Habitat Improvement Ideas.

GlockMan

GlockMan

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This past weekend my hunt club bought a 200 acre parcel of property in Eastern Ontario. It use to be (still is partially) a working farm, with the fields leased out to a local farmer. This past year he had corn in one field (roughly 100 acres) and the other one (about 50 acres) was left vacant.

The balance of the property is a woodlot - thick cedars, some hardwood and bush.

I would like to know what, if anything you guys would do to improve the habitat on the place. All of us are avid whitetail hunters. Deer are the only big game in the area, meaning no moose. There are suppose to be black bears but no one has seen one in years. There are turkeys, but we have yet to see any sign of them on the property.

Thanks
 
GlockMan said:
This past weekend my hunt club bought a 200 acre parcel of property in Eastern Ontario. It use to be (still is partially) a working farm, with the fields leased out to a local farmer. This past year he had corn in one field (roughly 100 acres) and the other one (about 50 acres) was left vacant.

The balance of the property is a woodlot - thick cedars, some hardwood and bush.

I would like to know what, if anything you guys would do to improve the habitat on the place. All of us are avid whitetail hunters. Deer are the only big game in the area, meaning no moose. There are suppose to be black bears but no one has seen one in years. There are turkeys, but we have yet to see any sign of them on the property.

Thanks
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Improving habitat and attracting deer may be two very different things. Certainly tame crops and such will provide more deer viewing/killing opportunities if that's what you want from the property but that's definitely not habitat improvement. Nothing wrong with doing that but habitat improvement typically means helping the property revert back to a more native state. Depending on where the property is and its proximity to water, adding a pond or two can really be a benefit to wildlife and to hunters as well.

Also, tame crops typically require more input costs and often need to be harvested and replanted annually. Maintaining a foodplot is a fair bit of work.
 
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There are a few things you can do right away to improve your property:

1. In the hardwood section, identify the mast producing trees. Oak, hickory, beech. And thin remove/thin out the undergrowth around those tress to reduce competition for sunlight and nutrients. Fertilize underneath the canopy of those specific trees to increase crop yield. Do this to ALL apple trees also.

2. In the thick cedars cut trails/paths that pass by a good stand location. Deer will follow the path of least resistance.

3. Like S.H. said, a small pond might be beneficial

4. If you are not going to rent out the land anymore... consider subdividing the 100 acres into smaller fields. Plant fast growing poplar in fence rows. 10-15 acre fields makes shots easier for gun/bow/BP

5. If you are still going to rent out the fields...see if you can influence what crop the farmer plants. Beans are always good. Ask if the farmer can leave a buffer strip of crops around the perimeter of the fields. It may cost you some $$$ to leave part of the crop standing...but nothing brings in deer better.

6. Make salt/mineral pits at various places around the property. 3-4 should be good

7. MOST IMPORTANT: DO NOT TRESPASS sings...put them everywhere. :D
 
I'd continue to rent out the 100ac for some income! The 50ac field maybe ask the farmer to put some corn and soybeans strips in (for a rent discount of course :D) which WILL NOT be combined in the fall. Let it stand all winter for food.

If you want to attract more turkeys, soybeans are the way to go.
 
Deer need two areas. Feeding and bedding.

Keep the farmer there, as he is supplying your food plots. Maybe he will work with you on what, when, etc to further enhance things.

A chainsaw is a deers best friend. And a water source is important.

It's gonna take you a few years to figure out how the deer live and move on your property.

Lots of books available as well as tons of info by way of Google.
 
A chainsaw is a deers best friend.
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Ummmm...definitely not everywhere. Cover both for safety and thermal cover is critical to their survival. Take that away and you take the deer away. Certainly in areas of heavy wooded cover opening some areas may benefit deer but not sure I'd call it their best friend. With only 50 acres of trees left on his property, I wouldn't be cutting anymore trees down.
 
A chainsaw can be a deer's best friend if applied right.

Any dense softwood stands should be managed for continuous, dense crown cover, this will provide areas for yards where there is much less snow and the temperatures are not as extreme in summer/winter.

If there is hardwood adjacent to the SW stands, it can be cut, either single tree or group selections, over many years. Cutting larger hardwoods in winter will put browse on the ground that would normally be out of reach, when the deer need it the most and hardwoods cut in the winter tend to sprout more vigorously in the spring because of the energy stored in the roots, providing browse for several years until it grows out of reach again.

I'd continue to rent the fields out, let em be farmed commercially and let the deer harvest whatever the farmer missed.
 
grinrgrn said:
Check out the QDMA Canada website for tons of info on WT biology,habitat improvement etc..They'll also be at the TO Sportsman show this March.

QDMA CANADA
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In addition to the Canadian website you may also wish to take a look at www.qdma.com.

Congratulations on your purchase! Now the real work begins. The QDMA can provide a lot of help and technical advice to you. Your club may wish to join the organization. Another idea for your consideration would be to start a cooperative.

A coop is simply an informal working group with the owners or hunting groups on neighbouring properties. The basic idea is that you try to agree to guidelines for harvesting deer and improving your collective habitat - ie no yearling bucks as an example or to concentrate on taking does. The MNR can be of help to you here by providing you an idea as to the buck-doe ratio in the area and suggestions. Knowing who else is hunting the area and harvesting deer allows you to get a more local idea as to the condition and size of the local population.

When it comes to habitat improvement there are a number of other suggestions you may wish to consider. The pruning, thinning and clearing idea from Beefman was an excellent one.

You may want to hire a forester to assess your 50 acres of woods with a view to a selective harvest or reforestation. He will give you excellent advice in this area, and if you want contact me via PM and I can provide some names for you. THe chainaw can be a good friend to deer, but it has to used wiseley. Give some consideration to where you want to place bush piles or tops etc in order to direct deer to travel in a certain way given prevailing wind conditions.

Also as suggested above you may want to think about creating a fringe area and a transition zone. This can be done by the planting of natural grasses. It will provide bedding areas for the deer and cover for turkeys and other wildlife. The planting of native warm season grasses (NWSG) will go a long way to re-establishing habitat. Contact the MNR or the Ministry of Agriculture and they can make recommendations based on your location in the province.

Personally I would allow the farming operation to continue and work with the farmer to help facilitate these changes. Give some consideration to paying him for the corn or whatever other crop he leaves standing for you, especially if it is well situated for a bow or shotgun stand. It helps him, it helps you and it helps the deer through the winter... 3-5 acres or so in a corner near a tree is always good. :) .

The creation of a pond is also a good idea, but also recognize that over 60% of all water for deer is acquired through their food. So unless the pond is well situated, (provides then easy entry and exit via cover) it may be a misuse of resources when other improvements to the land might bring about more immediate and positive results. This would be especially so if neighbouring properties have a water source in deep cover.

Hope this is helpful. I would highly recommend you join the QDMA. The magazine - Quality Whitetails- alone has terrific advice and the forums put you in contact with a wide range of certified professionals that are willing to share their knowledge.

We are starting a branch in the GTA, and if you are interested in joining, please send me a PM.
 
If there is no water on your property, you might consider digging or blasting a pond. Blasting is preferable because there is no berm created by the removed material, and no additional cost to remove the berm should that became necessary. Check your local regs first, if the pond has to be fenced it would sort of defeat the purpose.
 
Why not just cut to the chase and put out a big ol' bucket of bait? I've read that carrots and apples work well... Maybe you could pay the farmer to put the bait out for you.
 
Canadian Bush Wacker said:
For some reason the guys out west really like to shut down any threads like this, all it takes a few negtive comments, and it's kills the in put of others
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Yes I noticed that and it is unfortunate. We have some real issues in some areas of deer country, primarily, but not restricted to the east, and there is a need to share ideas and experiences on habitat rehabilitation etc to better manage this resource.
 
C Broad Arrow said:
Yes I noticed that and it is unfortunate. We have some real issues in some areas of deer country, primarily, but not restricted to the east, and there is a need to share ideas and experiences on habitat rehabilitation etc to better manage this resource.
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I've got no problem with people planting food plots where legal and using other methods to attract deer where legal but doing it under the guise of habitat improvement is a bit unpalatable........it's planting tame crops to attract deer....not habitat improvement.
 
sheephunter said:
I've got no problem with people planting food plots where legal and using other methods to attract deer where legal but doing it under the guise of habitat improvement is a bit unpalatable........it's planting tame crops to attract deer....not habitat improvement.
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IMHO You are correct...food plots, and crop production are not about "habitat improvement".
They are/have been a means of artificially boosting the carrying capacity of the land.
And giving deer hunters a better chance at success.

A monoculture is not habitat improvement, it is nutritional supplementation.
(not that there is anything wrong with that) :)
 
beefman said:
IMHO You are correct...food plots, and crop production are not about "habitat improvement".
They are/have been a means of artificially boosting the carrying capacity of the land.
And giving deer hunters a better chance at success.

A monoculture is not habitat improvement, it is nutritional supplementation.
(not that there is anything wrong with that) :)
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Hi all...

While I appreciate all of the input, I had no desire to turn this thread into a confrontation between east and west. :) We are all hunters and maybe we should learn to appreciate the differences in style and topography.

To give you an example, some of the guys I hunt with also hunt the rifle season using dogs. This is a traditional method that has been used for a very long time in Ontario and Quebec . Some hunters like the idea, other do not and therefore do not partake.

With the vast crops out west, low urban densities etc, you guys out west have some of the best deer in the world and many of them appear in the record book. Your deer are well fed and can avail themselves of a wide variety of foods and various supplements to their diets.

In the east it is a different story.

Urban densities are higher. More habitat has been destroyed through cultivation and logging over the past 200 years.

More people, more cars etc. Many more folks are surprisingly anti-hunter.
This generally results in more land being posted, thereby limiting the number of places one can hunt.

I do recall other suggestions being made here in this thread that do not involve "food plots".

Ponds, thinning of the underbrush, prunning of trees, reforrestation and the the planting of Native Warm Summer Grasses.

Now I am only a high-tech sort of guy, and do not work in the the "habitat restoration" business, but all these things sound to me like restoration and not remotely akin to food plots.

I have no doubt that I will plant some different types of foods. Clover being one of them. This is a native plant according to all of the aggy and MNR guys here. In fact there are over 300 species of "trefoil" native to North America, and according to the MNR one of the main sources of fodder for deer, moose and elk. So if it is a food plot...so be it. But it was likely plowed under when they planted the wheat , barley or corn.

So I may not be a purist, but I still see that as helping the deer regardless or whether it is habitiat improvement or a food plot.

Along with the other great suggestions, I know that it is likely that the property will support more wildlife than not.

So I want to thank everyone that contributed here. Again it was not my intent to pit hunter against hunter or east against west...it was simply to improve the property. And if a better bigger deer came out of the mix, then all the better for me and my camp.
 
GlockMan said:
Hi all...

While I appreciate all of the input, I had no desire to turn this thread into a confrontation between east and west. :) We are all hunters and maybe we should learn to appreciate the differences in style and topography.

To give you an example, some of the guys I hunt with also hunt the rifle season using dogs. This is a traditional method that has been used for a very long time in Ontario and Quebec . Some hunters like the idea, other do not and therefore do not partake.

With the vast crops out west, low urban densities etc, you guys out west have some of the best deer in the world and many of them appear in the record book. Your deer are well fed and can avail themselves of a wide variety of foods and various supplements to their diets.

In the east it is a different story.

Urban densities are higher. More habitat has been destroyed through cultivation and logging over the past 200 years.

More people, more cars etc. Many more folks are surprisingly anti-hunter.
This generally results in more land being posted, thereby limiting the number of places one can hunt.

I do recall other suggestions being made here in this thread that do not involve "food plots".

Ponds, thinning of the underbrush, prunning of trees, reforrestation and the the planting of Native Warm Summer Grasses.

Now I am only a high-tech sort of guy, and do not work in the the "habitat restoration" business, but all these things sound to me like restoration and not remotely akin to food plots.

I have no doubt that I will plant some different types of foods. Clover being one of them. This is a native plant according to all of the aggy and MNR guys here. In fact there are over 300 species of "trefoil" native to North America, and according to the MNR one of the main sources of fodder for deer, moose and elk. So if it is a food plot...so be it. But it was likely plowed under when they planted the wheat , barley or corn.

So I may not be a purist, but I still see that as helping the deer regardless or whether it is habitiat improvement or a food plot.

Along with the other great suggestions, I know that it is likely that the property will support more wildlife than not.

So I want to thank everyone that contributed here. Again it was not my intent to pit hunter against hunter or east against west...it was simply to improve the property. And if a better bigger deer came out of the mix, then all the better for me and my camp.
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It's definitely not pitting east against west or hunters against hunters IMHO....it's just a matter of calling things what they are. I too love hunting with dogs but I don't try to convince people that it's spot and stalk hunting just as planting tame crops is not habitat improvement. Providing a food source may benefit a few animals and it may be the ones that most interest you and if that's what you want from your property, go for it but in the bigger picture, tame crops are not habitat improvement. Maybe I'm a bit sensitive to the terminology because I work in this field daily.....
 
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