I see browse damage from our local rabbits when I walk around in the Spring thru our woods. Not much around the house. Usually they browse on the thin brush branches near ground and snow contact areas.

No wildlife species responds quicker to good habitat management than rabbits.
A few hours with a chainsaw will add up to more rabbits fast.

I see it on undesirable species like devils walking stick in the cutovers. Nothing on any of the fruit or mast trees that I plant. I get a lot in my game plots munching on rye and brassicas, but that’s what they’re there for.

It will definitely help them out. The problem in my part of southern illinois is I can build the brush piles but there arent any rabbits around to benefit from them.

I have heard of people piling up 3 or 4 pallets and then building the brush pile over them. The pallets keep open spots in the middle for the rabbits and such to use.

I read somewhere that adding a salt block to the brush piles increases rabbit health thus bigger litters.

I hinge cut eastern red cedar high enough to keep stump growing. Keep attached leaves places for rabbits to hide.

YES, and it works, i put pallets out stacks of 4-5 and put tarpaper over the top and cover with brush or Christmas tree, i pick up the trees people throw out, last year I got 128b trees, not as many this year, to much snow,

Must be a northern thing. All I see when I see a brush pile is a snake haven!!

It’s for wintertime survival mostly. When the cover diminishes through the winter, brush piles allow rabbits to have shelter from rough weather and predators. Piles aren’t heavily used when the late spring through fall cover is still available to them, but when real winter comes they ensure that some rabbits can make it through for the next year’s seed.