Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Newbie, please help

bushman

bushman

New Member
OK, i'm new to the thought of managing a property for deer. My family has private land in west central MN and we've always just hunted it. As of late i have thought more and more about making the habitat more condusive to the deer population. I'll try and describe what i have to work with the best that i can. Like i said, i'm extremely new to managing ground for a deer population so i want to start with some baby steps.

The ground i want to work with is rolling prairie hills with wooded valleys and draws. There has always been a lot of sumac on the hills but now it seems to be taking over. It is thick and over 6 feet tall in a lot of places. Also, a lot of the wooded areas have become overgrown with buckthorne. we have tried cutting it to open up areas but it just seems to come back stronger. My thoughts are that the burckthorn and sumac should be cut back or eliminated (please correct me if i'm way off base here) what is the best way to accomplish this? I should also mention that this is a 100 acre area within the city limits that we need special permits to hunt. I don't know that burining would be feasable.

Thanks in advance for the ideas. I know some of you on here are very well versed in these issues.
 
I'm no expert but i know the deer around my area love sumac as a winter browse, it doesn't provide alot of cover though and i would think that a large expanse of it would not be the best in means of habitat. The sumac on my property primarily grows along the field edge and thus it is not something that i have ever worried about.
Buckthorn is nasty stuff and is highly invasive, you definitely don't want to just cut it down or it will come back ten fold from it's root system. I'm not certain what chemical treatment would be your best bet for control but i would think someone else with a little more experience will chime in.
 
I agree that sumac wouldn't be considered a "bad thing" unless you are going to replace it with something more productive?

I would check to see if it is possible to burn or not because you sure could do some good by using fire as a managment tool.

Sounds like you have the basics of some nice habitat but even the best habitat can be made better.

Divide up the open prairie habitat and the wooded areas into different "managment units" and start to look at how you can improve each of them.

Are food plots a possibilty or do you just want to improve your natural habitat?
 
Thanks for the responses. Like i said, this is all new to me so please bear with me if these questions are very elementry.

At this time food plots are possible, may not be in teh futre as we are looking at a conservation easment with the DNR. But that is just in the talking stages right now.

I have no problem with some sumac, there is just tons of the stuff. I'll see if i can get some pictures of the area sometime. Maybe that would help.

How do i kill buckthorne, obviously cutting it doesn't work.
 
Here's an site that tells some basics about it http://www.ipaw.org/invaders/buckthorn/index.htm

It's probably going to be a never ending battle but you may be able to reduce the amount of buckthorn anyway. One good thing that i've found about buckthorn is that it stays green into november.... I have one stand that would be impossible to access if it wasn't for the "green wall" of buckthorn that gives me a screened approach to my stand.,... sometimes you just have to find the good in a crappy situation /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif Keep the questions coming, there's a ton of knowledge to be found here.
 
It'd take some work but if you really want to get rid of all the undesirables, use Tordon on each one. Those species are relatively small so instead of cutting them down, you can take a hatchet or machete and hack a nice slice down one side of each tree, then I like to brush it on the exposed area. It'll travel through the exposed cambium to the roots and should do the trick. If you're going to plant crops/plots there in the near future though, be aware that it may leave residual in the soil, following it's travel to the root system, in the immediate area which can affect the ability to grow desirables in the near term.
 
I was reading on the black locust thread that Tordon is controlled. Do i need a special license or permit to have/use this stuff? How would i go about obtaining such a permit?
 
You would need a private applicators license. It is a 50 question test that is easy to pass if you have some experience and knowlegde of pesticides.
 
IDALS? Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship?

I took the test several years ago and thought it was s booger. I was ready for a test on how to set up and use sprayers, how to keep records, how to read lables, what PPE was needed for what and more technical questions. The only question I rememeber from that test was something about a female beetle of some kind flies to the top of the tallest corn stalk to attract mates, true or false? The test wasn't anything like I was expecting. They have study guides now thought that should help a lot. I did have a book from the state, that I think I had almost memoerized, but the test wasn't over the book. Your experience my vary.

There is also yearly continuing education you have to attend to keep the license current or you have to take the test again in three years.

The 'Bonker
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: bushman</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I was reading on the black locust thread that Tordon is controlled. Do i need a special license or permit to have/use this stuff? How would i go about obtaining such a permit? </div></div>

You don't need a license to buy and use Tordon RTU (ready to use), but you do for Tordon 22K. If you have a small project, RTU, though more expensive, might do the job for you without going to the trouble of getting the applicators license.
 
JNRBRONC,

That's what i was hoping for. Any one use rock salt or Garlon4 4 to 1 with Bark Oil on the stumps? Does this work as well?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom