How to Design Your Forest for Deer

Whitetail Landscapes - Hunting & Habitat Management

In this podcast Tim Russell from Green Fire Forestry & Wildlife Services discusses how to attack and design your forest for deer. Understanding and recognizing the state of our forests and how to approach a forest stand with various tactics allows for an opportunity to meet our goals. One of those goals is increasing a variety of plants providing more forage for deer. Understanding the tree species that survive well in shade, intermediate shade or full sunlight explain much about the site and how trees have coevolved. Considering and establishing strategies to allow certain tree species to dominate our landscape through management and manipulation may allow for more vegetation for wildlife. Also, consider the resources on the landscapes based on the tree species, layout, and the features juxtaposed create options for those designing their hunting properties. As trees reach maturity and eventual die-off, which rarely happens nowadays, few gaps in the canopy occur and considering disturbances on the landscape are paramount to changing management units to allow for improvement in habitat for various species.

Jon Teater, Whitetail Landscapes, and Tim consider the status of the landscape across many properties and what tactics they are using afield to promote both even (one distinct tree age class) and uneven aged stands (several tree age classes) on the properties they are working with. Both contributors discuss how to avoid mistakes of cutting certain trees hurting your landscape and creating more options to maximize value on the property. Evaluating the trees, volume and quality, and recognizing that landowners should do something to achieve goals. The contributors consider the most popular options for forest stands: don’t do anything, forest stand improvement, temporary opening, regeneration cuttings.

Tim and Jon discuss specific examples and techniques for working with oak and aspen stands. How to coppice trees and example layouts that allow landowners the option to help wildlife flourish on the landscape. Tim and Jon evaluate various prescriptions that lead landowners down the path of finding success and in some cases making money all at the same time. Both contributors suggest that keeping the forest stand in a state of production, controlling invasive species, and thinking about how to balance long and short-term financial returns will be a weighted decision on the landowner. The podcast ends with a good example of how to take a prescription and apply it to ensure that you can rehabilitate the property for wildlife, particularly for deer.

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