In my decades of working in the Forestry and Wildlife Habitat Consulting business, I have seen just about every mistake there is and continue to see the same mistakes over and over. So, I decided to write this blog article and hopefully, a few people will read it. If you are reading this, congratulations, because you are the elite of habitat aficionados. You seek to learn from my experience. I had to learn by trial and error and you are about to save yourself decades of poor results by reading this.
What are the Most Common Deer Habitat Mistakes People Make?
The most common mistakes are: mowing food plots, depending on oak acorns to provide for deer, high-grade timber harvesting, following fads and getting their information from Facebook groups and forums, assuming “weeds” other than food plot plants are bad, never managing the forage browse in the woods.
Mowing is a Waste of Time Most of the Time
I recently had a landowner ask how short he should mow his clover plot. I asked him why he thinks he needs to mow it. He acted like I was nuts ,”what do you mean why mow it, its what you do.” See that’s the dogma is that a clover plot should be mowed to look like a lawn and that will get fresh growth like your home lawn. Here’s the truth: unlike grass, which grows from the bottom up, clover and other forbs grow at their terminal stems, so the ends of the clover plants constantly put out new leaves. Deer eat the new growth and as they trim off the new growth, more leaves are produced. Deer will happily mow your clover plots. University of Tennessee research professor, Craig Harper did tests on clover plots for nutrient availability and found that, if you are taking samples from the parts deer eat, the leaves, then there is no difference between mowed and unmowed clover fields. The only reason to mow a clover plot is if noxious weeds are getting tall and about to go to seed. Letting thistle or foxtail grass, for instance go to seed, these prolific seeders will take over and crowd the clover out over time. A few lambs quarters, beggars lice, milkweed, pokeweed, 3-seeded mercury is good for wildlife and won’t hurt your clovers, but complement them. Most aggressive weeds can be spot-treated to kill just them or eliminated with an application of selective herbicide. Most grasses are not eaten by deer and should be sprayed with grass-selective herbicide. A good spray, overseed with mowing late in the season to keep weeds from going to seed is a good program for perennial clover plots.
Another big problem with mowing is the spread of weeds to other fields. Ever notice how the top of the mower deck collects seed like a combine? If you mow a weedy field then mow your clover plots you are planting weed seed.
Having some tall structure in your food plot makes it much better turkey habitat. Turkey poults need to be able to forage for bugs and not be seen by predators while they are doing it. Some height to your field helps provide canopy cover for little chicks. Tall forage fields often house fawns before they are walking around with their mothers. Ask any farmer who grows alfalfa how many fawns he has run through his haybine. You will be shocked.
Why Oaks are Not the Most Important Trees in Your Woods
Folks often tell me they don’t want to cut any white oaks in their timber sale since they provide the best, most preferred acorns. They also do a lot of planting of oaks on their land. While I commend their efforts and appreciate their concern for tree preservation, oaks are a very unreliable food source. White oaks, especially can go many years without producing acorns. Also, when the oaks are producing, its really hard to find a deer since they don’t have to go anywhere to find food.
Fertilizing Oaks Does Nothing to Increase Acorn Production
It stands to reason that fertilizer will help produce more acorns, right? Numerous studies have shown that fertilizing trees makes no difference in their growth or fruit production. The best thing to do with an oak stand is this: Thin it to even out the species mix of oaks and to release the crowns of the most prolific producers. Some species, and some individuals within that species, produce more acorns. Its not a bad idea to take a can of forestry paint in a good acorn year and paint an A on the best producing individuals. In my region, chestnut oaks are the best and most reliable producers, and once in a while, I find one that has really dumps a ton of acorns on the ground. When you do your harvest, save these as your seed trees. But, don’t waste time fertilizing them.
The Best Trees are Cut Stumps of Preferred Browse Species
The very best thing you can do to increase the food supply on your land is to harvest trees. And I don’t mean high-grade harvest!
I just came from a property that I had listed for sale. The landowner got an offer on his little 14 – 15 inch chestnut oak timber. Its gone. I picked up my sign and fired the client. (The place is overpriced anyway.) This type of high grade harvest is going to destroy all of the timber production in Pennsylvania on private land. Its rampant and there seems to be no stopping it. Sometimes it works out if there is good luck and they harvest during an acorn drop and there aren’t alot of ferns or stiltgrass or other invasives, but that’s rare. Most of the time it just creates a biological desert with nothing for wildlife.
If you want to create deer browse, cut read maple, black gum, poorly formed or suppressed oak, basswood, boxelder, sweet gum, birch. Your region may have other species that deer lover to eat.
Stump Sprouts are a Deer’s Favorite Food
Take a look at any harvested timber stand and you will seed that deer are eating the stump sprouts as fast as they grow out. Most hardwood species resprout when you cut them. Depending on the age of the tree and species they sometimes spout very prolifically. This growth of stems and leaves is very lush, nutritious and palatable. This “mineral stump technique” has become a fad since the MSU researchers measured the nutrient value of a stump sprout. Even trees that deer would not normally eat the leaves of are relished when they resprout. Here is a link to the MSU video on the subject.
As you can see, good timber management with wildlife habitat as a priority is necessary with food plots being a small, albeit important, part of the overall habitat picure.
Are all Weeds Bad?
What is a weed but an undesirable plant in your field. Most farmers don’t want anything growing in their field but the grain or hay crop they planted. But, did you know that most all of the plants farmers plant are not native to this part of the world? Corn is a genetic freak of a modified grass plant that was native to Mexico. Many of the other grains and forages we grow are from the Middle East and Eurasia. What did the deer eat before there were farms and food plots? What we now refer to as weeds. Native forbs, leaves of young trees, fruit from native shrubs, new growth of many species of low growing or young shrubs and trees, buds and nuts from oak, beech, chestnut, etc.
Point is, there are many native plants deer will eat. I have often grinned while watching deer foraging on some native plant growing in the field edge next to my expensively planted new food plot of wonderful forage.
Knowing what plants are foreign or native invasives, which are eaten by deer and which are not is a good subject to educate yourself on. What a guy can do is disc up an old field and spray it for grass when it comes back up. Then spot treat with your weed I.D. book in hand. All you really need do is look at what the deer have nipped off – if they eat it, don’t kill it. Eventually, you will have a native forage food plot made of plants that are easily reproducing on their own since they are native to your region and soil type. Seems like darn near anything that is new growth is highly palatable. Deer can sense when a plant has what they need as far as nutrients and they will eat a couple hundred different species of plant at one time or another.
Conclusion
What prompted me to write this article is that when I read stuff on the internet and see what people post on facebook groups, I realize that people want to go to these sources for quick, easy answers. While some are better than others, and there is something to be said for hearing other’s opinions and experiences, Facebook and Forums are really a waste overall.
There are plenty of great books written by people with a lot of experience and people who have spent their careers studying and learning and teaching about wildlife habitat management. There is no substitute for learning from professionals. Human nature and us being mostly men, we are DIY guys and we want to take a little advice and then dive in. You can save yourself a lot of failure by reading the work of people with credentials and then seeking advice from the pros. Once consulting session with a Management Plan is money well spent and will save you from really messing up your habitat projects.
If you read this article all the way to hear, you’re the type of client I want. So, give me a call at 814-360-4510 to discuss your habitat goals.
