from 25 to roughly 50 yards. It is working fantastic so far. The deer dump over the ridge and then parallel the bottom of it, so it would make no sense for them to climb back uphill farther away from me. 6 years of observed movement here tells me they should not do that....most of the time at least.

Last years bounty. I am with Steve B that a 2 year 8 pointer of crazy pressured land is a pope and young. This guy was 125 in my mind. Thrilled with him. Especially after making a move just 40 yards and facing the stand in a better direction for mornings only.




This is current. The ridge is now on my left and all the movement goes left to right and then flattens out right in direction im facing.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

In general we just touched the surface with this project of creating some cover. But with about 15 trees down. I am sure without even counting a saw 150 beds. Between that one giant cedar for food and some nice shelter to lay down, plus minimal human intrusion this time of year the activity exploded. Especially daytime activity which is somewhat rare on this property.

 

[ruskbucks]

That's awesome to have instant success like that. The deer should be browsing those hemlocks to right? Last year with the deep snow, all my hemlocks were browsed as tall as they could reach standing on their back legs.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

The hemlocks are not preferred browse but since there down they are working on them a little.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Bluecollar - The last pic in post #4 looks very much like a spot I hunted some years ago here in Pa. Open woods, with a steeper slope going up a HIGH ridge on the left. A big hemlock tree had fallen down at the bottom of the slope and several deer trails coming down the slope all funneled in to that hemlock. The deer were using that fallen hemlock as cover to check and then cross the foot path that was at the bottom of the slope. Just goes to show what a little cover can do to concentrate deer movement.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

It has certianly been interesting. We have to walk past there about 40 yards away to get to most stands so I dont see it as an in season spot to bed. I do love what it is doing as far as pushing movement downhill at my stand though.

 

[chummer]

We had a large hemlock blow over during the season two years ago. They striped it clean in a couple weeks. I hunted it a couple times but they were nocturnal at that point. It would be a good idea in years where the weather is rough to drop a single tree to hunt the last couple weeks.

 

[j-bird]

I remember when I had my place cut. I was all for it - and then the saws started. At the end of the first day I thought to myself, "OH $h!t! What have I done!" We had marked trees and it really didn't hit just how many we had marked to get cut. I thought I really screwed up. I thought I had truly destroyed my place - I talked to the logger and he assured me it wasn't as bad as it seemed and in 2 years time I would be thrilled with the results (he was aware of my habitat driven goals). i let them proceed and often times just sat on a stump and thought to myself, "your an idiot", "you are SOOOO screwed". Well I am a few years afterward and I am thrilled, but actually in a few places wish we had taken a few more. I am not going back thru and removing trees that will serve me little to no purpose down the road. Trees that are damaged or to mis-shaped to be of any timber value.

This will sound funny, but one of my best deer hunting tools is a chainsaw!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Chapter 3 in the book "GROW 'EM RIGHT " by North Country Whitetails' Neil & Craig Dougherty is titled " Chainsaws are a Deer's Best Friend. " You found that out J-Bird !

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Chapter 3 in the book "GROW 'EM RIGHT " by North Country Whitetails' Neil & Craig Dougherty is titled " Chainsaws are a Deer's Best Friend. " You found that out J-Bird !

In my case they are my worst enemy as every inch of firewood that hits the ground is cleaned up from may until December. Yes, even during the rut. Yes, even during gun season.
But I see what you are getting at :) Trust me everytime one of those hemlocks hit the ground and the distance that I could see from the ground got smaller and smaller I smiled.
I know they will get cleaned up for drop needles in time but there are also hundreds of norways spruce underneath them and raspberry bushies ready to explode if they get a little sun.
I think its the best of both worlds for the property.

 

[j-bird]

Timber harvest and the like isn't for every property - I would try to avoid ever making a blanket statement like that. However, a chainsaw even if used sparingly can make a difference - be it widespread like a timber harvest, hinge cuts or in select tactical places to improve stands and the like - like Blue has done. Chainsaw is a very valuable habitat management tool.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

I guess I will really find out next year. We are up for "selective logging" in 2016 with the MFL program we are in. What that exactly means I am not sure, but the land was logged 10 years ago just before we bought it.
Half of the woods is too wet to get big machinery too so I dont think they could really go to town anyway.

Back when we bought the land we were always promised first run at it if it every came up for sale. It never actually went on the open marked but a local still outbid us $500 an acre on the land anyway. The previous owner stuck to his guns and sold to us. He also didnt asked for more money when it was surveyed at 40.5 acres vs 40. Becuase of that good faith my dad didnt blink when with 6 months to go before the deal was final, the current owner asked if he could get it logged.
His money from logging paid for a major surgery and kept him alive for another 10 years.

I really got off subject here. In short...I love my woods!

 

[scott44]

Looks good, makes ya feel good when yous can see your work doing something.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

I wish all those mature low timber trees would be located where I really want them to bed. This is the first of many babysteps until the forester tells me what I can and cant do next yr. I really the MFL writeup 50 times. Some locals swear I cant even cut a shooting lane. I think there dead wrong.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Back working on part of the same project but a little different this weekend. Still knocking down a lot of the big Hawthorne/Pine/Fur/Evergreens to dirty up the spotless front half of our woods.

Here is the map. Our only access is and easement coming through the field on the blue line. We park as soon as we hit the woods and most of our access to stands continues along the blue line. We really don't hunt in the front corner by the yellow arrow at all so I decided it was time to tip over ALOT of these useless huge canopied evergreens. The results so far have been pretty eye opening.
Keep in mind we don't hunt this area, we just need to be able to walk by it over and over through the season.

Here is the map for reference.
Blue line is our easement continued into the start of 90 % of our stand access.
Green Lines are a visual barrier of evergreens tipped on there sides or some left hung up at an angle.
Black line is a truck path to our shed and we have 2 stand that way as well.
Red is the line between evergreen hardwood mix and pure swamp/muck/standing water.



From the Yellow arrow facing north BEFORE.


This tree was down for 10 days.
Holy free fertilizer!


AFTER:


AFTER FACING EAST UP YOUR ACCESS TRAIL:

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Where I could see 100 yards easily before I can now see a really spotty 20 at best.
I am blow away by the amount of beds in this area and we don't want them to bed there for good. Every year the deer move from deep in the property or off of it and start bedding out front (west) as pressure declines so they are closer to the food. I highly doubt they will be using this area in season. The idea was just to make a gray zone in between where they sometimes hang out and where we have to walk day after day.

Interestingly enough we started this project 6 weeks ago on the same line the yellow arrow points, but we worked from north to south.
The deer have basically followed the cuttings week by week and where the new tree goes down that is were all the sign and beds are.
They are doing a little browsing on these evergreens but the scent of a new cut and a new structure to try out keeps them investigating.

I have 400 evergreen plugs planted in this same area so this made instant cover, added sun for the new plugs and should encourage some underbrush to go again. Besides some overhead roofing at 12 feet high this area was junk to deer.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Saw the same thing when we timbered at camp. New trees down - new deer sign. It's amazing how fast they'll clean up a tree of it's twigs and shoots once dropped. And bed right in and around the new drops !!