More and more landowners are wondering how to choose a wildlife consultant to make habitat improvements on their property. As a Consulting Forester, I have always considered wildlife habitat in my timber management activities. Even when the landowner is not interested in having wildlife habitat work done on the property, I made sure landings were planted, invasives were treated and some TSI, or timber stand improvement work was done. Logging always attracts deer so increased deer use was never a problem. In recent times, landowners are looking more a more into improving their property for attracting more game for hunting and viewing. They are seeking the advice of experienced individuals who have created better deer, turkey, grouse and other game habitat to get the benefit of their experience and expertise. Some of these individuals are Foresters, some wildlife biologists and the biggest guru out there is an ex-bank appraiser. Wildlife habitat consulting is definitely a growing industry.
How to Choose a Wildlife Consultant
In order to obtain the best advice for your wildlife habitat improvement, you should pick one who has done many of the practices you intend to do on your place. One who lives and has worked in your region for a long time. Find someone who understands the game you want to attract. There are theories in wildlife habitat and then there is practical experience and learning what works and what doesn’t in your region. This takes years of trial and error.
What is a Wildlife Consultant?
A wildlife consultant is a professional who provides private landowners – farmers, ranchers, recreational owners and landowners like non-profit conservation organizations and government entities who manage land for conservation and public benefit.
Training
A wildlife consultant can be a wildlife biologist, zoologist, forester or a self-educated and highly experienced person. My formal training, for instance is in wildlife management and forestry. My experience is mostly forestry and timber related, but since the 2008 crash in the timber market, I have focused more on the habitat improvement aspects of forestry and the restoration of damaged habitats.
Consultants who have a wildlife biology degree often go to work on their own instead of applying for jobs with government agencies. They are often highly trained in the nuts and bolts of landscape and ecosystem level wildlife population science and the health of the game in general. For instance, Game Commission biologists work on things like state-wide population estimates, diseases of game animals and how to slow their spread and habitat issues. Most wildlife biology degrees today have forestry requirements since the work of wildlife biologist involves forest management. In my case, I have a degree in both disciplines. When I studied wildlife back in the 70s, there was little forestry involved and more agriculture type training. So, I obtained my Masters Degree in Forestry.
Practical Experience
My practical experience came from trial and error with food plots, TSI, planting shrubs. Population dynamics, though interesting, really doesn’t apply in the case of small private landowners. One cannot influence wildlife populations or disease problems on a small tract of land. However, a landowner can easily and effectively influence game use of his land and attract and provide wildlife a place to thrive.
Sometimes, formal training gets in the way of practical applications of habitat work. When a biologist starts asking me what the fecundity rate is, the sex ratios, recruitment rates of deer on a 100-acre property I realize he is getting too far off into the weeds. These population dynamics concepts might be great to track on a landscape level but not on a small private property.
When I worked for a large land holding (by large, I mean 110,000 acres) I noticed that the only place deer showed up during hunting season was around harvest operations. I also noticed that we could plant log landings and skid trails with forage species very successfully in the deep woods, providing much-needed forage thus focusing deer movement in smaller areas. The large tracts were leased out to hunting clubs. The clubs that had logging on their lease all killed bucks while the lease holders with no logging were generally unsuccessful. This is when I started to realize we could influence deer use on smaller tracts of land.
So, then I started studying the food plot concepts and TSI, or timber stand improvement cutting concepts popular today and putting them into practice not by accident but on purpose. Back in the old days, deer were assumed to just find stuff to eat and places to live on their own and it didn’t matter what we did on the land. The overpopulation of deer back in the 70s gave people the impression that the land could support plenty of deer without our help. ‘The concept of planting crops just for deer and turkeys to eat was so foreign back then, people looked at me like I had a third eye when I brought it up.
Once I got started with converting non-productive land to food and cover and restoring native plants, I became obsessed with it and studied everything I could and used client properties for experimenting and learning labs. I continue to learn from experience.
In the past, landowners owned land for timber investment, farming and mining. Today, people own land for the purpose of managing it as a hunting tract and for outdoor recreation. The management focus has changed from making cash to improving the hunting potential of the property. Wildlife management consulting has evolved from this desire for landowners who own land for the purpose of benefiting white-tailed deer, wild turkey, bob-white quail, morning dove, and waterfowl habitat, along with numerous other non-game species.
Forestry practices that benefit new forest growth and regeneration of healthy future timber growth often mesh well with the goals of increasing quality wildlife habitat.
My forestry practice does quite a lot of regenerative work. In other words, we do a lot of restoration of quality young forests. Young forest habitat is the most productive in terms of wildlife, future timber and carbon sequestration, if you’re into that.
The Young Forest Initiative is something to look into if you like to provide for game as well as non-game species.
Why Hire a Wildlife Habitat Consultant?
A habitat consultant has the knowledge and experience of years of practice – trial and error, training, licensing that requires continuing education. Nobody knows everything but a pro can save you a lot of time, effort and money that can be wasted by novice landowners that are gung ho but have no plan. A consulting outfit like mine uses GIS software that the average Joe can’t afford to buy or learn. Has knowledge of plants, soils, ecosystems and wildlife habitat needs that the layman just doesnt have time to acquire.
The Plan
The main thing a consultant can do for you as the landowner is to prepare a well thought out written plan based on what your goals are, what you have to work with and how to get from where you are now to where you want to be going forward.
Plans can be anything from low tech colored pencil drawings to looking at a satellite image and drawing out a plan on a tablet computer to a GIS map with stands delineated and projects spelled out in detail with a time line and costs and where to get funding to get some of the work paid for.
A good plan is what you pay for initially with my consulting service. You then have the knowledge to go ahead DYI or I can do the work for you as a contractor. But without a Plan, you are a ship without a rudder.
I visit a lot of landowners who have been doing the popular things they see on TV and the internet. Much of the time, these efforts are not achieving the goal because they are not part of an overall plan and are not tied together. A good overall Plan will give you the whole picture and a realistic timeline of when things need to get done. The old adage “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail” holds true in the haitat improvement game.
How to Choose a Habitat Consultant
Stay Local
I would start by talking to consultants that live and work in your region. I listen to a lot of what others put out on the internet and I can tell you that much of what the guys from the Midwest are doing just wont work here in the PA mountains. I have some guys who I have great respect for say things that make me cringe. The challenges I face here in the Northeast are completely different from the Midwest or the southern states. The wildlife here has different needs and respond to different tactics.
Credentials
I would look for consultants who have some credentials. Not to be snobby but I have two college degrees and have a Certified Forester Credential as well as a QDMA Deer Steward credential. I am also a licensed herbicide applicator. Does that mean I know everything? No.
But when I do my taxes I go to a CPA, not H & R Block.
Experience
How long has the consultant been working on private lands? Is he or she knowlegeable about the government programs available and have a good relationship with the folks who control the purse strings? How many plans have they written ?
Price
There are wildlife consultants who have become minor celebrities. They charge exorbitant fees because they can get it. More power to them, but I am not a celeb and charge a working man’s price for services.
I often help people apply for government funding to help them get a Plan done and to help with expensive projects like herbicide applications, planting, fencing and TSI.
Hunting Success
I know wildlife biologists who don’t hunt. I make all my plans with hunting success in mind. One guy I know says to hire someone who has killed multiple Boone and Crockett bucks. Wait a minute. I don’t live in big buck country. If I lived in Kansas, I suppose I would have multiple big bucks on my wall. What I can tell you is that I have killed a lot of deer, some nice bucks, but I am mostly a meat hunter. If I have a client who lives in a big buck area, I can tell you that they do very well. If clients followed all of my instructions and did everything that was spelled out in the Plan, they would do a lot better. But, most don’t.
Values and goals
If you talk to a consultant for awhile and feel that they have values that jive with yours and he or she understands your goals you have for the property, you are on the right track. Watch out for consultants that are once size fits all types. If they promise you giant bucks using this or that technique or just food plots, you may not want to hire that guy…unless you only want food plots or hinge cutting or the like done. I have been on properties that have had expensive consultants come and do work that just doesn’t fit for that property. Every piece of land is unique and a custom plan is needed for each.
