Habitat improvement

How many of you try to improve your deer habitat (not Food plots) to hold your mature bucks on your property? I seem to be obsessed with building and securing my bedding areas and have had great results! I also feather all my field edges so i can’t see in and the deer can’t see out. I kind of wish there was a forum for info on improving whitetail habitat. I see so many properties that with a couple of days work would hold mature bucks year round. I was just wondering if I was the only one obsessed with this?

Great post… I dont think that this topic gets as much publicity as it should. It seems like there is plenty of easily accessible information out there about food plots, but habitat improvement sites always seem to come up vague or try to sell you a consulting service. This has been frustrating for me since my brother and I have recently acquired some river bottom land that we really want to do some serious work with. In the past, on other properties, we have planted bedding grasses utilizing honeysuckle rows or brush piles for escape routes, hinged trees, and planted visual barriers with annuals like sorghum or corn.
I would love to see a forum or large discussion on this subject. It would be great to hear what every one does and what their logic behind it is. For example what is “feather,” and how might I/You benefit better from that versus planting visual barriers. What might be the advantages of planting small pines in bedding grasses versus hinged trees, or at what point do you consider thinning stands of trees to evoke under-story growth ect ect ect….

Good post Bob, I think lots of people do not think about it other than food plots but deer need to feel secure and also need good browse. As you know in our area they have great security cover but there are parts of the woods that have virtually zero browse. I think some select cutting is needed to open up the canopy and let a little light in would be a good idea.

One of my properties to hunt was greatly improved with some select logging of walnuts that occured a few years ago. The deer now have great browse and feel secure during all times of the day to move about since the new growth in many areas has reached 4′-6′ tall. Sitting in a stand above it you can see pretty well but from the deers perspective its incredibly thick and seems to put them at ease when moving about.

I would be really interested in learning more about this also

New favorite thread, can’t wait to hear some suggestions about this. I am heading up this weekend and the next couple to get everything I can done before fishing opener and getting any closer to the season.

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New favorite thread, can’t wait to hear some suggestions about this. I am heading up this weekend and the next couple to get everything I can done before fishing opener and getting any closer to the season.

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Well it looks like there is some interest in this topic! I have many ideas and real world tests that i would like to share. I will try and do a post tonight on some of the basics that i have done to my property. I owned my property for 15 years before I started experimenting. and I very seldom saw a mature buck. Now I see mature bucks on a consistant basis. It’s very rewarding to Build a buck bed or a doe bedding area and then have them move in and take it over! Thanks for the positive responses!

I would definately be interested in learning more as well. Aside from some logging and cutting of shooting lanes…we do very little to our property. I look forward hearing/seeing what others are doing.

Excellent Topic!

What do you think of combining a Wildlife Habitat along with a Food Plot Forum? I realize that it’s two different topics but if you put them together it would hopefully draw enough support year round.

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Excellent Topic!

What do you think of combining a Wildlife Habitat along with a Food Plot Forum? I realize that it’s two different topics but if you put them together it would hopefully draw enough support year round.

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I think it would be a great idea! I plant about 18-20 acres of plots myself and have learned alot thru trial and error. I have in the last 5 years attended several classes on habitat improvement. I am sure that there are many members here that can give valuable input to all of us. I wish that I had this type of resource to help me thru the ups and downs that i went thru in the last 20+ years. Thanks, Bob

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Excellent Topic!

What do you think of combining a Wildlife Habitat along with a Food Plot Forum?

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Sounds fool proof

What I consider feathering can be anything from planting visual barriers to hinge cutting your smaller trees (I hinge cut all of my trees about48″ high) and with the use of a homemade hook i carefully lay the trees so that they will not only block the deer’s vision butt when properly placed you can control where the deer enter and exit the field. you can expect about 80% of the trees to live. this makes an excellent barrier and good browse for the deer. Think of it like this. if a buck can stand 100 yards back in the woods and check it for does why would he need to enter the food plot? on the other side of the coin when you are sneaking to your stand without a good barrier between you and the deer you are spooking many more deer than you ever thought. The deer tend to stage up just inside this barrier much earlier in the evening.As you all know the does will bed within 100 yards of the primary food source.The barrier when used properly will minimize your chance of spooking those deer bedded close to the food source. any input or other ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks, Bob

Now is a great time to look at the topo of your property and decide where you want your deer to bed. we know mature bucks won’t handle any pressure! that includes where they bed. they want out of the way areas where there is minimal doe activity. I look for these areas in the spring and will make there beds for them (small and secure) if the trees in that area are big enough i will drop one tree and then hinge cut and lay several other trees on top of the one i dropped. I am looking to make a small room about 4-5′ high inside. i will use parachute cord to pull small saplings down on top of these. rake that room out and you will have deer start to bed in it. doe bedding areas are much different in the fact that you need more room for the family group. Butt remember that 2 alpha does won’t share the same bedding area! they don’t need much seperation. just make good barriers between the doe bedding areas and they will bed within 50-100 yards of each other. its no different than watching 2 alpha does in a 5 acre clover field. they will usually keep their distance or will challenge each other.

Some great points about ‘blocking’ methods to control movement and visual barriers to manipulate staging behavior

Must say that I have never really heard of putting a cover (so to speak) over the bedding location so Im definately all ears for any thing more on that. Do you also position your bedding areas with the openings down wind? That meaning that the primary bulk of your cover and wind is at the deers back, that way it can see and escape down wind. Therefore on a property you would have several beds for varying wind directions. Seems to hold true but what are your guys experiences? Finally, we are considering our bedding areas on this river bottom (hills in an otherwise very flat landscape) how much consideration do you give the correlation between wind directed bedding areas and hill slopes, and what considerations or points do you try to make when creating these types of bedding areas.

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Some great points about ‘blocking’ methods to control movement and visual barriers to manipulate staging behavior

Must say that I have never really heard of putting a cover (so to speak) over the bedding location so Im definately all ears for any thing more on that. Do you also position your bedding areas with the openings down wind? That meaning that the primary bulk of your cover and wind is at the deers back, that way it can see and escape down wind. Therefore on a property you would have several beds for varying wind directions. Seems to hold true but what are your guys experiences? Finally, we are considering our bedding areas on this river bottom (hills in an otherwise very flat landscape) how much consideration do you give the correlation between wind directed bedding areas and hill slopes, and what considerations or points do you try to make when creating these types of bedding areas.

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As far as puting cover over the top of your beds. have you ever seen the picture of all of the bucks bedded under a trampoline? I like to use small flat spots on hill sides to create my buck beds with the opening facing downhill. you are very lucky to have riverbottom land! usually river bottoms will naturally hold more animals. If your river bottom is wooded build your beds on the inside corners of the bends in the river. Again done properly when you hingecut and tie live saplings to create your beds you will have a living well secluded area that will protect the animal from all of the elements. (remember a deer wants a fairly level area to bed on and that they won’t lay on anything much bigger than a pencil. thats why i rake my beds once a year)as far as wind I build as many beds as my property will allow and let them choose what ones they bed in depending on wind direction, food sources etc.

this is an example of what deer are looking for (security, protection from the elements, etc

Some great info in here! One thing to consider is that you can’t uncut a tree. I feel that it’s wise to put alot of time and thought into any potential property improvements before ever firing up the chain saw. The top consideration in my book is how am I going to hunt it. A perfectly constructed bedding area does more harm than good if you are bumping deer out of it via access to stands. Always consider you’re entry/exit routes and wind direction.

I only have 21 acres to work with but when I purchased it I looked at what the surrounding areas looked like/contained and I started working towards providing deer with what they didn’t have on neighboring farms. For me it was easy to see that the deer were lacking security cover, and in general unmolested safe bedding areas. My woods only makes up about 7 acres total but I am keeping it “deer friendly” by continually dropping trees that are forming canopy…essentially keeping my woods in early successional growth (blackberries, shrubs, and small saplings). The other big piece of the puzzle for my land was keeping the deer from knowing that I’m hunting them. I have three stands that work for me solely based on not educating deer. They aren’t located over the best funnels or the best sign, they are simply where I can get in and out clean. One sits 25 yards off the county road and has secure access due to cover which blocks any deers view, and I can use the road to access the stand, the other two are set up to utilize a 10′ drop in elevation that get’s me in and out clean. I planted 1000 conifers two years ago to further enhance my entry exit routes. This spring I have another 1000 white spruce/white pine coming to improve bedding cover and to hide my fields from the county road.

There are so many way’s to improve one’s property and I dont’ think that there are any cookie cutter methods. They all involve providing what the deer in YOUR area are lacking and getting creative to provide them with it, while ultimately keeping you’re hunting strategy in mind

This got pretty long winded but I love this topic and could probably babble on till the cows come home