"Chainsawing" a new sanctuary?
12-27-2007 | 01:54 PM
#11
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 338
Likes: 0
From: WI
RE: "Chainsawing" a new sanctuary?
If you're south of highway 10, I'd be worried about invasives when opening up a section of woods. Buckthorn, honeysuckle, and boxelder are real problems. If it's maples you're cutting, the regrowth should be really attractive to deer.
On your 2 year old cut with the knee high grass, I would bet that you're not looking closely enough. If that was woods, there should be woody growth coming back. If there's no woody regrowth present, It's possible that the deer are eating it down before it gets a chance.
The key to managing openings like this is knowing what to look for, how to identify plants. You can make a big difference just cutting by hand in the opening, selecting for the preferred plants.
On your 2 year old cut with the knee high grass, I would bet that you're not looking closely enough. If that was woods, there should be woody growth coming back. If there's no woody regrowth present, It's possible that the deer are eating it down before it gets a chance.
The key to managing openings like this is knowing what to look for, how to identify plants. You can make a big difference just cutting by hand in the opening, selecting for the preferred plants.
12-27-2007 | 07:18 PM
#12
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 321
Likes: 0
RE: "Chainsawing" a new sanctuary?
You have to have deer on your property to have deer on your property.
The best thing to do with it is to have a professional logging company come in and cut it all out. Maybe they could get you a couple of dollars for it for pulpwood if nothing else is of any value.
Have them cut it to the ground and throw it in the chipper and haul it away.
Then you could plant Christmas trees or make it into a food plot where you could plant Whitetail Clover or some other crop, which would attract the deer to your place.
Just letting it grow back into a brush pile is of no benefit to the wildlife. Sooner or later it will grow back and not be of any more use to you than what it is right now.
Most Christmas tree farmers that I know of complains of all the deer damage that they encounter from the bucks rubbing their antlers in the pine tree's.
The first couple of years, you can hunt rabbits and after that the deer will take over and when it matures - you can either sell the trees or let it grow and sell the timber.
They were selling Christmas trees on the lot the other day for $50 each!
Not bad for a $1 seedling and 15 years of trimming.
The best thing to do with it is to have a professional logging company come in and cut it all out. Maybe they could get you a couple of dollars for it for pulpwood if nothing else is of any value.
Have them cut it to the ground and throw it in the chipper and haul it away.
Then you could plant Christmas trees or make it into a food plot where you could plant Whitetail Clover or some other crop, which would attract the deer to your place.
Just letting it grow back into a brush pile is of no benefit to the wildlife. Sooner or later it will grow back and not be of any more use to you than what it is right now.
Most Christmas tree farmers that I know of complains of all the deer damage that they encounter from the bucks rubbing their antlers in the pine tree's.
The first couple of years, you can hunt rabbits and after that the deer will take over and when it matures - you can either sell the trees or let it grow and sell the timber.
They were selling Christmas trees on the lot the other day for $50 each!
Not bad for a $1 seedling and 15 years of trimming.
12-28-2007 | 12:36 PM
#13
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 338
Likes: 0
From: WI
RE: "Chainsawing" a new sanctuary?
[quote]ORIGINAL: Angry Beaver
Dan O. I tried logging off a couple acres and was really surprised that nothing happened afterwards. Nothing grew up but some knee high grass. The tops that were left kinda just rotted or fell down under their own weight and I was left with the weirdest looking section of woods you'll probably ever see. Needless to say there wasn't a lot of deer moving through the area during hunting hours. It is only in year 2 of the cut so maybe some benefits will be gained down the road.
As an experiment, you might try fencing off an "exclosure" in the logged area. The DNR does this to document deer damage in hayfields. Get about a 15' section of 4' "hogwire", make a cylinder, and stake it out in the middle of the cut, see what grows up in there. You might be surprised.
Dan O. I tried logging off a couple acres and was really surprised that nothing happened afterwards. Nothing grew up but some knee high grass. The tops that were left kinda just rotted or fell down under their own weight and I was left with the weirdest looking section of woods you'll probably ever see. Needless to say there wasn't a lot of deer moving through the area during hunting hours. It is only in year 2 of the cut so maybe some benefits will be gained down the road.
As an experiment, you might try fencing off an "exclosure" in the logged area. The DNR does this to document deer damage in hayfields. Get about a 15' section of 4' "hogwire", make a cylinder, and stake it out in the middle of the cut, see what grows up in there. You might be surprised.
