Habitat thoughts?

[deadeye]

We have a few acres that butts up against some public land which doesn't have very easy access for hunting purposes. When we got the property we involved the district forester who made us a habitat improvement plan. Essentially he pointed out the invasive species to get after and even in what order. I got after oriental bittersweet first. After that I went after autumn olive pretty hard. I got rid of the largest clumps of barberry that I have ever seen. I got after multi-flora rose. I went after the largest of the bush honeysuckle and got after a lot of the smaller stuff too that I could hand pull. Between the derecho and losing some trees we have areas that have been more open to the canopy, however still probably isn't enough overall. It has been multiple years since I got after the invasives so hard. Now it seems like we are not getting anything to grow and replace the invasives. It was thick, and now it is much more open. You can really see a browse line. We had a fair amount of dogwoods and now that all the honeysuckle is gone I think the deer are rubbing and eating at them and killing them off too. I have a small clover plot going instead of mowing a backyard. The deer pound that and by early Oct it is browsed down to the ground.

So at this point I am pretty disappointed in my habitat improvement efforts. Listening to Bill Winke and other sources I am a bit torn. Would I be better off letting honeysuckle grow for some cover as that seems about the only thing that might survive the deer browse pressure? Should I keep after all the invasives I mentioned and hope to start to get some regeneration in a few more years? I am not sure my wife would let me get very aggressive to kill trees to open up more canopy.

Also next year I really want to add something to my ridgetop clover plots to try for a little more fall tonnage. Soil isn't great and it isn't super open exposed to a ton of sun. I have been contemplating hand seeding winter rye or something like Welter's buck forage oats. Any opinions on what might do better?

Any thoughts / opinions are greatly appreciated.
THANKS

 

[Sligh1]

We have a few acres that butts up against some public land which doesn't have very easy access for hunting purposes. When we got the property we involved the district forester who made us a habitat improvement plan. Essentially he pointed out the invasive species to get after and even in what order. I got after oriental bittersweet first. After that I went after autumn olive pretty hard. I got rid of the largest clumps of barberry that I have ever seen. I got after multi-flora rose. I went after the largest of the bush honeysuckle and got after a lot of the smaller stuff too that I could hand pull. Between the derecho and losing some trees we have areas that have been more open to the canopy, however still probably isn't enough overall. It has been multiple years since I got after the invasives so hard. Now it seems like we are not getting anything to grow and replace the invasives. It was thick, and now it is much more open. You can really see a browse line. We had a fair amount of dogwoods and now that all the honeysuckle is gone I think the deer are rubbing and eating at them and killing them off too. I have a small clover plot going instead of mowing a backyard. The deer pound that and by early Oct it is browsed down to the ground.

So at this point I am pretty disappointed in my habitat improvement efforts. Listening to Bill Winke and other sources I am a bit torn. Would I be better off letting honeysuckle grow for some cover as that seems about the only thing that might survive the deer browse pressure? Should I keep after all the invasives I mentioned and hope to start to get some regeneration in a few more years? I am not sure my wife would let me get very aggressive to kill trees to open up more canopy.

Also next year I really want to add something to my ridgetop clover plots to try for a little more fall tonnage. Soil isn't great and it isn't super open exposed to a ton of sun. I have been contemplating hand seeding winter rye or something like Welter's buck forage oats. Any opinions on what might do better?

Any thoughts / opinions are greatly appreciated.
THANKS

That’s a good bit to unpack…..
Few quick things…. If u do truly wipe out your invasives - ya, it’s going to really thin things. Bush honeysuckle is probably the best deer cover to thicken a forest….. but it clearly gets so out of hand - it’s hard to manage. One general idea is to thin areas a bit at a time so it doesn’t totally remove the understory for cover.
Now that you have….. it sounds like u don’t have enough open canopy up top. If this were mine- I’d open more canopy & encourage all the new growth that’s not invasive. You can interseed & plant shrubs & trees in there. Dogwoods do get hit by deer. Can protect them or try and bring in some that don’t get the pressure they do….. ninebark, high bush cranberry, wild plum, etc. I sure wouldn’t be afraid to open the canopy & even add some sporadic cedars.
If u top trees off- they should resprout into a “messy shrub”. Like a shingle oak for example. If u wanted visual/thermal cover… cut them about waste high or higher as comfy (to get out of deer eating range). Will sprout back into a shrub like mess. It’s pretty cool actually.
If it’s truly bare- u could do some sporadic hinge cutting of hickory, elm, hackberry, etc.

Can u snap some pics? I suspect the canopy is not open enough. If u can fire a few pics of forest floor & canopy + a list of your main tree species- would help a lot.

 

[150 Class]

My take on it is too many deer. Clover wiped out that early and a browse line too? This can make your efforts way more of a challenge.

Also, some like honeysuckles. Not me. I am always working on eradicating them.

 

[Stoney]

I’m in a similar predicament so this last spring I planted cedars, wild plums and red osier dogwoods.
If removing all of the autumn olive and honeysuckle leaves you a “park”, I can’t see where that benefits deer?
After deer season I would be firing up the chainsaw. I know mine will be getting a first class workout starting January 11th.

 

[deadeye]

We have a variety of oaks, a lot of hickories, and a fair amount of black cherry. Honestly I am not very good at identifying the different kinds of hickory. If I was I would probably hinge most of the pignut hickory and see what that would do for us. We do have a few stray red cedars and there are pockets of them on the public ground close to us. Our timber is in the forest reserve program so have to be careful about thinning too much too.

Too many deer and browse pressure is one of the reasons having issues getting new growth for sure.

Have planted a couple hundred of different shrub seedlings from the state forestry website. I may have 1 that has survived.

 

[MOBOWHUNTER]

Totally agreeing with @Sligh1. Sunlight needs to hit the soils! You can achieve this and make loads of cover all while adding food when deer need it the most by dropping less desirable trees and releasing any mast producers or good hardwoods. Tree ID is easy in today's world; they have apps that you can take a picture and it will tell you what it is. Or you can get a book and figure them out one by one. Then before long you know what trees are making up your timber.

 

[buck16on]

We have a few acres that butts up against some public land which doesn't have very easy access for hunting purposes. When we got the property we involved the district forester who made us a habitat improvement plan. Essentially he pointed out the invasive species to get after and even in what order. I got after oriental bittersweet first. After that I went after autumn olive pretty hard. I got rid of the largest clumps of barberry that I have ever seen. I got after multi-flora rose. I went after the largest of the bush honeysuckle and got after a lot of the smaller stuff too that I could hand pull. Between the derecho and losing some trees we have areas that have been more open to the canopy, however still probably isn't enough overall. It has been multiple years since I got after the invasives so hard. Now it seems like we are not getting anything to grow and replace the invasives. It was thick, and now it is much more open. You can really see a browse line. We had a fair amount of dogwoods and now that all the honeysuckle is gone I think the deer are rubbing and eating at them and killing them off too. I have a small clover plot going instead of mowing a backyard. The deer pound that and by early Oct it is browsed down to the ground.

So at this point I am pretty disappointed in my habitat improvement efforts. Listening to Bill Winke and other sources I am a bit torn. Would I be better off letting honeysuckle grow for some cover as that seems about the only thing that might survive the deer browse pressure? Should I keep after all the invasives I mentioned and hope to start to get some regeneration in a few more years? I am not sure my wife would let me get very aggressive to kill trees to open up more canopy.

Also next year I really want to add something to my ridgetop clover plots to try for a little more fall tonnage. Soil isn't great and it isn't super open exposed to a ton of sun. I have been contemplating hand seeding winter rye or something like Welter's buck forage oats. Any opinions on what might do better?

Any thoughts / opinions are greatly appreciated.
THANKS

Not all honeysuckle is bad and not all of it is nonnative. Some honey suckle species are eaten by deer. Identify what type of honey suckle you have and remove those that deer don't eat. You can google which types deer eat. Mr. Winke and others recommend eliminating all honeysuckle because of its aggressive nature to spread and overtake an area. If you remove something the deer are eating then you need to add another food source to replace it and that seems to me to be doubling the work and the costs. So, I lean towards leaving what they eat and only removing what they don't eat. My experience is that we all have limited time and money, so we need to be as efficient as possible with our time and money.