What do you guys think about clear cuts to promote new thick undergrowth for the deer to stay in. Clear cut opposed to select cut. We are thinking of clear cutting a section of about 10 acres adjacent to our food plot and probably putting some additional food plots within the clear cut. We will also probably leave some standing cherry and oak trees within the food plot for some mast. However, these would be sparse. The rest even tops etc we would like to take to sell.

The recommendations that I' ve seen are for 2 to 5 acre clear cuts per 50 acres every 10 years. Other people recommend that you leave as much of the fallen timber in place as possible. Either way you' ll be returning a percentage of your woods back to a productive browse stage for the deer.

Dan O.

A clear cut will definately provide browse for the deer. Give it about 3 years and it will make a real nice bedding area also. Make sure you keep several atv trails going through the cutover close to a few large trees big enough for a stand. Once the clear cut gets 5 to 6 feet tall you would be amazed at the how many deer will use your atv trails.

Do it and then lime and fertilize. Leave some small trails to allow for fertilizing and limeing. The next thing to do is to stay out of these areas once the pressure starts hunting season. Do some spring/summer/fall and some fall/winter/early spring blends and a small field of perennial in the center of the clear cut. Also some vit/min licks.