Hello everyone,
Been doing a lot of reading here the last few months, over this lovely Iowa winter. This is such a great resource and am glad I came across it! I live and hunt in eastern Iowa. I've been messing around with light habitat projects over the past 10+ years. My parents had some land, with horses and cows so my projects were limited and it was hard to see what worked and what didn't. My luck has turned though, I'm 9 months into owning my dream property and now the habitat bug has bit me hard. I look forward to hunting seasons, but seems like it is more just to see how some of the things I'm trying with habitat tweaks, how they're working and what I need to change for next year. It wasn't until doing more and more reading over the past year and picking minds of people much smarter than me, that I'm seeing how much more a property can benefit through work in the woods vs just food plots which were always my main focus. I'm having a forester go through the woods as step 1, hopefully have a write-up from him next week - dual purpose mission of making money trees grow faster to help pay for the place, but also hinge cut/get sunlight to the forest floor to add browse and cover. I'm more excited than any christmas I've had and can't wait to go through his plans! Anyways, thanks to everyone for contributing and sharing your knowledge. I'm hoping to soak it all up and shave years of mistakes off and save money/effort from fewer unproductive projects. Look forward to picking some great minds here and try contributing myself!
Been doing a lot of reading here the last few months, over this lovely Iowa winter. This is such a great resource and am glad I came across it! I live and hunt in eastern Iowa. I've been messing around with light habitat projects over the past 10+ years. My parents had some land, with horses and cows so my projects were limited and it was hard to see what worked and what didn't. My luck has turned though, I'm 9 months into owning my dream property and now the habitat bug has bit me hard. I look forward to hunting seasons, but seems like it is more just to see how some of the things I'm trying with habitat tweaks, how they're working and what I need to change for next year. It wasn't until doing more and more reading over the past year and picking minds of people much smarter than me, that I'm seeing how much more a property can benefit through work in the woods vs just food plots which were always my main focus. I'm having a forester go through the woods as step 1, hopefully have a write-up from him next week - dual purpose mission of making money trees grow faster to help pay for the place, but also hinge cut/get sunlight to the forest floor to add browse and cover. I'm more excited than any christmas I've had and can't wait to go through his plans! Anyways, thanks to everyone for contributing and sharing your knowledge. I'm hoping to soak it all up and shave years of mistakes off and save money/effort from fewer unproductive projects. Look forward to picking some great minds here and try contributing myself!
