JGFLHunter

Just found out that my hunting club is getting heavily cleared/thinned before the season. At least 20 people and their spots will be effected. I just got done hanging and setting everything up. Now I have to find a way to get everything back down before they cut and clear. They will not hesitate to cut and destroy all the equipment. I'm very disappointed and frustrated. Especially when my feeders are 20-25ft high hanging from a tree and just filled them both up (300lbs of feed total). I know one spot I hunt is getting cleared. I'm hoping my other spot is just getting thinned but I doubt it. The only good things there are pockets of oaks which can't be cut that are in my spots. I'm really hoping they get in and get out. Maybe the season won't be ruined but I'm thinking its done for as far as deer. I believe the hogs will come back easier but that's not what I want to hunt the entire year and I hate this to be a waste of 1800 dollars. There still will be good timber around but nothing near me. When Generally clearing that much land how can it effect deer movement?

alleyyooper

My dad had our wood clear cut mid 1980's. I had hunted the area since I was a kid and was up set about it but to late to find another place. So opening day of fire arm deer season finds me in my stand. By noon I had filled both my tags with respectable deer. That afternoon I took my mom to my stand and she got a buck also GEES you could see a long ways and the 243's were perfect for those ranges.
Second day my brother filled both his tags from my blind although not in as short of time as mine.
All total for the season 6 bucks were taken from my blind and none less that a 6 point.
I don't mind clear cut hunting at all, doesn't seem to effect their escape routes one bit.


Al

JGFLHunter

The blue boundary is the hunt club. All the yellow is getting cut. The 2 spots I have are outlined in black. You can see the pockets I'm talking about for oaks. I am not able to move to other areas. The entire club is about 4300 acres.

Hatfield Hunter

I own 40 acres surrounded by over 20,000 acres of county owned land---was great hunting until county clear cut almost entire area, took out tremendous amounts of oak trees, the only mast crops in the area, after 10 years we have the rthickest meanest area to try to hunt in most places you can not shoot 20 yards with an arrow let alone see far enough for a rifle--yes deer like it but mostly they do not ,move they just browse very slowly no mast crops to hunt ( acorns ) I absolutely hate hunting the area now Best wishes

mrbb

I would wonder what the logic is to clear cut that much timber, are they planning to sell it in the near future to a developer??
I would be asking questions here?

that said
clear cutting can do both help and hurt things
can be a great time to start planting tree in areas you like for down the road, as it will give new planted tree's a much better shot at taking roots for you , less issues with shading and competing with other things

you can also, add fertilizer and lime, to areas you hunt and they will be preferred
so you can make your own sweet spots better
add in a few shooting houses now will be easier too, ansd you can start working shooting lanes in and then just UP keep them
I;'d be chatting with timber guys to ask them, to help clear some lanes for you too, a couple bucks in cash, will work 90% of the time and save you a lot of leg and back work LOl
as they will have HD equipment on site I gather, a dozer say, will make fast work for you here
you can also use them to make some small clearings for food plots, which will be Awesome for building about !!
as they say either adapt or go under when things like his happen
and also, build it and they will come??
clear cuts will grow back faster than you think too, and provide tons of cover and new browse for deer
remember, deer are browsers by nature, acorns are nice, but there NOT a food source all yr, browse is, and GOOD browse is all they need!

Topgun 3006

Who owns the land and who made the decision to clear cut all of those areas you show on your map? When does the cutting start and how long is it projected that the company will be doing the work? Will they be there all the way through all or part of the hunting season since that looks like a lot of work to get done and out unless it's a huge company with a lot of human and mechanical resources?

Champlain Islander

If the oaks remain the area cut will brush out and provide some good habitat down the road in 3 or 4 years. Mature trees normally shade out the forest floor removing any browse. Up here in the North some clear cutting improves the hunting. It will definitely change the deer patterns but funnels created between the cut areas will be gold mines for deer movement and ambushes.

MudderChuck

A buddies lease I used to hunt often, had the only timber on the lease clear cut. After a few years (now) the Deer are just passing through. Most of it has turned to thicket. Most of his lease was farmland. maybe twenty acres of woods. The Deer preferred to feed at the forest edge or at the most maybe a hundred yards from the trees.

The thing about thicket is it is usually made up of plants the Deer won't eat or it wouldn't grow that thick to begin with. Good cover but not really a feeding area. Thickets often grow to thick for Deer to move through them well. Good for small game, not really good cover for large ruminates. Hogs use it for cover.

The Deer did eat all of the replanted saplings.

Basically the hunting/management got a lot worse. Instead of choosing from maybe twenty Deer feeding at the forest edge, you have to settle for whatever is passing through. Now instead of harvesting Deer with the overall health of the herd in mind, you take what you can get.

What you have the first couple of years after the clear cut may be OK. Farther down the road, maybe not so good. The edible wild stuff growing after the cut may draw the Deer until it is depleted, then the other stuff takes over.

Bocajnala

I hunt allot of old clear cut stuff. It's thick and nasty and the deer are everywhere. it can be tricky finding a place to get a shot though. As for this year... It looks like there's plenty being left around it. So the deer aren't going anywhere. They'll be in there. But their movement patterns will change. If they're done cutting by season you'll still be able to get deer I think.
-Jake

JGFLHunter

It's a timber company called Rayonier. They do not care about hunters and are in it for the business. They will not tell us when they will start cutting. Usually they cut spring and summer and it usually isn't nearly as much cutting. The guy who runs the club was notified by the company with the map I posted. We have no control of what they do. It would have been nice if they already knew they were going to chop that much before the lease renewed. I think they will start cutting after the holiday, I'm not sure where they will start. They won't tell us anything. Last year they only had a couple machines. I guess it depends on how fast they want to harvest. The club is pretty easily to access and they could have multiple crews going at a time if they wanted. Usually they stop cutting just before the season starts. I know clear cuts are good but just that much is a little ridiculous. The only information I got is that pine and pulp is in high demand and that's why they are clearing this much.