Getting rid of undesirable vegetation can be an important aspect of improving whitetail habitat. And, believe it or not, in some cases this "chore" actually can be as fun as it is beneficial. In fact I've recently been involved in a couple of projects that proved it.
Dan Smith (left) of Mahindra USA shows landowner Phil Barnet (right) and Ron Sinfelt how to safely operate the Model 4530 4WD tractor.
Back in mid-August, I had a chance to participate in a prescribed burn of some deer land in western Illinois. The site was White Oak Hollow Farm, one of the oldest operations in Pike County. (The Metcalf family has owned and run it since 1835.) George Metcalf, my good friend who organized the burn, is the fifth generation in his family to work this ground.
In the early days of Pike County, there were no soybean or corn fields such as those now seen throughout western Illinois; it all was still grasslands and fingers of hardwoods. Among the trees populating those fingers were the stately white oaks for which this particular farm is named. In between the woods grew a lush carpet of native grasses, wildflowers and scattered shrubs. Blessed with fertile soil and a temperate climate, this part of the frontier was rich with promise, and settlers immediately began cashing in on that bounty.
Inevitably, with the introduction of agriculture came major changes to the prairie ecosystem. Cattle and row cropping gobbled up the grasslands; logging eliminated many of the largest oaks and other valuable trees. And so, even as America's breadbasket filled with farm products, it emptied of wildlife. First to go were the elk, bears and bison, followed quickly by the wild turkey and white-tailed deer. By the turn of the 20th century, all were either gone forever or fighting for survival in a changing land.
As we all know, through restocking and protection, the deer and turkeys have returned -- in such great numbers, in fact, that western Illinois is today considered one of the nation's top regions for hunting either. A century ago, farm families wondered if they'd ever see a return of native game; today, the descendants of those early families sometimes wonder how to cope with the crop damage being caused by sky-high wildlife populations. Now it's hard to imagine this land was ever short on game.
But along with the resurgence of deer and turkeys has come an increase in less welcome species. As George notes, back in the 1950s the federal government strongly encouraged the planting of multiflora rose around ponds, ostensibly to form a "living fence" of thorns to keep cattle from eroding the soil. The rose bushes achieved that goal, to a large extent, and didn't cause many problems -- but their descendants were another story. The seeds spread, and now large areas of Illinois and elsewhere in the Midwest are covered with pesky rose thickets.
And another non-native plant brought to the Midwest by well-intentioned federal officials has proved just as troublesome. In fact, sericea lespedeza might well be worse. A rapidly spreading, tough-as-nails perennial, it quickly transformed itself from exotic forage plant to exotic pest. Now large areas of it choke out virtually all native plants, and they spread with each passing year. Where once stood large sweeps of prairie you now find a sea of thigh-high lespedeza.
Several such patches can be found on White Oak Hollow Farm, and one of them was in George Metcalf's sights when I was there. Before my arrival, he'd already used a rotary cutter to chop down a ring around the lespedeza patch and had used a hay rake to roll up a windrow along its outer edge. He'd then disked up a strip of soil between the windrow and the adjacent prairie. Once the windrow had dried enough to burn well, the stage was set for a prescribed burn to eliminate, or at least beat back, the burgeoning lespedeza.
Because sericea is difficult to control with herbicides, George concluded that burning was the surest route to success. Normally this habitat-improvement method is used in late winter to early spring, but this particular plant is best controlled by fire at the flowering stage. In western Illinois, that occurs in August, which is when I happened to be in the area. George contacted local fire authorities about his plan, completed the necessary paperwork and recruited a couple of experienced local burn experts to assist with the job. My role was to photograph and help on the water sprayer if needed.
I'm glad to report the burn went like clockwork. First, the "firefighters" ignited the windrow on the downwind side of the burn area, removing fuel at an easily controlled pace. Once a narrow strip on that side of the patch had been consumed by fire, the guys used their drip torches to light a head fire on the upwind side of the burn area. Over the next several minutes, that line of flames marched across the lespedeza patch, finally burning itself out when it reached the strip already charred by the back fire. It was a textbook prescribed burn, and it appeared to remove virtually all of the sericea. All that remained was charred goldenrod stalks.
Done properly, as was the case at White Oak Hollow, a prescribed burn can be extremely beneficial to your deer-management efforts. But it's obviously not something to be done on a whim. If you're considering a burn on your land, start early with planning and be sure you get the right assistance from people who know what they're doing. And even then, you'll still need to wait for perfect environmental conditions. With most vegetation in most places, that will be in late winter.
Thanks to good planning and a well-trained crew, this Illinois burn of
sericea lespedeza proved safe and effective.
While prescribed burning is one way to get rid of unwanted vegetation, it's certainly not the only one. Recently, in Taylor County, Georgia, I observed another effective method in action. The site was a 60-acre tract owned by North American Whitetailad sales representative Phil Barnet. We're starting to use this property as a "laboratory" for deer-management techniques, and on this particular visit we got an education in the safe, effective use of some implements commonly used for developing, cultivating and maintaining food plots, as well as other important features of good whitetail habitat.
We were met at the property by Dan Smith of Mahindra USA (www.mahindrausa.com), which manufactures tractors and a number of implements. Dan was there to instruct us in the safe, effective use of the Mahindra 4530 4WD tractor, as well as one of the company's smaller disc harrows and rotary cutters.
If you grew up in the country, you know all too well that being careless around farm equipment is risky business. But these days, many people who own recreational land don't have rural backgrounds. That's why it's crucial to know how to use tractors and implements the right way -- not just to get the most benefit out of them, but as a safeguard against serious injury or even death.
Dan gave us some great advice on how to use the Mahindra equipment safely and effectively. Then Phil went to work with the rotary cutter, giving a "haircut" to a grassy pasture he wanted to convert to a good-sized food plot. The cutter made short work of that task and even proved fully capable of removing some small loblolly pines along the edges. It's amazing how much you can accomplish in a short time with the right tools -- and, judging from the smile on Phil's face, how much fun you can have doing it.
The landowner and his son, Evan, got their food plot limed and planted this past weekend. That might seem like a really late planting to some of you, but here in Georia we've learned not to plant fall plots too early. Late summer and early fall are among our driest times of the year, and false germination -- just enough moisture for a crop to sprout, but not enough for it to actually grow -- is a common problem. Because the soil here is still plenty warm for good growth on through October and even November in most years, we don't get in any big hurry to plant.
So if Phil now can just get enough rain on his new plot here in Georgia, and George can have similar luck in Illinois, they'll be in great shape for the prime part of hunting season. These landowners' vegetation removal is done for the year; now it's time to turn that job over to the deer!
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