Originally Posted by
Wingbone
I'm talking about pine plantations here. Rows upon rows of neatly spaced white or red pine trees, planted strictly for fiber production. No ground cover, just a thick layer of pine needles. You can see through to the other end of a 40 acre parcel. If you are finding mulies, blacktails, whitetails and elk in habitat like that, I'd be surprised.
Before the thin, it looked very similar to what you're describing. The only difference would be that they were not neatly spaced, it was THICK 20 year old pines! We've mainly hunted the hardwoods during deer season, but turkey season we hunt just about the whole property. I strategically placed the food plot I was talking about in the middle of the property to hopefully hold wildlife on the property more. Deer mainly use it at night because it's so open. My goal for the plot was not to necessarily use as a kill plot, but more as a feed and hold wildlife plot. A kill off of it here and there would be nice! LOL. We have never hunted thinned pines and with it being so thick before, it looked like a desert on the understory. I was hoping the thin would allow new growth to emerge giving the wildlife food, cover and nesting habitat. I didn't know whether to keep all lanes bushhogged, some lanes bushhogged or none at all. Just looking for ideas from people that have experience with hunting thinned pines.