# Land management...Just another tool to think about.



## DCcam87 (Mar 4, 2013)

When I talk about land management, I am talking about managing your property to hold and sustain game animals. Being able to maintain a healthy population of multiple types of game animals could ultimately cut down on the amount of food being used that you have stored, or even the difference between life and death in SHTF situations. I am going to briefly break down what it takes to maintain a healthy population of three common game animals. These are, squirrel, rabbit, and deer.

Squirrel
Squirrels do best in deciduous forests and stands of mixed conifers and hardwoods, especially those with mature, nut-bearing trees. Populations vary with food abundance. When nut crops are good, mortality of young is low, and a high population survives through the winter. Poor mast crops may be accompanied by population declines through starvation or migration in search of food.
To improve your squirrel woods, encourage a variety of food-producers in addition to oaks and hickories, including elm, maple, walnut, mulberry, black cherry, wild plum, hawthorn, hackberry, Osage orange and wild grapes. Some plants bear when others fail or are out-of-season. Grow uneven age stands of timber to ensure having some trees coming into food production each year. Planting a few rows of corn at the woodland edge provides a supplemental food source during years of poor mast production. You also supplement natural foods with ears of hard corn provided at feeding stations throughout your woods.

Rabbit
Rabbits are extremely prolific, they will eat a wide variety of plants, and in general require little management. A stable population of about one rabbit per acre can be obtained by providing green food plants and plenty of cover, especially during the winter. Since the rabbit may spend most of its lifetime on one acre or less, it is not necessary to tie up large areas of land in rabbit management. Some management of odd field corners, unproductive crop land, and on idle land will do much to increase rabbit numbers.
Cover development falls into two major categories: vegetative and artificial. Vegetative cover includes natural thickets such as blackberry, honeysuckle, fallow areas, bicolor lespedeza, or any naturally growing thicket which is sufficiently thick to provide protection from foxes, hawks, owls, dogs and other predators. Artificial cover includes brush piles, rail fences, or piles of rock with drain tiles underneath for access. Adequate cover may also be provided by allowing little or unused areas such as stream banks, drainage ditches, fence rows, pond edges or edges of fields to revert back to natural vegetation. The areas usually provide long narrow strips of cover which can further be improved by planting food strips adjacent to them.
There should be at least one food patch for every two to five acres under rabbit management. Provide good food during the spring and any green succulent vegetation such as alfalfa, wheat, barley, ryegrass, winter peas, various annual grazing mixtures, and grain wasted during harvest will provide a supplemental winter food source. Regardless of the amount or type of food and/or cover provided for the rabbit, a diversity of interspersion of the types (food, cover, etc.) is the key to providing rabbits with the necessities of life.

Deer
Obviously, it's unrealistic to try to meet all of the habitat needs of your deer herd on only a handful of acres. Don't expect to be able to provide bedding areas, premium food sources, watering holes, protection from severe weather, and other important habitat characteristics on one small tract of land. It simply can't be done. You have to accept the fact that your local deer will probably never find everything they need on your property alone. However, once you understand that you cannot provide everything they need, you can begin to focus your management efforts on one or two specific resources that your land can offer the deer - things that will attract them and keep them coming back.
Think about the limiting factors for the deer herd in your area. A limiting factor is any resource deer utilize that is not common in your neck of the woods. It's usually limited in supply but always in demand by the deer. In dry regions, permanent water sources are often limiting factors. In an agricultural area where entire farms are devoted to row crops, thick cover for bedding and escaping severe weather and/or hunters might be the limiting factor. In many areas, a specific food source that deer crave but have a hard time finding can be a limiting factor. Do your best to identify one or two limiting factors that occur in your region that deer seek out. Spend time driving the roads around your land. Identify what types of habitat are available to the deer. More importantly, try to note the resources that are not available.

What's great about these three game animal? They all can be managed on small pieces of property with very little effort. There are two other game animals that I will mention but will not go into detail about because you need a large amount of property to maintain a healthy population of them. They are grouse and turkey. These two game animal would also be great additions to your land/property if you have a large enough piece.

The last and final thing I will mention, I promise it is the last is predators. Now that you are trying to maintain a healthy population of certain game animals, there will be a rise in predator population as well. Besides the predators affecting the game animal population, if you are raising chickens, ducks, or other livestock, there is a good chance that your livestock will be affected by predators being attracted to your property.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

I saw big bags of seed mix in the hunting section at Walmart recently marketed to providing food for deer.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

tsrwivey said:


> I saw big bags of seed mix in the hunting section at Walmart recently marketed to providing food for deer.


These forage seed blends also work well for rabbits and chickens if you raise them.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

We use a wildlife block ... one for the birds and the other for deer.

Love the pictures I get from the game cam.


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## DCcam87 (Mar 4, 2013)

It would be nice knowing that if you are to go out hunting, you are almost guaranteed to get something. Even if it is just a couple of squirrels.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

Grimm said:


> These forage seed blends also work well for rabbits and chickens if you raise them.


I'll keep an eye out for them on the clearance rack


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