Troubles Trees
5 year old buck +
I began my Habitat obsession at an early age, while my buddies were out day-drinking, my gears were grinding for new ways to become a more successful Deer Hunter. In my early 20's I heard about this thing called grafting and instantly had visions of making pears fall from wild apple trees around my treestands. I didn't own much back then but I knew what direction I wanted to go and knew that enough hard work would get me there. That fire still burns today almost 30 years later. Today I am mortgage free of a beautiful house in the country but only because I bought a fixer-upper that was in terrible shape so I gutted and remodeled it as a fresh start for my family. The house itself only sits on 8 acres so I didn't have much room (or money) to stretch my wings, I started small with transplanting and grafting with small monetary purchases going into my passion until 4 years ago when I finally bought the 30 Acres next door to my house and my dream came to fruition.
In the last 4 years I have planted over 1,000 fruit and nut trees, woody browse shrubs and berry bushes on the new 30 acres that was not long ago a barren cow pasture with a small woodlot. It was a literal blank slate that Deer never hung around on because it had no cover and little food to hold deer. Most of the land for miles around me looks the same, all the Oak trees have been harvested for the almighty $$ stripping the land of that food source. Most of what stands today is mostly Maple, Ironwood, Ash and Poplar stands that are dense enough to produce a barren forest floor. The only Deer food I have around me is native browse, wild apples and farmers fields that alternate from clover to corn for the most part, which are good food sources but one thing I understand is that deer like diversity of food sources and bedding/security.
Armed with this knowledge, I shoot for diversity but my overall goal is to feed my food, particularly Whitetails and Turkey that will in turn feed my 15-year-old daughter and I for many years to come. I do plant some for my rabbits and game birds, and a bit for my honeybee hives. I also try and incorporate things we humans can eat in case someday the crap hits the fan (like Covid) and I need a grocery store in the back yard. My goal when I retire in roughly 10 years is to have a diverse but particularly unique year-round food source for my area that nobody else has.
In these last 4 years I've planted soft mass like Pears, Pawpaw and Persimmon. I have also dug in and tubed hard mass trees like several different Chestnuts (including the never mentioned enough Allegheny Chinquapin), Butternut, 5 different Oaks, Heartnut, Pecan, Hazelnut etc. down to the smaller berry and woody browse things like Dogwood, 9 Bark, Highbush Cranberry, Serviceberry, Winterberry etc. Roughly half of what I have planted came from our Department of Environmental Conservation or the Soil and Water Conservation, both have a yearly seedling sale that offer some very good seedlings at very reasonable prices.
This is my property in Central NY, the smaller piece with the C shaped driveway is what I started with and the bigger piece at the bottom is the 30 acres I bought recently.
This is the bigger picture, and in part why I don't implement food plots yet. I do think at some point I will do a small 1/2 acre plot of anything besides corn or clover given all the farm land surrounding me that does mainly corn and clover.
In the last 4 years I have planted over 1,000 fruit and nut trees, woody browse shrubs and berry bushes on the new 30 acres that was not long ago a barren cow pasture with a small woodlot. It was a literal blank slate that Deer never hung around on because it had no cover and little food to hold deer. Most of the land for miles around me looks the same, all the Oak trees have been harvested for the almighty $$ stripping the land of that food source. Most of what stands today is mostly Maple, Ironwood, Ash and Poplar stands that are dense enough to produce a barren forest floor. The only Deer food I have around me is native browse, wild apples and farmers fields that alternate from clover to corn for the most part, which are good food sources but one thing I understand is that deer like diversity of food sources and bedding/security.
Armed with this knowledge, I shoot for diversity but my overall goal is to feed my food, particularly Whitetails and Turkey that will in turn feed my 15-year-old daughter and I for many years to come. I do plant some for my rabbits and game birds, and a bit for my honeybee hives. I also try and incorporate things we humans can eat in case someday the crap hits the fan (like Covid) and I need a grocery store in the back yard. My goal when I retire in roughly 10 years is to have a diverse but particularly unique year-round food source for my area that nobody else has.
In these last 4 years I've planted soft mass like Pears, Pawpaw and Persimmon. I have also dug in and tubed hard mass trees like several different Chestnuts (including the never mentioned enough Allegheny Chinquapin), Butternut, 5 different Oaks, Heartnut, Pecan, Hazelnut etc. down to the smaller berry and woody browse things like Dogwood, 9 Bark, Highbush Cranberry, Serviceberry, Winterberry etc. Roughly half of what I have planted came from our Department of Environmental Conservation or the Soil and Water Conservation, both have a yearly seedling sale that offer some very good seedlings at very reasonable prices.
This is my property in Central NY, the smaller piece with the C shaped driveway is what I started with and the bigger piece at the bottom is the 30 acres I bought recently.
This is the bigger picture, and in part why I don't implement food plots yet. I do think at some point I will do a small 1/2 acre plot of anything besides corn or clover given all the farm land surrounding me that does mainly corn and clover.
