Bought my 120 acres of woods near Dale Hollow Lake in 2012. In 2013 I applied for Greenbelt and needed a forestry plan. The forester and his 2 teams of 3 guys each spent 3 days assessing my acreage FOR FREE. A couple of weeks later I received a comprehensive report of what I had on my property with specific recommendations based on what they saw. The focus was on timber and game management best practices. As a result I've now got my invasive tree species in check, have increased my food plot size from 3 1/4 acre plots to 7 plots ranging from 1/4 acre to 3/4 acres each. I've opened up the canopy around my existing persimmon trees, added some undergrowth areas, gotten some of my access road erosion eliminated, and planted 4 apple and pear trees in one of my plots. Since putting these practices in place I'm seeing more and larger deer and have no problem working turkeys on just about every hunt. 2 years ago I killed a 174 inch nontypical (180 inch gross) and missed a 154 inch typical last year that was taken later on an adjacent property. (In the previous 5 years I'd seen only 1 130 inch buck). I routinely see 2 to 3 large bucks in the course of a year on my cameras now. 5 years after the plan, I even received a call from the same guy asking if I had put into place any of the recommendations they had made and if I had seen any results. Can't speak highly enough of the work they did to set me up for success. Still tweaking the plan, but an extremely pleased.
