WHAT 99% OF DEER HUNTING PROPERTIES LACK...
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ม.ค. 2024
- In this video I discuss how to add food throughout our entire property, not just where we have food plots. Mature timber is beautiful and serves many great purposes, but serves whitetail deer very little in cover or food. Opening up the sunlight to the forrest floor promotes new growth of diverse plants, forbs, and woody browse and gives cover to whitetail deer. In this video I show you 4 different habitats that I will be conducting TSI (Timber Stand Improvement) and FSI (Forestry Stand Improvement) to improve whitetail deer hunting and increase the time whitetail deer spend on my property in daylight hours. We will reach this using several methods including hinge cutting, felling trees, girdling, and herbicide.
I lease timber company land. Obviously we can't cut any trees and definitely no control burns.
One of the things I learned 2 decades ago was how important it was to hunt young pine plantations or pines that have been thinned. Sunlight hitting the ground is key.
Lance thanks for sharing your experience and insights! I have seen the same thing over time, find quality cover and find the mature bucks. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Lots of work but well worth it! Its always easier said than done though to get bucks to bed where we want. Not saying it cant be done just so many variables.
Agreed! I want to have more defined bedding areas on this farm but I’m also doing this for the habitat in general. I want to get those thickets how they use to be…big buck magnets. Thanks for watching and commenting
Wes, really GOOD INFORMATION,. It will really be great to follow the journey of your improvement. Bob
Bob thanks for the continued support! I’m excited about getting started! Thanks for watching and commenting
I tried timber stand improving a spot about the size of a basketball court a few years ago and it just about put me under. I'm in my early 70's. So that was enough of that. Since that time I start to allow some open field areas revert to native regen. This practice is working much better for me!!
If you have old fields you can turn over into early successional growth….thats an absolute killer plan for habitat and food! Definitely more ways than what I described in the video to get the deer more food and cover! Thanks for watching and commenting!
That is a good overview of the reason to manage for young forests. There are many other species that are helped as well such as grouse and rabbits. I will be interested to see the videos as you apply the techniques to each area shown in the video. Browse is key for the wintertime when our plots cannot produce the volume deer need to thrive.
My thoughts exactly, I don't want to save just oaks there is alot of benefits to other species, choosing is the difficult part.
Yes sir that’s exactly right, woody browse is largely overlooked by hunters as a valuable resource…but it’s very important to whitetails this time of the year. Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@tripleh8979choosing which is save and which to get rid of is a tricky part of the process. This farm has a good diversity of trees for wildlife….and in my experience, diversity is key in many aspects of whitetails food and woods. Thanks for watching and commenting
Great information as usual Wes!
I recently met with my forester and we have developed a plan to improve a bit over half my property. We will be creating a ton of browse and cover yet leaving about 50% of the mature trees in place. We will also be adding several fire lanes so the we can burn the newly, thinned sections on a 3 year rotation. Presently, the forester is working with logging crews to get the best price for the timber that is to be cut and for the logging crew to add the fire lanes as they move through the property that will be thinned.
One thing for other to consider if they have mature timber, especially pine timber; I have numerous trees throughout my property that are almost too large to cut for lumber! Some of these trees are in excess of 7 feet in diameter. So, if someone is considering TSI for their property they do not need to wait too long.
Thanks Nathan for adding that insight! I believe a lot of folks are nervous about starting a thinning program so they continue to wait and push that down the road. Great job on implementing the changes to the farm, often times we can simply log the mature timber gain $$$ and get the much needed regeneration we are all looking for. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Excellent video. Loved it.
Thanks I’m glad you enjoyed it! I really enjoyed making this one! Thanks for watching and commenting!
Great video Wes, very helpful. Browse value / stem count is very easy to overlook I know from experience! You can have great food plots but without browse and cover you won't hit the hunting potential of the property. I'm 2 years into creating cover/browse and the hunting has shown a huge improvement. Not only deer but small game, bear, bobcat and even an occasional moose use my place.
Mark, I 100% agree, foot plots are extremely important but like you said if that’s all your relying on and your not paying attention to the woods, your never going see the property full potential! I’m glad you’re seeing big benefits from your habitat improvement! Thanks for watching and commenting!
All mine is open /old timber , I've went in and have cut ( what I thought was a good brunch ) but it was never enough to get the under brush I wanted . Now I'm getting to old to do much .But plan to a little more this year too but without the burning .
Steve it’s a fine line to walk between cutting to much and not enough….given the benefits I’d rather go on the side of cutting to much as not enough. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Wow your woods are wide open..I would keep some of the healthy producing oaks and then provide cover with the rest. The new growth will provide food etc for the deer..
Yes sir they are absolutely wide open!!! Got a good bit of work ahead of me but that’s the fun of it for me! I love managing the land for its full potential! Thanks for watching and commenting!
You obviously have some chainsaw work ahead of you. I work every winter to improve my property and last year I noticed the benefits of all my work.
Great addition to your awesome food plotting videos. TSI is a crucial part of habitat management. Cant wait for the videos. Are you going to implement prescribed fire?
Joshua, at this point I’m not planning on using prescribed fire…that may change in the future but not in the plans right now. Thanks for watching and commenting
Thanks for another good video Wes. How do we contact you about a hunt with your outfit?
Thank you! You can email, call, or text…I am booked full for 2024. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Thanks first comment , but like didn't register
Will you do any control burns through those areas?
As of right now I don’t have any plans for burning. That may change in the future but not in my plans right now. Thanks for watching and commenting
I've done a couple TSI projects over the past 5-6 yrs and I'll offer a few thoughts on this popular topic. This is another one of those topics that the idea is promising but doesn't always deliver the results that people think they do. If deer are used to big open timber situations logging may compromise areas they are used to bedding in. I genuinely think those deer have adapted to visual advantage points and ease of travel. They in fact may avoid really thick areas with multiple laydowns and such. Secondly, just because you let sunlight in doesn't mean you are creating great habitat. Third some people claim that large cedar thickets are a "desert" type habitat that deer don't utilize and I have found the opposite on my piece. In fact you might notice a large amount of invasive plants and other browse they really don't utilize on projects.. Every farm is different and different variables to consider when carrying out a TSI plan. Not saying that there isn't a place for TSI projects I think we just need to temper our expectations and goals for how the deer might respond to the changes. And definitely be ready for some follow up projects within the new growth. Thanks for the content as always!
Hey Brandon, thanks for your thoughts and insights. I’ve got a good bit of history with this farm, in it’s glory days when those 3 thickets were legit solid thickets the hunting was a good bit better than what it has been the last several years. I do agree that we have to watch out for invasives and manage those should they pop up, and in some areas if they are already established, that area might not be a good Canidate for a tsi. I’m not planning on cutting the entire farm, I think it makes sense to leave a lot of areas unchanged. I agree that what might be right for one farm, is not necessarily what is needed for another farm, but in this immediate area, cover is lacking and as you can see in the video anytime I found a tree down, or the landscape got thicker, I found a lot of deer sign around those areas. I appreciate you watching and commenting!
Good video. You want to be careful when doing forestry work though. When you're dealing with even aged woodlots , you shouldn't be taking the big ones and leaving the small ones. The small trees aren't necessarily younger, most of the time they have inferior genetics or are made up of a more shade tolerant species composition.
Definitely saw that on this farm, several shade tolerant species were growing below the big timber. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Thanks for the video! We’re starting the same process on our west TN farm. Tons of similarities- did the same snow walk last week and it’s really telling! Are you going to just fell and leave or try to remove or trim up to reduce “tangle”? Any thoughts on hack n squirt?
Sorry…. Think you went over the details there at the end! Is a large project so we’re trying to decide which techniques to use. Luckily have the area forester and fire manager coming out later this week!
I’ve actually for a video coming out soon talking about hack and squirt and girdling trees….its really eye opening.
I’m excited to get this process kicked off and start improving the habitat on this farm. Thanks for watching and commenting
When you smoke that pole timber do you plan on clearing any kill plots?
Roy, as of right now I’m not…but I’m
Going to have some transitions from big timber into the newly regenerated thickets where I can target bucks working the edge and going to steer the deer towards the areas with the down trees. Thanks for watching and commenting
Do standing sycamores add anything to wildlife habitat, or is it better to drop them to open the canopy?
They are amazing at habitat for whitetails in younger stages…..when they get to the stage mine is now not so much. I am planning on cutting these and letting them grow back into the thicket that they use to be. Some of my very best spots are on the edges of sycamore thickets. The problem with sycamores is they typically are in fertile areas and they grow extremely fast, making it challenging to keep them in all early thicket stage.Thanks for watching and commenting.
They lack me Wes!!!
Hahaha true statement!!!
@@DIYfoodplotpro 😂
Sorry I’m not sure what your saying???
Sorry it did , youtube took awhile, like is thumbs up, deer don't travel through g every area , also if there is no little trees might b the deer eat them off as little trees, but deer do like cover to bed, umanage fir deer what about turkeys u hunt them I think they like open oaks,
@@dw6090I think a variety in the woods is key, some big open timber, some thickets, some in between, I certainly am not going to thicken the entire farm, going to focus on certain spots….but thicker cover is great for turkey nesting. This farm will still have plenty of big open timber. Thanks for watching and commenting!
When you come upon an area of low value trees and want to thin it and allow more sunlight, are you simply laying those trees down as they fall or are doing some girdling as well? Thanks, love your content!
@@DeerHunter1978 I’m going to be using a combination of felling them and some girdling and hack and squirt. I’ll have a bunch of videos coming out soon explaining why in certain areas. Thanks for watching and commenting
@@DIYfoodplotpro thanks man, much appreciated!