What motivates you as a habitat guy/land manager?

I just like to chase whitetails and grow stuff. I grew up and had the means to own some land out in the sticks where nobody bothers me, and once I literally started seeing the fruits of my labor it was the spark to the fire that burns inside me today. I wanted to do things other people around me weren't thinking about doing, which pushed me into the ideology of creating a diverse garden of unique food sources to my area that would some day bring a monster buck past my stand because he was craving Persimmons or Chestnuts that only I had. That is how it plays out in my head anyway :) It is alot of work, its also more expensive than I had imagined but... sooooo worth every penny.

"A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of life when he plants shade trees under which he knows he will never sit"
Amen! Me exactly!
 
It's not any one thing for me, but deep at it's core I love and have a passion for 2 things that drive habitat improvement for me. The first is the obvious love of the outdoors, don't need to go more into this, but anything that can get me outside, I'm all in. The second is a desire to tinker, improve and make better/bigger/faster/stronger. These 2 things melded into a degree in environmental engineering which I eventually turned into a career.

That career though results in a lot of desk time and plane rides/hotel stays. So my habitat time is the time I use to scratch that itch on my 40 acres. Time to be outside, to run a chainsaw, to plant, to mow to tinker... The end result is mainly for deer, but also making trails for the kids to hike, to attract turkey and squirrel and even some furbearers (not including Whiley haha).

I have an old fruit orchard that is mostly peaches, but some apple, plum and pear too. Even that is a lost cause to make any money on, but I still like to keep up what I can just as a habit of wanting to keep it looking nice and another excuse to be outside.
 
Love to tinker and make things better.

I'm a yard guy and that kind of extends to my plots. Love to experiment with different mixes and look out just past the yard at orchards/plots with deer in them. My original goal was to grow huge deer, but now it's just to grow "stuff". I do the same with ponds/fish.
 
Well, I don’t do drugs. Next logical way to blow a bunch of time and money is habitat work…


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Well, I don’t do drugs. Next logical way to blow a bunch of time and money is habitat work…


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Lol, that's a good one! To be honest there are quite a few beer bottles under tree cages on my place. Not much better than going for a long run, grabbing a beer, then walking the orchard and plots to cool down. Beer is about as close to drugs as I get.
 
Love to tinker and make things better.

I'm a yard guy and that kind of extends to my plots. Love to experiment with different mixes and look out just past the yard at orchards/plots with deer in them. My original goal was to grow huge deer, but now it's just to grow "stuff". I do the same with ponds/fish.
That's the weird thing for me. I hate, and I mean hate yard work. Hate lawn, flower beds etc. Till it all under and put in gravel I say
But give me a garden, green house or my fields and I am a happy dude.....
 
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