Recently Thinned Pines
 

Hey guys, the pine stand on my property is in the process of being thinned. I have 100 acre tract with 45-50 acres of pines and the rest in a hardwoods bottom. The loggers and I agreed on a 65-75 basil area thin. This is the first thinning the property has seen and I am curious as to how it will affect deer and turkey hunting for the upcoming years. Also, any tips for hunting the thinned pines and managing the habitat for deer and turkey would be greatly appreciated.

The thinner timber will cause deer to adjust their activity. They don't like exposure and will move through the thickest cover they can. Watch for new trails being developed as they go around the open areas. Don't bother spending too much time in the pines. They don't offer deer much cover or food. You can capitalize on their adjusted activity by moving stands to where the new trails appear.

Actually pines offer deer thermal cover, the temperature inside a stand of pines can be significantly warmer that outside them. The property I hunt has a large stand of pined which once were part of a Christmas tree farm, the rest of the property is fields used for grass hay and lots of hardwood, oak, hickory maple etc., wooded areas. There is never a time that you walk through those pines that you do not move a good number of deer even in good weather. Do not overlook the pine plantation area as a place to find deer.

Now that it's been thinned, it'll thicken up quickly.

And when it does the deer will use it. Find the trails they're using to come and go and hunt the edges where they're traveling.

-Jake

The topography of the pine stand is hilly, with ridges running all through the pines dropping off into a bottom where the hardwoods start. The loggers have made 2 loading decks with 1 being right by a 2 acre food plot I have. By that loading deck, they have cut 4 lanes, I guess because that was how the ridges ran and the only thinning option due to topography. I was thinking about putting a shoot house on the loading deck location overlooking the food plot and the 4 cut lanes. What would you guys do? Plant food plots in the lanes? Bushhog the lanes? Let the lanes grow up? It's also worth noting I have 40-50 of fruit trees and hard mast producing trees I am wanting to plant on the property now that I have the room. Any advice on planting locations would be helpful!

well , first off, your not going to want to plant your fruit tree's near any pine trees, they won't do very well, most pimes can give off a toxin in there roots that can stop other trees from growing near them andnmkost pines like lower PH soils
where fruit tree;'s tend to like higher PH level and more nutrient rich soils
PLUS< fruit tree's need lots of light to do well
and well, pine tree's make a lot more shade,
so when ever planting fruit tree's try and pick places with good soil and good sun light, ALL yr round,

think about green up and future tree's growing taller wider and shading things

this is why you see orchards in open places, no other tree's really about, and all about same height!

now as for the logging roads, I would keep them open, you can TRY and plant something in them and then maintain them, but like most food plots on logging roads, if there is a lot of shade, over them after green up happens, sooner or later they die out and weeds take over or nothing grows well on them, due to lack of sunlight



BUT they will make good shooting lanes, so I would try to plant and just see what happens

you an always trim back the road sides to help get better sun light on things,, in a few places to have more attraction and steer deer where you want them!

pine needles are also, something that doesn;'t help soil very well, for growing things, so if the ground has lots of pine needles on it, your going to need a bunch of lime and fertilizer to make things grow well
so soil test will be your friend before doing any planting, and if the logging roads are good enough, bulk liming will be your best way to get lime down at a cheapest price possible!

Gonna have to ask you to explain all the deer I have killed in and around pines over the years. I've shot mulies, blacktails, whitetails and elk in pines. How can that be?

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.

Perhaps you should have asked questions before you made a very incorrect pronouncement! In fact the OP described the property and it was nothing like you based your incorrect response on. You must have missed this part of the OP!

Sorry, You're right. I took his description literally.

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.

Recently Thinne Pines
 

I hunt on a 300 hundred acre pine plantation, that started about 25 years ago. It gets spot burned between rows every 3 or 4 years and this does
two things: gets rid of competing plant growth interfering with trees and creates new green/grass growth birds and deer like. The burns need to
be done by someone who knows what they're doing. One year the owners sons and nephews let the fire get out of hand and it damaged some
pines and hardwoods. Contrary to popular believe, keeping it fairly clean between rows seems to attract deer and turkeys. They use the rows
for bedding and sort of as a highway to get to water and food. He thins the trees about every 6 to 8 years.
He does another thing that is very good by leaving a wide (about 100 yards) row between the pine fields and plants this
in rye, winter wheat, cover, etc.. This gives me the opportunity to set up on the edge of the pines where the trees meet these
open fields and this is where I see most of the der and turkeys.

I would keep the logging roads open, even it is just running at atv up and down them early in the season and again a month or so before hunting season. By doing this, the deer will use them and it gives you a clear trail to walk once the undergrowth comes in. We have kept several open on our property (although hardwoods) for 20 yrs or so now and the deer still use them as corridors and a few are strut zones for turkey. Also makes it easier to haul out deer.