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Land management for wildlife and deer

MattMan81

MattMan81

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2020
Messages
5,067
Location
The Mitten
I was listing to THPS Zach's pod cast on nature preseravation. Wow. He made some really good points. You guys should check it out.
It also made me think about the farm I hunt. There is another guy managing it. He cuts hay off it. Plants a food plot. But the deer get over hunted and seems like lack of food and cover they leave come December. Listening to that Pod cast, makes me think the habitat around it could be improved. There is a large chunk of wet woods I have been hunting more and more. But dosent seem to hold deer come December. Seems like Ohio offers assistance with how to manage Forrest for some areas. But not sure if Michigan does? I don't really want to pay someone big bucks to tell me everything to do, because I don't have full control and don't want to waste money on food plots. Just want someone to tell me how I could improve that wooded area to provide more natural food and cover to keep the deer around longer. Anyone have some insight to this?
 
Also, start listening to the Land and Legacy podcast. This and the above info is just a start, there is enough info out there to make your head spin. Mine has many times.

Edit: check out info from Jake Ehlinger, who is from Michigan.
 
MattMan81 said:
I was listing to THPS Zach's pod cast on nature preseravation. Wow. He made some really good points. You guys should check it out.
It also made me think about the farm I hunt. There is another guy managing it. He cuts hay off it. Plants a food plot. But the deer get over hunted and seems like lack of food and cover they leave come December. Listening to that Pod cast, makes me think the habitat around it could be improved. There is a large chunk of wet woods I have been hunting more and more. But dosent seem to hold deer come December. Seems like Ohio offers assistance with how to manage Forrest for some areas. But not sure if Michigan does? I don't really want to pay someone big bucks to tell me everything to do, because I don't have full control and don't want to waste money on food plots. Just want someone to tell me how I could improve that wooded area to provide more natural food and cover to keep the deer around longer. Anyone have some insight to this?
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What are you allowed to do on the property? Check out “Habitat Podcast”. Jared is in Michigan and just improved habitat in a wet wooded area. He covers it in detail with a forester on a recent podcast.

Generally speaking you’ll want to improve cover and woody browse but you will need to drop some trees. I’m not sure if the land owner would be ok with you firing up a chainsaw but that’s likely required.


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I would look into some permaculture solutions for managing habitat. If you have some trees that you can graft some later dropping varieties of pears, apples, or whatever fruits can provide late winter food sources. Might have some heavier upfront costs but if know how to propagate trees, you can expand things out with much lower cost
 
Unless you have a large parcel set aside that no one enters you are fighting a losing battle, When the leaves fall and the guns pop the deer will find a safe place, somewhere and start using their night vision.
 
MattMan81 said:
I was listing to THPS Zach's pod cast on nature preseravation. Wow. He made some really good points. You guys should check it out.
It also made me think about the farm I hunt. There is another guy managing it. He cuts hay off it. Plants a food plot. But the deer get over hunted and seems like lack of food and cover they leave come December. Listening to that Pod cast, makes me think the habitat around it could be improved. There is a large chunk of wet woods I have been hunting more and more. But dosent seem to hold deer come December. Seems like Ohio offers assistance with how to manage Forrest for some areas. But not sure if Michigan does? I don't really want to pay someone big bucks to tell me everything to do, because I don't have full control and don't want to waste money on food plots. Just want someone to tell me how I could improve that wooded area to provide more natural food and cover to keep the deer around longer. Anyone have some insight to this?
Click to expand...
I picked up on a couple of key items on your post. You stated the deer get over hunted. Pressure will shut down mature deer coming into an area quicker than anything. Changing food and habitat sources along with pressure could be triggering a decrease in your numbers.

You mentioned wet woods. I wouldn't want to hang out in wet woods in December in Michigan and I'm sure the whitetail don't want to either especially if the adjacent property has less pressure, better food and cover.

Cover can be established with habitat improvement programs through most state agencies. Some will even plant at a low cost or offer rental of equipment. You pay the taxes so it's not a bad idea to look into these programs.

Standing corn, beans and milo are a great source of food in addition to a cold weather forage. You don't need a tractor, disk, planter, etc. to plant food plots. I've planted plots on friends ground in areas we couldn't get bigger equipment in with nothing more than a mower and a rake or rototiller. It's a lot of work, but if it draws the deer where you want, it's worth it! Supplemental feeding is also an option and probably the easiest but check with regulations and CWD policies obviously before doing anything there.

Mineral sources draw deer and will help the bucks during antler formation and the does with their fawns come spring. Again, the mineral sources will concentrate deer in an area and could contribute to CWD transmission.

There's no need to pay someone big bucks to figure out your deer for you. I think you'll have a better understanding of your deer in your area if you have some time and patience to figure them out yourself. It might not happen this year or next but once you have a better grasp, it's a pretty rewarding experience. Go drive, do some scouting and figure out where the concentrations of deer are, take notes and see if those areas and conditions can be replicated on your property.
 
I just did a walk through on my property with a forester. I was planning to cut a couple acres here and there to create some thickets when he told me they were planning to clear cut the neighboring 80 acres. I said, never mind, I’m good. Bye. Lol
 
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Land and Legacy will be conducting a land tour education event in south west Michigan in June. That might be a good opportunity to sign up for something that will answer a lot of your questions.


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Down here in Texas the Parks and Wildlife Department have Wildlife Biologist for each county that will come out for free and write a Habitat Management Plan that helps support their Private Lands and Habitat Program. There is no obligation, they just want the landowners to have quality information about habitat management. I would hope other states have similar programs.
 
weekender21 said:
I also recommend looking at a few different forums. Habitat Talk and Deer Hunter Forum are great.


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Definitely this^^^
A lot of us on those forums came from the excellent QDMA forum...until they pulled the plug on that forum so Deer Hunter and Habitat Talk were formed. A lot of the QDMA forum info can be found on those 2 forums.
Some really knowledgeable people on those sites.
 
You didn't mention your acreage, but my experience after 10 or so years in a 120 acre lease is that there's not much you can do with small tracts aside from plant a big plot and bait and stay the heck off of it. 120 acres is not a place you can hunt every weekend. I hunt it maybe 5 times a year, but I kill or miss a deer every time I go. If you've got a couple of hundred acre budget and a couple of thousand hunt schedule, public is your best bet.
 
In short, for your wooded area, a chainsaw is your best tool.
If you don't already know how to SAFELY, handle a saw and how to drop trees, read the tremendous book "To Fell a Tree".
And learn your weeds. When you start to manipulate habitat, you WILL get "weeds" emerging. Not all weeds are bad. Some are actually desirable. And others are evil and need eradicated immediately.
 
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