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We started a massive undertaking trying to improve our land for wildlife . Last year we increased the size of our foodplots , and noticed it helped some but foodplots alone isn't enough .
This year we kicked into improving the woods by doing 2 large hinge cut areas and planting several soft mass trees such as pear , persimmon and will be adding plum this weekend .
Our hinge cut areas took out a lot of 4 to 8 inch trees and a few larger ones , leaving some of the healthier oaks to grow and produce acorns while creating large thickets for bedding and nesting areas , this will reduce timber production just a bit which is not my goal and the way oaks grow in the Ozarks i will be long gone before anything i cut would ever be marketable .
Our soft mass plantings should start showing results in 2 years on the plums and 3 to 5 on the pear with persimmons taking about 10 years ,,
Our next step will be adding a couple hundred pine for buck rubbing and green coverage as well as food , I have noticed deer do browse pine in late winter because of the lack of anything green in northern Sharp county in late winter .
One more thing we plan is to fertilize several white oaks in an effort to increase acorn production .
We are looking for Ideas on other improvement plans if anyone has any ,,We have tried controlled burns but without overhead canopy reduction it doesnt help much ;
Our habitat improvement plan so far as required more hard work than money .
This year we kicked into improving the woods by doing 2 large hinge cut areas and planting several soft mass trees such as pear , persimmon and will be adding plum this weekend .
Our hinge cut areas took out a lot of 4 to 8 inch trees and a few larger ones , leaving some of the healthier oaks to grow and produce acorns while creating large thickets for bedding and nesting areas , this will reduce timber production just a bit which is not my goal and the way oaks grow in the Ozarks i will be long gone before anything i cut would ever be marketable .
Our soft mass plantings should start showing results in 2 years on the plums and 3 to 5 on the pear with persimmons taking about 10 years ,,
Our next step will be adding a couple hundred pine for buck rubbing and green coverage as well as food , I have noticed deer do browse pine in late winter because of the lack of anything green in northern Sharp county in late winter .
One more thing we plan is to fertilize several white oaks in an effort to increase acorn production .
We are looking for Ideas on other improvement plans if anyone has any ,,We have tried controlled burns but without overhead canopy reduction it doesnt help much ;
Our habitat improvement plan so far as required more hard work than money .
