Tamarack and Marsh Swamp habitat improvements?

[tlzkaasen]

Good Morning,Afternoon, Evening, -

I'm hoping we could use this thread to share Habitat and Hunting strategies for Tamarack and Marsh Swamps. Little to nothing can be found after researching for the past three years. I know these locations aren't as sexy as food plots, spruce thickets, and oak savannas. Most of us that are fortunate enough to have one of these on our property will tell you they hold deer and are incredible and tough to hunt.

1. What habitat wise have you done? Could be Plantings, cuttings, transplants Introduced hybrid willows for additional screening?
2. Hunt from the edge or go into these honey holes


I'm located in Northern WI. It would also be VERY helpful if you could post your location.

 

[Tree Spud]

Maybe you could provide some more details and some pics of your area. Are there other shrubs or trees? What do neighboring properties look like around you? What does your non-swamp land?

I have about 200 acres of this type of habitat. It provides great sanctuary and bedding. Getting in is tough and spooking the deer is very likely.

A good resource is Dan Infalt and his Hunting Beast on YouTube. His primarily hunts public land marsh's & swamps.
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheHuntingBeastExtremeWhitetailTactics

Swamp bedding ...

 

[tlzkaasen]

I know several of us are interested in this topic based on a few other ongoing threads. I'll share what my property contains

Start with a few high level maps. The properties to the south and west are private. The rest is essentially public.

The food plot on the south west side extends all the way to the swamp. I'm not real great at mocking up these maps...Most of these programs are a serious PIA to mockup.

 

[tlzkaasen]

Zooming out a bit. Note: when hunting stands on the North East side I park in the national land and access that way.

 

[tlzkaasen]

Now that you have the high level maps sharing what it looks like from the ground.

 

[Brian662]

Jake Blow has some unique videos on his Habitat Pro LLC YouTube channels about creating additional bedding and travel corridors in swamps. I'll see if I can find a few and link them here.

I don't personally own land near any swamps, but they've always intrigued me.

 

[Brian662]

Found his play list for swamps, looks like it has 10 videos that may be of some interest to you fellas. He always has an outside the box way of thinking, which interests me.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyetG22lbVKOrLeWWvM_AgD_D-9QPbylv

 

[Tree Spud]

Looking at you photos looks like you have a variety of cover. I would do some heavy scouting this winter when ground is frozen to identify deer trails and bedding areas.

You can create travel lanes leading to food areas or other destinations by planting wet tolerant shrubs like will, RDO, etc. deer & bucks like overhead cover of 10-12' feet. The willows can create rub lines.

Look for small high spots of humps that you can create deer & buck bedding spots. Does tend to bed near food sources but bucks want the solitude and security of the marsh. Once you find these spots you can cover the ground with wood chips of bales of hay (cut the strapping twine). This can expand the bedding area and provide insulation from the cold ground. These high spots or humps may be small around 6'x6'.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I have about 10 acres of tamarack swamp, in NW Wisconsin. To be honest, I have hunted it a couple times, it sucks. I know the deer are in there when the guns start blasting, but it’s hard to hunt, so I just decided deer can keep the area to themselves as a sanctuary. I do have a couple stands that are set up with shooting lanes I cut into it, but deer don’t hang out in those shooting lanes, they will cross them, but they dart across them, doesn’t give you much time to aim or shoot. The biggest buck I have seen walked across one of these shooting lanes, all it old is was drive me crazy and I changed up how and where I hunted for the next year. Then realized setting up stand in it didn’t make sense. Wind swirled, it is always moist, and the deer knew you were there long before they got close.

I use to have a few main trails that left them and went to my food plots, but the last 2 years we have had a lot of blow down trees, and I haven’t gotten out to clean them up yet.

 

[bigboreblr]

Have any beaver issues? My lease has a huge swamp and severla small beavered up ponds. Anything you try to plant they'll eat. Whats the pH of the water.

It's worth a shot here, I know moose go in there and eat certain things, maybe the deer won't mind whats in there.

 

[tlzkaasen]

Have any beaver issues? My lease has a huge swamp and severla small beavered up ponds. Anything you try to plant they'll eat. Whats the pH of the water.

It's worth a shot here, I know moose go in there and eat certain things, maybe the deer won't mind whats in there.

A few beavers. I see the chewed trees on occasion.

 

[b116757]

Beavers are a pain I intentionally didn’t plant the fruit orchard on the new farm where I would have loved to have planted it because beavers would have likely killed the trees at some point. On the old place I had them chew off any ornamentals I planted to closely to the creek.

 

[sandbur]

Found his play list for swamps, looks like it has 10 videos that may be of some interest to you fellas. He always has an outside the box way of thinking, which interests me.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyetG22lbVKOrLeWWvM_AgD_D-9QPbylv

I have seen his videos before and I feel he made a big mistake by not planting 1-3 rows of spruce on the outer/ upper edge of that lowland area. He hinge cut the top edge but no spruce were planted that I can see.

Better yet, one row right above waters edge and 1-2 rows on top edge, adjacent to the grasslands.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AtomApple]

I agree about the spruce.
I am also not sure if what he is promoting is legal, as far as wetland conservation is concerned. I know of a guy that was adding wood chips for 4 wheeler trails in wetland, and he got a big fine for it.
if you own wetland and plan on doing stuff to it, I’d definitely check the laws. I saw it on YouTube isn’t a good defense.

 

[tlzkaasen]

Ok, Holidays are passed and it's time to think about my spring plantings across my property and tackling a project or two in the Tamarack Swamp. This thread is all about the Swamp so lets focus on that.

I'm going to start to create a central corridor (100 yards long) through the swamp rather than a mess of deer trail spokes.(Yes, I will try). Try to control movement a little?! The central corridor (North/South) will contain Silky Willows/aka Streamco Willows for good cover and provide screening in the event any neighbors start to let folks hunt in the swamp. I spoke with Tom at big rock trees regarding Silky Willows aka Streamco willows and he feels they'll grow and do well in that location. I did purchase the 2 footers (not a cheap date).. I will NOT be running landscape fabric straight across the 100 yards. Rather I'm going to run 5 sections about 10 yards long this year to see how they do.

Part 2 Tamarack Swamp - start planting spruce/shrubs along the swamps edge and drop the 10 thousand maples/balsams that currently line it. The balsams have no lower limbs and the maples are mature and just shade everything out. I picked up a "few" shrubs from the MDC sale the day they we're available (that order system was a shit show) - Shrubs I'll be planting/protecting (still trying to figure mass protection out)Silky Dogwood (50), Arrowwood Viburnum (25), Elderberry (25), Gray Dogwood (25), Roughleaf Dogwood (25) . Some of these will also be used around food plots and the orchard.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

In your experience do things grow very slow , and are hard to establish in these type areas?

About 10 years ago I opened up about a 1/2 acre area in a tamarack swamp, I planted some sand bar willows, and some spruce, don’t recall what type, I didn’t cage anything, but never saw the willows after the first year, and the spruce that are still alive are between knee and waste high. I have basically written the project off to lesson learned to leave some things alone. Now I have a half acre opening with a couple spruce that in maybe 20 more years May fill in the area.

Maybe I planted the wrong stuff, or should have caged stuff, more research, or something. I wish you luck, and will check back in on this thread in a few years to see if you had success.

 

[tlzkaasen]

In your experience do things grow very slow , and are hard to establish in these type areas?

About 10 years ago I opened up about a 1/2 acre area in a tamarack swamp, I planted some sand bar willows, and some spruce, don’t recall what type, I didn’t cage anything, but never saw the willows after the first year, and the spruce that are still alive are between knee and waste high. I have basically written the project off to lesson learned to leave some things alone. Now I have a half acre opening with a couple spruce that in maybe 20 more years May fill in the area.

Maybe I planted the wrong stuff, or should have caged stuff, more research, or something. I wish you luck, and will check back in on this thread in a few years to see if you had success.

I'm not sure what my growth rate will be in the tamarack swamp, but I do plan to utilize landscape fabric under anything I plant this year in the Swamp, Food plot edges, and deep woods). Caging is another story. I will NOT cage any of the Streamco's, but plan to cage and mulch 30% of the spruce (Norways and Blue) as well as the shrubs. I have several rolls of 5', 4' and lots of scrap fencing friends, neighbors have been saving for me. One mans garbage is another man's treasure. I honestly think the mulch will be as important as the caging based on some test results from 2021 and 2022 plantings.

I like your idea/concept of the 1/2 acrea area lined with spruce and willows. Did you put any fabric down? Swamps by me in the Minocqua area go nuts with grass (don't know all the names of the grass) growth

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I planted, and walked away. I didn’t do anything to them. I think I planted 12 spruce, and 25 willow. This was also in my early stages of tree plantings, so attention to details were minimal at best.

 

[Tree Spud]

I'm not sure what my growth rate will be in the tamarack swamp, but I do plan to utilize landscape fabric under anything I plant this year in the Swamp, Food plot edges, and deep woods). Caging is another story. I will NOT cage any of the Streamco's, but plan to cage and mulch 30% of the spruce (Norways and Blue) as well as the shrubs. I have several rolls of 5', 4' and lots of scrap fencing friends, neighbors have been saving for me. One mans garbage is another man's treasure. I honestly think the mulch will be as important as the caging based on some test results from 2021 and 2022 plantings.

I like your idea/concept of the 1/2 acrea area lined with spruce and willows. Did you put any fabric down? Swamps by me in the Minocqua area go nuts with grass (don't know all the names of the grass) growth

If you have reed canary grass, you will need to eliminate it as it will smoother all planting and then drop over with snow to completly smoother them. Will take at least 2-3 Gly spraying sessions to kill the RCG. Spray, wait several weeks then re-spray.

I would consider caging a block, say 100'x100', of spruce & shrubs. Small blocks can be great for bedding cover.

 

[Brian662]

If your deer herd utilizes the swamp in the winter, it will be very hard to establish new shrubs without caging. In my limited experience with swamps, deer tend to gravitate to them for thermal cover in winter months and the browse pressure on your plantings will be intense.