"Small Parcel Layout and Design, from a Habitat Consultant's Perspective" II

4. Balance in cover. Yes, just as a parcel can certainly have too little cover, it can have too much. So, what do you address first, food or cover? Well that depends on a host of factors, but the cover related activities that are needed on a southern WI ag land parcel could be a total waste of time on a northern MN remote wilderness parcel. Also, maybe existing cover dictates that other factors such as trail access creation and food sources could be a priority. For example, we have a few hidden, defined by topography and habitat bedding areas on my WI lease. If we spent our precious hours of activity creating or enhancing bedding cover, while negleting stand locations, access, and food sources, it wouldn't necessarily be a waste of time, but it would make our overall efforts less effective. We have to have food on that parcel, and we have to hunt smart and have many stand locations and access points. We can manage without the bedding area enhancement and have for 6 years now if you take a look at my website harvest photos, but we could lnot ive without our food soures and stand location variety and access.

5. Segregation of the sexes. Simply, the mature does rule the roost. Single bedding and feeding areas will be taken over by the female population with the 1 exception sometimes being that of cover starved ag regions. However, you can take the same bedding area size, same amount of food source acreage, and by allowing for seperation within your strategic property layout you can actually hold more deer, including more bucks. At the same time it forces mature bucks to move more between deer hotspots whether they be feeding or bedding, increasing your odds of harvest.

6. Hunter movements and activities. The bottom line....do the deer know they are being hunted? Do they hear you, do they smell you, do they see you? Let's face it, deer/human encounters add up over the season like the acne on a non-bathing greasy forehead of a teen age boy! Your welcome for the visual But, think clean access, clean property use, clean stand use and think where you can eliminate the potential for deer/human encounter, and then by the end of the season your property can still be fairly clean. That means screened access, non-human traveled food source locations, favorable wind access relative to food source and bedding areas for time of day and time of year, that means not spooking deer getting in and out of stands, and effective doe harvest timing.

7. Your doe herd. The #1 sign of a pressured property...a pressured doe herd. If the local doe herd only feeds on your parcel after dark it's probably due to one factor....you I mean that in the nicest of ways but if a doe herd can feed in someones backyard at all hours of the day while living out of 2 acres of cover surrounded by ag fields of incredible forage variety seen by deer only after dark...it can happen just the same on your 40 acre parcel, or 100, or 200. Meaning, you creat the scenerio of either the unpressured backyard deer herd or he daytime deerless ag fields that surround and you only need a few acres. However, destoy it once, destroy it twice..and it's often done for the season.

Maintain the doe family movements....maintain the integrity of the property and then at the appropriate time go in a harvest those does in a surgical strike of predictability and effeciency. Whenever I hear someone say they shoot every mature doe herd they see, you can bet they probably don't shoot enough, and their property is severely hindered for the quality potential of their property's holding ability, including mature bucks. Timed, infrequent surgical strikes are much more effective for many aspects compared to heavily pressured all-out efforts.

8. "Definitive Use" stand locations. Morning, evening, mid-day, early season, late season, pre-rut, rut, cold weather, warm weather, East wind, South wind, West wind, North wind....what are your stands, what is the optimum time to use and what conditions are most favorable? Which stands can be ruined for the best time of year by using too early...which ones can be used too late...can you use a stand "too late" in the season? These aspects of stand use have to be defined, and they have to be defined through experience...there is no field guide for your existing or potential stand locations. Yeah, some general ideas...but those general ideas can get you in trouble no different than picking a "great" food plot location purely by the quality of the soil.

Think of it this way in that my 70+ stand locations or "favorite trees" in 3 states public or private are defined enought that I'd trade 5 morning sits of my choice in the first 10 days of Nov. for the entire rest of the season. That also illustrates another point...you have to know your approximate % of success for the timing of the use of your stands. I honestly feel that some of the stands that have less than a 2% chance of success in most of Sept and Oct jump to a 25%+ chance to score on a mature buck during it's optimum condition so it's not necessarily just about why and when to use a stand....but how you prioritize that stand relative to all the other "perfect" stand positions to use at the same time.

Also, your various trails have to have defined use as to morning, evening, time of year, etc. and a large part of defining your tree stand usage is first defining your trail access.

Think of property layout and creation as choosing a spot to place a treestand. Do you just wander through the woods and place a stand in the best looking tree? Or do you place a treestand only after great care is considered for approach, wind direction, deer trails, habitat changes, thermals, neighbors, access, time of year, time of day, etc.? It's no different with bedding areas, food sources, access trails, and screening cover...it's always BEST location which may or may not be the best soil, or the best timber, or the best tree. "Take a look at your soil map and pick your food plot locations" is about as far as it gets from stategic property management and it can really get you in trouble and hinder your success. I'll be reminded of this as I plant several hundred conifer over the "perfect" 1/4 acre food plot on my property this spring Great growing plot, one of my best...TERRIBLE location because I might has well have put up a sign that said, "I travel through here local deer, come here to be continuosly scared by me as I enter or exit my property stand locations...come get to know me!" because that's exactly what that "perfect soil, perfect plot" does for me in that particular spot. Of course all things being equal...pick the best soil. On the other hand, some of my best plots are my worst soils, and worst locations on paper...westerly facing, dry, no top soil, well above the water table..they stink on paper but in the real world are the best and that is what you need to look for with your entire property layout.

It's 1 big giant puzzle and it's actually a lot of fun! There are some "typical" aspects, but I have yet to see a "cookie cutter" parcel. The concepts are still the same...how a property should be hunted and preserved (in fact I take the same hunting approach on public land too!), segregation of the sexes, balance in food and cover, priority of food and cover, access, screened approach, bedding, and food sources, and definitive use stand location...but the application of those tools is anything but cookie-cutter! There is so much to consider and really it can actually confuse the matter by using multiple sources of "educated" input. For example, ask yourself, is your forester really a hunting expert that will not only know what timber to cut, how, and why...but how it relates to overall strategic use of your property for holding and hunting a quality whitetail herd? What about a book on deer management from an author in another region....how does that relate to your property-and most importantly does it relate to your property? Hey, congratulatios you grew a GREAT food plot, but is it the best seed variety, in the best location, for you and your hunting efforts? Growing a great plot is only a small portion of the puzzle, in fact, just like a leaned back crooked tree can indeed be the best spot for a tree stand (and unfortunately often is), a poor "on paper" plot can indeed be the best for your situation. So much to consider and these angles have to have a mature buck hunting influence if mature buck are something you want or hope for.

The way to manage property....learn how to hunt mature bucks first in many different locations and regions, public, private, ag, wilderness, big woods ON YOUR OWN, and then manage your property with that hunting influence first...make sense?!? Shape your property to fit into the aspects of smart hunting tactics relative to your area and you will be on the right path but without that base it's nothing more than having a logger timber a 40 and then using the decking areas and access trails for food plots, and letting the bedding areas develop where they may. Ask yourself with every possible development...how does this fit into my property? Will this cause me to spook deer? Can I access this without spooking deer? Will this pull deer too far out side of security cover to be effective? How does this relate to my neighbors parcel, my neighbors habitat, my neigbors access and location? Will this be available "when" the deer need it the most and "where" the deer need it the most? Will I push deer to my neighbors by doing this? Will I collect deer from my neigbor by doing this? Am I taking too much from a priority of cover or food, to create more of a less of a priority of cover or food?