• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Public land management question

sureshotscott

sureshotscott

Moderator
Staff member
SH Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
Messages
1,973
Location
SE MI
Scouted some public land today. This hardwoods "island" has a trail (unmarked here) that goes east/west between the clearcuts that run north/south. In the middle of this trail is a sign (which I failed to get a pic of) that proclaims hunting/fishing license dollars make these habitat improvements possible. So these clearcuts do what exactly? They are just meadows, doesn't look like any sharecropping unless it was a long time ago. I get that clearcuts add some diversity and edge habitat, but are they more intended to benefit bird hunters? I don't bird hunt...

clearcuts.png
 
sureshotscott said:
Scouted some public land today. This hardwoods "island" has a trail (unmarked here) that goes east/west between the clearcuts that run north/south. In the middle of this trail is a sign (which I failed to get a pic of) that proclaims hunting/fishing license dollars make these habitat improvements possible. So these clearcuts do what exactly? They are just meadows, doesn't look like any sharecropping unless it was a long time ago. I get that clearcuts add some diversity and edge habitat, but are they more intended to benefit bird hunters? I don't bird hunt...
Click to expand...

Clear cuts are awesome bedding/feeding areas for deer when they start growing back. They just clear cut one of my hunting areas, I can't wait for this fall! Big open old growth forests are what I call "deer deserts", they may have acorns, but you'll never see a big buck during the day.
 
MIDNR has a number of CRP they run on the pubic by me. Some of the fields get rotated annually with corn or soybean, and others stay fallow for years on end. Not sure how they decide which to plant and which to let go to pasture.

The fallow CRP can be good upland habitat, but often lacks the actual native grasses and covered needed for nesting security. I have found upland bird habitat is generally co sponsored by conservation groups, primarily pheasants forever.

They can still be good edge and transition zones for deer. I have found anything remotely resembling a field edge in an easily accessible area typically has more pressure than warrants a hunt.


Sent from d_mobile
 
On a piece of public near me the nwtf and state worked together to create a wildlife opening. It had a sign about it. All they did was close a gate to keep people from driving down it and hung a sign on the gate. Don’t get me wrong I wish they would close more roads to vehicular traffic but really the sign was the most expensive part of the project.
 
The state forests around here get logged fairly regularly. Sometimes it is a clearcut and that will grow back thick,great browse. Sometimes it is selectively cut to let more light on the forest floor.
 
d_rek said:
...I have found anything remotely resembling a field edge in an easily accessible area typically has more pressure than warrants a hunt.
Click to expand...

Ya I saw hunter sign all over the place out there. There were faint trails into all those clearcuts, didn't have time to explore them but led me to wondering about the decision process behind the work and the sign. Need to pack my hip boots out to explore the wet stuff there next time.
 
Clear cuts create habitat diversity for a number of different species. For deer it creates bedding cover and browsing areas, for turkey it creates nesting cover and a bugging area. It also provide for generational feed, given the first few years will be leafy soft mast type browse, grasses, flowers, and so on. Then a few years of mixed leafy and woody browse, which also create heavy cover to escape hunting pressure and predators. Not to mention these benefit small game and non game species dramatically. One key species in the monarch butterfly, as clear cuts in my area will always have milkweed populate! Which benefits me as well.
 
Give your local wildlife biologist a call if you want an explanation of what is being done on that specific property. Edge improves deer habitat but like others have said, they are managing the land for more than just deer.
 
Monocultures only support a given amount of species and life. By creating a diverse habitat via clear cuts, logging, grazing, fire, etc. a wider variety of plant and animal life are able to use these areas. It's not an exact science (we can't replicate mother nature) but the biologists/land managers try to get close. Your money isn't always going to directly support the animals we hunt or use but it can indirectly influence our hunting by creating edge habitat, new forage, etc. There may even be a threatened or endangered species the biologists are managing for. It could be an area that the biologists/land managers had high hopes for but then the funding fizzled out.
 
Last edited:
In your OP you describe these clearcut areas as "meadows". Are they grassy or are they thick with new growth? Most of the clearcuts I have experience with locally sprout up into an almost impenetrable maze of new aspen/beech/maple growth with tangles of wild raspberry and blackberry thorns in about five years time. Up here these cuts are created primarily for harvest of the wood as a financial resource for the state but also under the guise of creating habitat. These become havens for whitetails as they feed on the green aspen leaves and berries in the summer and the fresh aspen and maple sprouts after leaf off in the fall. They also provide great cover for both whitetails and upland birds. Honestly I have spent the majority of my life hunting around the edges of these types of cuts.

If those are meadowlike, they maybe remnants of an older state program I recall from the late 70's/early 80's where the state cut pockets in the hardwoods and seeded them with rye and clover as "hunting habitat improvement". Kind of a state run food plot. Actually they reminded me of irreglular shaped reclaimed gas or oil well fields where no drilling had been done. Eventually the funding for keeping these active either fell through and was discontinued and the fields were left as just that, open fields interspersed in the hardwoods.
 
The rye field planting by the state is still ongoing. I talked with a gentleman planting rye near the Pigeon River last year that worked as a contractor for the state to clear and plant the fields. I was surprised at how may acres he told me had planted over the years.
 
You'll have to take it up with the area managers really. Seems like each area here in Ohio have their pet projects and a budget. Which is mostly deer as it's the "cash cow" here. Just wish that was muskrats but oh well
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top