Whitetail habitat from scratch

[pamarcole]

After reading thru the "land prices" post, it's really got me thinking! If a person were to pick-up lets say 30 acres of bottom land that hasnt been farmed in a couple of years and is currently almost all tall grass and brush. I see that as opportunity to really create some great whitetail habitat! A food plot or two, a couple of thickets some hard woods along with some faster growing soft woods and maybe a pond. I think it would be hard work and great accomplishment to do this!
My question is this, I do beleive the state would help out in turning this into wildlife habitat? Does anyone know how to locate this information and has anyone reading this ever taken a small area and actually done this. I'd really like know if I'd be wasting my time, I'm guessing not!

 

[Hardwood11]

30 acres

Yes, I have. I have converted small parcels and larger. Currently working on a 45 acre farm, a bit at a time. If you were to buy a bottom ground farm, there is a lot of possibility. CRP being one of the options, if it had a crop history. If it does not have a crop history, and it borders a creek, stream, river, it may qualify for riparian buffer.

If I had a 30 acre parcel in Iowa that was bottom ground, I would strongly consider tilling up 10-15 acres and then doing habitat improvements on the remaining acreage. The crops/food plots will attract the deer. Bottom ground lends itself well to establishing trees or native grasses in a hurry.

Go for it, never believe the people that tell you that you need a huge parcel of land to shoot a big buck, simply not true. I've shot 3 P & Y bucks on my parcels which are 50, 44 and 40 acres, since 2004--in MN, which is not even comparable to Iowa for deer quality.

 

[dbltree]

After reading thru the "land prices" post, it's really got me thinking! If a person were to pick-up lets say 30 acres of bottom land that hasnt been farmed in a couple of years and is currently almost all tall grass and brush. I see that as opportunity to really create some great whitetail habitat! A food plot or two, a couple of thickets some hard woods along with some faster growing soft woods and maybe a pond. I think it would be hard work and great accomplishment to do this!
My question is this, I do beleive the state would help out in turning this into wildlife habitat? Does anyone know how to locate this information and has anyone reading this ever taken a small area and actually done this. I'd really like know if I'd be wasting my time, I'm guessing not!

There is all kinds of cost share to help with all kinds of habitat improvments!

Check out thread on Cost Share for more details!

Conservaton Cost Share Programs

With time, hard work and well thought out planning you can turn almost any piece of dirt into a wildlife mecca!

I turned 80 acres into a wildlife paradise full of tree plantings, NWSG and food plots almost all of which was paid for through cost share up to 75%....

 

[Nontypcl1]

I'm looking at doin something similar to this as well. I've got a 22 acre hayfield that the lease is up on next year and plan on developing it into some wildlife habitat. Haven't decided on what exactly I want to do yet but would like to leave 3acres or so for another food source on the property. The field is flat as could be and buts up to a lot of hardwood timber. I may looking for some advise and ideas in the near future.