creating cover

[Football Hunter]

I guess any amount is good ,but how much area ia needed to make some good security cover?I started last year ,about 200 yards from a food plot,cutting everything down I could,with my chain saw.Hoping that it will grow up with vines and weeds etc,now that most of the canopy is gone.This is in wide open hard woods country.Will it work?Will deer use it?The first one is about a half acre,should I keep making it bigger or make another one somewhwere else?

 

[deerchaser007]

How many acres total is the property? What percentage is in food plot? What percentage is open land and what percentage is in hardwoods?

 

[BSK]

I like to see at minimum 10% of a property in good security/bedding cover, and I would prefer to see that broken into multiple smaller areas, not one big section.

 

[Football Hunter]

7oo acres 2 food plots maybe 11/2 acres total,this is rough land,anything else would be VERY small plots,we have limits on what we can do as far as clearing goes.

 

[deerchaser007]

That makes it very difficult since you have limits!!

With 700 acres you could have multiple blocks of 3-5 acre clearcuts,.. but with limits ,. you can only do what you can do. I would try to at least make them 1 acre in size if you are allowed,.. as many as possible. You will never make 70 acres worth ,.. but you need to also calculate any pine/cedar stands that are natural secure areas. On my place,.. no matter how much i clear,. the cedar stands are the most used for secure cover. Another thing you can do is a TSI. Cutting down trees with little to no timber value. BUT,.. leave the treetops laying. The treetops, if laid down properly, will provide secure cover also. This practice seems to work better for concerned landowners, but helps the hunters also.

 

[RKenney]

I agree with BSK. The more pockets of cover you have the better.
I look at deer, like a giant rabbit. When a rabbit gets his
secure area invaded, he will move on to the next secure area.

Deer, especially mature deer, will not tolerate invation on
their comfort area. The more "spots" that they have to move to,
the better. This type of management has a double bladed sword
though. It makes it even harder to kill a mature deer, but it
makes for more mature deer.

 

[BSK]

I agree with BSK. The more pockets of cover you have the better.
I look at deer, like a giant rabbit. When a rabbit gets his
secure area invaded, he will move on to the next secure area.

Deer, especially mature deer, will not tolerate invation on
their comfort area. The more "spots" that they have to move to,
the better. This type of management has a double bladed sword
though. It makes it even harder to kill a mature deer, but it
makes for more mature deer.

Basically on the money. Although it is impossible to know for sure, I do believe multiple smaller pockets of cover allow more mature bucks to live in the same area by reducing social conflict between bucks.

But I question the concept of making them harder to kill, unless your talking about having one pocket of cover of a given size versus multiple pockets of the same size. Then, yes, more cover to hide in means hard to kill deer. But if you have one large section of cover versus mutiple small pockets of cover, the smaller pockets are actually easier to hunt because deer cannot live full-time in them. That's the one big problem of having one large, centrally located section of sanctuary cover--old bucks can live nearly full-time in that big sanctuary and not come out during daylight.

 

[Football Hunter]

very little cedar or pine cover,classic big woods,but we have had some very large trees fall,may try to enhance these areas by making them bigger

 

[BSK]

very little cedar or pine cover,classic big woods,but we have had some very large trees fall,may try to enhance these areas by making them bigger

Anything will help.

Considering how poor hardwood timber is selling right now, instead of commercial timbering, we are going to try and create some Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) cuts this winter. With a TSI cut, all "undesirable" trees are felled to produce growing room for "desirable" trees. The areas of felled timber also allow considerable regrowth to develop (deer food and cover). The only down side to this is we're going to have to fell all these trees ourselves. That's going to be a job and then some.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

If your allowed to cut trees then do some TSI and some hingecutting.

 

[CWT]

very little cedar or pine cover,classic big woods,but we have had some very large trees fall,may try to enhance these areas by making them bigger

Anything will help.

Considering how poor hardwood timber is selling right now, instead of commercial timbering, we are going to try and create some Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) cuts this winter. With a TSI cut, all "undesirable" trees are felled to produce growing room for "desirable" trees. The areas of felled timber also allow considerable regrowth to develop (deer food and cover). The only down side to this is we're going to have to fell all these trees ourselves. That's going to be a job and then some.

How big of an area would you consider big enough as far as tsi and are you hinge cutting as well and do you fell the trees where they fall togather? Thanks

 

[BSK]

CWT

At a minimum, I would try to TSI in one-acre patches (an acre is about 70 yards by 70 yards). Although when cover is really limited, I've seen older bucks "hide" in patches of cover less than 30 yards across.

Yes, smaller trees are hinge cut simply because "regrowth" from a hinge-cut tree is faster than from seedlings out of the ground.

And yes, felled trees are left in place. They can produce valuable habitat themselves.

 

[Jarred525]

very little cedar or pine cover,classic big woods,but we have had some very large trees fall,may try to enhance these areas by making them bigger

Anything will help.

Considering how poor hardwood timber is selling right now, instead of commercial timbering, we are going to try and create some Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) cuts this winter. With a TSI cut, all "undesirable" trees are felled to produce growing room for "desirable" trees. The areas of felled timber also allow considerable regrowth to develop (deer food and cover). The only down side to this is we're going to have to fell all these trees ourselves. That's going to be a job and then some.

Same boat as you BSK. Actually pondering logging some mature maple and walnut on our property and taking some of the funds and trying to find someone to pay to come in and lay down some of our undesirable trees.