What plans do you have for this year?

I have about three acres of pines that I am cutting in strategic spots. Took a little work convincing it works within my MFL plan, but finally got the green light. Have a little over a thousand trees to plant this spring. Also need to make my food plot a little bigger.

The logging in NW Wisconsin is off to a tough start- trying to get some black ash clearcut and some single tree selection complete this winter. Spring will be seeding logging roads and shooting lanes in last year's clear cut, seeding a few kill plots, I ordered 700 American Plums that will be here in spring and 400 white spruces for border edge planting. Summer is a wetland restoration project and oak scarification and cover crop planting for 2024 oak spring planting. I can't wait to get going!

I have pretty much given up on food plots and have had far better success building bedding areas. As always, I will plant 1,000 or more trees along with another 15-25 fruit trees. I have around 300 apple seeds to start this spring as well.

How do you build a bedding area?

I like lots of sunlight hitting the ground so I get lots of regeneration and woody browse. I also like to have a couple evergreen trees mixed in and something to provide some side cover.

I like to create a thicket that you can't even walk through. Hinge cut trees chest height, jack straw timber and the most important part is............stay out of it! Year round, never step foot in it! Not looking for antlers, mushrooms, nothing! I did it with the center of my property 20 years ago. All the does and fawns that would hit the food plots head for the bedding area at first light and know they are safe there. The bucks come cruising through this area every year.

Honestly, (at least for me) food plots attract deer the first and last 30 minutes of shooting time. Hunting the fringes of the bedding areas they are attractive all day long and I have shot SEVERAL good bucks from 11 am to 1400. After 22 years here I am all in on bedding areas and not going to compete with everyone on food plots.

Back when we had wild bobwhite quail and I hunted them after our deer season, I would find a few scrapes in January and February. Would a buck that has shed its antlers, still make a scrape?

Sounds like an interesting idea but I would at least have to go into it to eradicate invasives such as Buckthorn

I'm not familiar with jack straw timber

We did some clear cutting on our property- it'll probably make thickets like you're talking about

I use my property like crazy outside of season and that includes bedding areas. Pick mushrooms, ride four wheeler with kids, fish in the ponds, shed hunt, etc.

Come a month before season, I stay out of 80% of the property and do everything I can to make sure my scent blows to neighbors by hunting the edges. My hunting gets better as the season goes along, but I have good food for deer after the crops come off. The food anchors the movement of deer. I hunt bedding in morning and food at night. See deer at all different times during day.

Deer will use the vines all year long. Below is one from a few days ago. The buck I shot worked a scrape before I shot it on Dec 18th.

A coworker talked to Higgins and he wanted 10 grand just to consult so it comes down to what it's worth to you. Higgins lives within 100 miles of me one of his main secrets is switch grass on acres left alone to hold deer and yes the guy knows his stuff.

Here's who I recommend: Epic Whitetail Habitat

AJE, I have learned to just manage the buckthorn. I gave up on trying to eradicate. It does provide really thick understory cover in pines. I let the pines shade it out and just remove in pockets were I have gaps in pines and know I can get lots of sunlight to ground. You can see quite a bit behind me in the picture. I know this will give some heartburn, but there are places I wish I wouldn’t have removed it.

It does make things thick. What I wonder though is if a person has pines logged, how will that parcel grow trees if buckthorn takes over.

I pretty much just manage it too. I could be retired and still wouldn't be able to eradicate it, ha.

Nice buck by the way.

I will tell you in a few years. I am taking out about 3 acres worth of pines.

One section had poplar start to come with a little thinning so I am hoping it explodes even more when it gets clear cut. I have one section that I am pretty sure I will have to battle the buckthorn to get something else to come.

Do y’all burn?

No. Well, a few people burn but it's pretty much unheard of.

We want to burn a bunch but hard to get approval. And only small areas at once. Stupid

We just call in and get a burn permit. Only so many acres can be burned at a time, but we normally don’t hit the max with each section. We will even harrow up breaks in corn fields and burn off a section for dove hunting.
Burns at the right time can get rid of a bunch of undesirables and promote more native vegetation.
Not sure if ragweed grows up there, if it does I’d be planting 3-5ac ragweed fields for cover and food.

I understand the benefits of some burning but I don't think it would work in Wisconsin to make it a common practice. People would be starting too many neighbors properties on fire.