What to do with this space.....

[buckvelvet]

Our property is a small 15 acre chunk that is long and skinny. At the widest sections its roughly 150 yards. Our property is on a ridge that runs along a creek then flows into a river not 200 yards to our extreme south border. I have planted fruit trees, added hazelnuts, and will be planting some chesnut this spring to accommodate the many oaks we have already.

The state forests that border our property have many pines/cedars that provide bedding so needing to accommodate that on our property is NOT a necessity. Attached you see a photo of a spot on our property that I'm perplexed at what i should do with it. This particular 1.5 acre section is south of my cousins acre that he inherited from my grand parents where he may or may not eventually build his house. He is my hunting partner and property enthusiast. However I am the planner of all things deer so he just kind of goes with what i research to be the best and we attack it.

This 1.5 acre spot was a Christmas tree farm 50 years ago however they were mostly jack pine (scraggly nasty ass things). This was clearcut about 20 years ago. What has grown back is a mix of conifer (pine or spruce, how in hell do you know which is which?) Jack pine hasn't grown back that I know of, along with white oak, beech, cherry, & poplars. With other randoms thrown in.

What i'm asking is if you have small food plots, hard mast, & soft mast established. What the heck do you do next? Should I go nuts with a chain saw in here and hinge most all this area and leave the strong oaks standing? Should I do something different since i have lots of huge oaks established in other areas of the property? I'm confused as what I should do with this spot. PLEASE HELP!

 

[EOB]

A picture that shows the entire property might help. You said this section was clear cut 20 years ago so I would guess the area is thick. How big are the trees in it?

Spruce trees have single needles that are generally short. Pine trees have needles in a group 2-5 needles per group. Needles are generally longer than an inch. There is another type of evergreen and that is the Fir tree, it has single needles like a spruce but they are flat. Fir needle won't roll between your fingers like a spruce needle.

 

[buckvelvet]

Area in Red is our property. Space around food plots and clearcut is mostly hardwood stands of maple, oak, & popple. To the left of the of the clearcut (west) is mostly jackpine stand.

 

[wiscwhip]

I don't know that I would "do" anything with it, it sounds like you have a good mix of relatively young trees and not a huge bunch of jackpine. How "bad" can it be? What don't you like about it? If I felt compelled to do something with it, I would ask myself what the lowest hole in my bucket is and I would try to fill it using that area. Or possibly just hinge some travel corridors through it so you can direct deer past stands that are heading to your orchard and food plot from the north.

 

[buckvelvet]

If we wouldn't have gotten 2 feet of snow in the past week I would walk back there and take some pics, some of the saplings are pretty thick, specially on the W side.

 

[wiscwhip]

My point exactly, what is the purpose of hinging if it is already "pretty thick"? It should be providing cover if it is as thick as you are saying. Maybe cut/hinge some "sidewalk" type areas through there past some huntable stand sites to dictate movement through the area? Try that first, see how the deer react and if you have success directing their movements, you can always come back in a year or 2 and cut the whole thing down if it doesn't work the way you like. Throw a couple tub-style "waterholes" near your stand locations along those "sidewalks" and I bet you have success getting those deer to walk where you want.

 

[buckvelvet]

My point exactly, what is the purpose of hinging if it is already "pretty thick"? It should be providing cover if it is as thick as you are saying. Maybe cut/hinge some "sidewalk" type areas through there past some huntable stand sites to dictate movement through the area? Try that first, see how the deer react and if you have success directing their movements, you can always come back in a year or 2 and cut the whole thing down if it doesn't work the way you like. Throw a couple tub-style "waterholes" near your stand locations along those "sidewalks" and I bet you have success getting those deer to walk where you want.

The thick parts are trees that are maybe 3-4 inches thick in diam but probably 12-15 feet tall with nothing to offer as far as browse, they all compete w/ themselves so nothing does exuberantly well. When I say thick i mean all these trees especially on the W side of this 1.5 acre spot is probably 3-4 ft spacing.

 

[wiscwhip]

In that case, you could leave the conifers and oaks and hinge the rest of the "trash", but I would still do it in some semblance of order that would dictate movement past potential stand locations. 2 birds, 1 stone.

 

[buckvelvet]

In that case, you could leave the conifers and oaks and hinge the rest of the "trash", but I would still do it in some semblance of order that would dictate movement past potential stand locations. 2 birds, 1 stone.

There isn't much in the way of conifers in there are some. I wouldn't say they are the 'cover' type, they are more branches at the top then fluff at the bottom. I do like your ideas though and I will put them to use.

 

[wiscwhip]

If the conifers have already self pruned at the bottom, they could be cut as well, they will not help with cover or thermal bedding when they are at that point. Once you open it up to the sunlight, you could go back through and plant spruce plugs into the downed tops. I would also say some beneficial, thicket forming shrubs could be done the same way and would be a nice addition as well.