I'm always looking for a diversity of shrubs and trees on my place that will feed wildlife and myself. Currently I have elderberry, chokecherry, Aronia berry, service berry, grey dogwood, hawthorn, viburnum, and snow berries. I have about 25 red maples and 4 birch. I have a diversity of conifers and a bunch of fruit trees. Anyone have any good recommendations of trees and shrubs to plant that you see benefit wildlife or have value to you.

Oak
Hackberry
Black Cherry

Need good nut production trees like oak and hickory

American Plum

X2

Domestic apples. I can look up the Latin name if you need it.

Chief River Nursery has a good 1.

Hazelnut & Honeyberry

Yes they do! I found another WI supplier that is far cheaper but I haven't seen the trees yet to speak to the quality but I ordered another 100 to try.

Plum, Crab apple, and Apple trees are the best. Wink Wink, add in some corn stocks near them! Then it is legal to hunt that area.

What are you going to do with Hawthorne? They're invasive, have massive thorns that have will make you swell and very sore if you're poked by them. I try to kill every one but they grow faster than I can cut and spray.

Planted about 30 apples and 10 pears a month ago and have 20 more apples coming. This is in and around oak hickory forest

Hazel nuts an chinkapin chestnuts.

hackberry should do well and they grow well also....plenty in the woods round here

I planted 4 in my shrub line. Maybe I should rethink them. They are washington hawthorn, I can replace with something else.

Anyone have luck with gambel oaks. The nrd sells them for this area and might pick some up

Persimmon for the wildlife, if they will grow there.

I hear people eat those as well.

I like the hazelnut and wild American plums, however here the last few years the plums haven’t done anything as the freeze when in bloom and they don’t have any fruit on them.

Just be careful with them when handling. You don't want to get poked. If you intend to use the berries, keep them. The birds with distribute the seeds far and wide. Otherwise get rid of them.

Are plums challenging to grow?

Plant thornless Hawthorne varieties!

Crabapples like Red splendor have persistent fruit that doesn’t drop. I had a Robin eating fruit at -20 yesterday. Cedar Wax wings hit the tree weeks ago.

Kerr apples for deer. Check out Blue Hill Nursery for apple trees for wildlife.

Very prolific here, grows thick almost like buckthorn if conditions are right, nice little trees, highly recommended.

North forty apples, in Michigan. Started taking orders on the 15th,might have some left.

Interesting website, thanks. I'd never heard of them. Too bad they require buying package/minimum quantities.

DO NOT PLANT CALLERY PEARS! Or whatever name the nursery's are using to fool folks. Crab apples make good people/wildlife feed and make good shelter. Always good to plant common local fruit/nut trees.

Pear and sawtooth oak.

pear tree

Wild plums, wild apples, domestic apples, crabapples, persimmons, pears, hazelnuts, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries.

Some probably like the way plums can root sprout and create thicker wildlife cover

Correct!
Pyrus calleryana, or the Callery pear, is a species of pear tree native to China and Vietnam, in the family Rosaceae. It is most commonly known for its cultivar 'Bradford' and its offensive odor, widely planted throughout the United States and increasingly regarded as an invasive species.

I don’t think this tree is sold in nurseries anymore.

Lots of good pear trees to plant.

Great post, thanks. I too am trying to learn more about wildlife shrubs. For whatever it's worth, here's the list of wildlife shrubs WisDNR sells. The forester told me all of these on the list work for deer. I should add that Amercan Plum was also on the list, but didn't fit in my screenshot

White cedar is great for deer.

I suppose it's hard to get them to grow without the deer eating them. I wonder how they do in the shade

I have never seen people eat crab apples, but have wondered how they would be.

What I can't seem to find, is if I cut down tag alders, can I plant white cedar with success?

Too early for me to declare success but I planted Alder shear #1 with red osier dogwood and Alder shear #2 with white cedar and balsam fir. I didn't select cedar for the browse content just thermal break eventually, the browse line is set at the highest snow fall year and on cedar is typically unreachable. My objective with #2 was to create buck bedding areas away from the doe groups that bed closer to the Aspen clear cut shown and food plot shown in corn this year. After shearing the Alder you'll see natural openings to dump in trees and shrubs that thrive in a moist habitat.

Are there any downsides to high bush cranberry & are they good to plant for deer?

I have planted a few and also have some growing wild. I have never seen the deer eat them but the grouse LOVE them and they hold berries fairly late into the winter.

I have them but not sure- as 160 said supposed to be grouse candy… I thought it was a member of the viburnum family

ttt... thx Eagleeye for the input...I'm hoping to be ontp something by cutting 1/4 acre of tag alder and replanting cedar for bedding areas..just don't know if the cedar will like that soil or not... there is 1 forester I do beaver control work for that could answer this, but I hate to bother him for free info..although I could possibly hire him for alder shearing? maybe

Wildlife shrubs are an interesting concept. I've planted tons of trees for decades but never a wildlife shrub

I'm ordering burr oaks, this spring, 50, of them.

Planted some around my house a few yrs ago. I forgot the name but the second winter snow hit and the deer ate them to nothing. the tracks told the story..no more shrubs

I can't take credit for this but tamarack is another good option, I was in here last week and won't be back in until next winter, it's a tamarack island with an elevation change of about 2' surrounded by alder shear #3. With the mild winter and no yarding, you can see some preferred seasonal bedding areas. Single beds and a series of rubs exiting the bedding gives some good insights. This winter is not conducive to shearing but I actually prefer to have my shearing done with a CAT vs, forestry mulcher on a Skid Steer- the CAT is just as effective and floats a larger footprint- I've done both and the results are the same. Cedar is a good choice and tamarack seems to perform better with longer periods of standing water. Good Luck.

Lots of great options. In Eastern Nebraska we don't have white cedars. I ordered a bunch last year and added them to my place. It'll be interesting how the turn out

Sounds good. The deer will like you.

I might try propagating some shrubs with cuttings. I've got a pretty good collection around here and have been researching it. I bought myself some rooting hormone that should be here in a week. I have access to a heated greenhouse so if I can get an early start. Might try plum, cedar, and chokecherry. I don't know how well they propagate but I guess I'll find out.

Supposedely red osier dogwood can be propogated from cuttings. My friend offered me some so I'll try it soon.

I ordered 50 white cedar but given how much deer supposedly like them, I'm not sure if I should plant them in a thicket or spread them over my 90 acres

I guess you can stick the dogwood straight into the ground with success. I've got a couple of them coming the spring

at the last place I lived (se WI) I planted 500 White Pine and 1500 Withe Cedar. I planted them in thickets on about 2 acre area. The deer never bothered either one. This was farm country so they had lots of other options I suppose.
The deer did like bedding in the cedars when they became large enough to completely shade the area.

I moved about 20 miles, planted some White pine there, the deer nipped the tops off of all of them. What deer will eat seems to change very dramatically even in a short distance.

I ordered some more White Oak to plant in openings in the woods, I will cage them due to deer tho.

Good choice w/ white oak D. I plant white oak acorns.

This year I ordered 50 bur oak seedlings to try.

With this odd weather, we might have to think about planting trees earlier this year. I guess it mostly depends on when the nurseries ship.

Last year when I planted my 1st tree of the year, a fruit tree, there was still snow on the ground.

1 exteme to the other.

I ordered 100 white cedar, and 100 red osier dogwood to plant ...he said april delivery, yellow river nursery by Marshfield

Cool. I have some of each of those coming too, for the 1st time ever, but from a different nursery. My land is barely more than 1 hour from Marshfield, but I am unaware of that nursery.

I wish WDNR sold wildlife shrub variety packages

This year I ordered trees from WDNR. They seemed more vigorous than trees from private nursery. Perhaps best was they arrived so early & the state keeps them refrigerated even in transit.

The other day I found something cool on my property. Serviceberries. I looked them up online and the DNR sells them as a wildlife shrub otherwise known as Juneberry. It looks neat, at least now when it is flowering.

Hopefully they worked well.
I bet many of you are working on your orders for Spring '25 delivery

My partner and I have close to 2000 tree seeds planted and will hopefully plant many more.

Keith

X2. I plant some every year.

I looked into, and won't rule it out, but he doesn't have a website that allows typical online ordering. I placed my order w/ Cadott, WI's Paint Creek Nursery.

this is the third year for about 150 trees, so they should be about 6-9 feet by end of summer 2025, that when you know your succeeded, I have been planting around 150 trees now for 3 years before that I would plant 50-100 trees,

Not under the original name, but, they're still out there!

They are taking over a good part of the scrub land by the highways in Columbus, Ohio. It appears they can out compete everything else in that area.

Keith

I agree, it's nice to plant some every year.

I have 250 apples of various varieties on the way that are 2-3 feet. I will buy another 10 locally that are 6-7 feet and should produce fruit next year if I can keep the mice away.

Who did you purchase the apple trees from? I want more too.

Keith

Red Osier dogwood is great for both birds and deer.

I ordered that and silky dogwood.

That's a lot of fruit trees.

Good luck.


I'm surprised my trees haven't arrived yet.

I had fun planting some wildlife shrubs this week. I should probably fence/tube them. I don't have much experience growing wildlife shrubs.