access trails Help

All. With the timber work going to start once hunting season is over, Im looking at access trails and different options. I already have a trail running through my property from ATV use before we purchased it. Is what im looking at now is how beneficial would it be to put in a parameter road and then screening. my property does have a weird shape with some wetlands, so there are probably spots that I can not do this. Im curious what you all have done and found to work/be beneficial.
 
When I bought both places, albeit years apart, the first thing I did was clearcut a perimeter around them. The first one, 25 years ago (where I live) was 30’. The other, about 11 years ago, was supposed to be 40’ but the loggers got carried away in places and it was 60’. I just didn’t mow the extra and let it grow up. If I had it to do over, I would skip over 20’/25’ and let the sun into that buffer, but I’d still clearcut a 30’ road. It would soon grow up really thick in that buffer where I live in East Texas. The easy and quick access is invaluable to me in order to access stands as well as for future TSI.
 
When I bought both places, albeit years apart, the first thing I did was clearcut a perimeter around them. The first one, 25 years ago (where I live) was 30’. The other, about 11 years ago, was supposed to be 40’ but the loggers got carried away in places and it was 60’. I just didn’t mow the extra and let it grow up. If I had it to do over, I would skip over 20’/25’ and let the sun into that buffer, but I’d still clearcut a 30’ road. It would soon grow up really thick in that buffer where I live in East Texas. The easy and quick access is invaluable to me in order to access stands as well as for future TSI.
So you would first leave a 20-25' buffer and then cut a road in?
 
If I had it to do over, yes. I think I’d be better satisfied with that. Easy access plus a good buffer. Win, win !
 
Just curious why you would desire a buffer between your road and your border vs. putting the road (your access) directly against your border. I've heard other suggest this.
 
I suppose you may put a perimeter road off the border so the neighbors don't use it and create more disturbance, or have the temptation to use it to access pieces of their property?? Plus a perimeter road will help with entry and exit for different winds.
I've had a lot of dozer work done over the last year and a half because my property is thick as pea soup after being timbered 6 or so years ago. If you need access to get equipment into then certainly go a little wider. I mainly needed access to get into places to hunt so I had my dozer man make the trails about a blade width, I think 8' -12' wide or so. Plenty enough wide to walk, atv, utv and the deer have made good use of them too. Just stay away from the bedding areas.
 
I've got a perimeter trail on my place. It's just wide enough to drive a vehicle down it once the annual cleaning is done. I love it. Enabled me to use the edges for access and preserve the center for bedding/staging. All my plot work is focused on the corners.

The buffer idea isn't a bad one. I wouldn't want my trail on the line if I ended up with a d*ck neighbor down the road.
 
I love the idea of a perimeter road, and I was going to do the same thing. But, I would have messed up the best bedding location on my property. Now, each property is different, but the way mine lays out, this bedding area on my perimeter is also non-huntable by anyone else. I left it as a sanctuary. It depends on what you have on your perimeter as to if it's best to make a road there or not.
 
IF I had a choice or an opportunity to do so on a place of my own.....I would prefer a perimeter trail with a good stout fence! From the outside in....it would be fence, road/trail, screen. Obviously like has been stated the lay of the land will dictate what you can and can't physically do. Cost come into play as well. Leaving the core of your property for the deer be feel secure I think is the best plan if you plan on actually holding more than does and young bucks. Sometimes however it just doesn't work that way and thus why it's important to understand the property and how the deer use it BEFORE you start making significant changes.
 
I’ve definitely considered repairing or adding fence to at least some boarders. I’m guessing it would be very expensive though. Maybe a future endeavor.


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Glad Prelude started this thread. I’m considering the same thing. I’d like to get a perimeter road around my property once I get it logged. I’m like j-bird, I think I would rather have a fence and a perimeter road, as it seems open trails have a way of attracting trespassers. I’ve also thought of having a fence on the line and a small road to maintain the boundary, and then a buffer and then my main road. That seems like it’s over complicating it, but I just worry that a long straight road would be a perfect poaching spot, even with a fence.

Anybody have some pictures of what they have in place?


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Glad Prelude started this thread. I’m considering the same thing. I’d like to get a perimeter road around my property once I get it logged. I’m like j-bird, I think I would rather have a fence and a perimeter road, as it seems open trails have a way of attracting trespassers. I’ve also thought of having a fence on the line and a small road to maintain the boundary, and then a buffer and then my main road. That seems like it’s over complicating it, but I just worry that a long straight road would be a perfect poaching spot, even with a fence.

Anybody have some pictures of what they have in place?


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I think that you have some good ideas for ready access along your perimeter and some kind of fence. I have miles of boundary lines and I don't have just one type of boundary, but many different border improvements to adapt to the conditions on that particular side, but one thing I always keep in mind is that if I have a thick inaccessible wilderness along one side of my property, I cannot get in there easily to see what's happening, and it will become a trespassers paradise. Because of this fact I always keep the principle of "thick in the middle, open along the edges" in focus as I'm developing a new property. I make food plots towards the middle, do hingecutting and other habitat work in swaths around the food plots, and as I get closer to the property line, I let things revert to open woods, with a patrol road close to the line. However, there's unique conditions where everything changes, such as along a public road where poachers would shoot into open woods, there I make it as thick as possible. Draw a map and consider all aspects carefully before making any changes to your existing conditions. Things like cutting a patrol road right through a known deer bedding area that hasn't had a problem with trespassing is a bad idea, kind of fixing a problem that didn't exist. Here's me patrolling my property lines;
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actually my son photoshopped a pic of me riding in Israel this summer
 
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I went with a central road system I only use for winter/spring habitat improvement that is driveable. I put curves in the driveway so you cant see far down it from the main road (pic below). Deer like to follow these "obvious" logging roads, hence the desire to keep these away from property lines. I still have perimeter hunting access, but they are narrow walking trails that are inconspicuous. The deer sometimes use these but not as much as the central roads.
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My idea of a buffer zone is to let it grow up with thick brush as it would naturally do when getting sun from both sides. In my part of the world it doesn’t take long for the vines and brush to take over if it’s left alone. There were no fences on my 217 acre place, and I surely was not going to spend the money necessary to build them when I had nothing to keep in and knowing that they wouldn’t keep poachers out. In my mind, the best protection from poachers is vigilance and the willingness to prosecute them.

On my home place I fenced two sides with hog wire because we have someone who likes to ride his four wheeler all over other folks’ property and there’s an oilfield road that runs just outside my North line. The fence deters the hogs somewhat and keeps the amateur poachers out :D It actually funnels the hogs to a few places where they are easier to shoot than if they could enter anywhere.

So.... the buffer (if I had left it) would keep eyeballs off my place, and the cleared area would let me scoot around it in my CanAm, my golf cart, or my pickup easily. I do have the road and it makes entering or leaving our stands with a favorable wind much easier too. I mow it once a year after the fawns are no longer bedded apart from their mothers just to keep the saplings killed out. I have interior roads too, but they only get used when I’m mowing or food plotting. I just wish I had left the buffer:(
 
I went with a central road system I only use for winter/spring habitat improvement that is driveable. I put curves in the driveway so you cant see far down it from the main road (pic below). Deer like to follow these "obvious" logging roads, hence the desire to keep these away from property lines. I still have perimeter hunting access, but they are narrow walking trails that are inconspicuous. The deer sometimes use these but not as much as the central roads.
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I do like the idea of managing just a walking size trail. I only have problems with neighbors in a couple locations and locally they are kind of dead areas for the deer and are the 1st on the list to get timbered.
 
My idea of a buffer zone is to let it grow up with thick brush as it would naturally do when getting sun from both sides. In my part of the world it doesn’t take long for the vines and brush to take over if it’s left alone. There were no fences on my 217 acre place, and I surely was not going to spend the money necessary to build them when I had nothing to keep in and knowing that they wouldn’t keep poachers out. In my mind, the best protection from poachers is vigilance and the willingness to prosecute them.

On my home place I fenced two sides with hog wire because we have someone who likes to ride his four wheeler all over other folks’ property and there’s an oilfield road that runs just outside my North line. The fence deters the hogs somewhat and keeps the amateur poachers out :D It actually funnels the hogs to a few places where they are easier to shoot than if they could enter anywhere.

So.... the buffer (if I had left it) would keep eyeballs off my place, and the cleared area would let me scoot around it in my CanAm, my golf cart, or my pickup easily. I do have the road and it makes entering or leaving our stands with a favorable wind much easier too. I mow it once a year after the fawns are no longer bedded apart from their mothers just to keep the saplings killed out. I have interior roads too, but they only get used when I’m mowing or food plotting. I just wish I had left the buffer:(

I’m starting to think that may be the way to go. I really don’t want a fence. To your point, it’s not going to keep anyone out and I really don’t want the cost and upkeep that comes along with it. My biggest worry was a cleared out road right on the line. But after thinking about it, I have one side of my property that has an extremely thick 50ft border, similar to your plan. I don’t have issues there, as it’s just too thick and thorny for someone to go through. You’d have to be real determined and you wouldn’t come out unscathed. The amount of muscadine vines alone would make a person give up quickly.

Still got to think through it some more, but I may just make a DR/brushcutter path down the line so that I can occasionally walk the line to check it and keep it posted and then cut my buffer strip a few feet in for about 30-50ft to make it thick. Then do the road like you suggest. That would eliminate the hassle/cost of a fence, shield the road, and make it a pain for someone to trespass, while I could still check the perimeter occasionally.

Thanks for the input, that really helps.




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We have a perimeter "road" cut along all of our property lines. It makes posting easy, provides access with minimal impact to the rest of your property and with a few trail cams tells you when there is a trespassing problem and provides a way to get deer out. Deer quickly learn that the perimeter road area is not a safe place to hang out.. My feeling of a 50 ft. buffer between your property and your perimeter road is that it wastes too much acreage that doesn't get hunted at least by you/me. About ten feet wide is just right.

The two things that I would do on a new property immediately are a perimeter "road" and releasing fruit and nut trees. I use italics on road as it only needs to be ATV, UTV and or tractor accessible for most of the year.
 
I have a 40 acre property that was 50% perimeter and 50% interior. Timber harvest was done last year leaving it a tangled mess. I change the road to 85% perimeter and 15% interior. Roads are winding from 0 to 50 feet from the line. No trespasser issues. The property is hilly and terrain was a factor. Cabin is at the north west corner. I can now walk the north line to the corner and traverse the east line. With a predominant westerly wind, I have seen way more deer than before and I can catch them unaware of my presence. Good luck with your road planning.
 
Prelude, I also have flat river bottom with some interspersed wetlands on my property. I got a delineation survey done right after closing last year and they told me as long as I was not removing stumps (ie using heavy equipment) I could go in and cut trees for trails, small food plots, etc. What I have done is take a chainsaw and a weed eater with a brush cutter blade and cut perimeter ATV sized trails (4ft wide) around 90% of my property. My plan is to get some good screening going between the trails and the interior of the woods, and in some spots I have already done that with hinge cuts as well as piled up branches and small flush cut trees. I will also be planting spruce and willow trees along some portions of the trails that are more open. Being a smaller property, I want my access to be solid so I can sneak to within 75 yards of deer without them knowing. FWIW... All of my stands are along the perimeter so they are typically just a few steps away from one of my trails and the rest of the property is left to the wildlife.

Here are some shots of what I did this past winter. The 1st and 2nd pics are spring and winter shots of the trails, the 3rd is me riding one of the previously cut trails on my way out, and the 4th is some hinge cutting along the interior side of the old road bed that I use to access part of the upper 20 acres. The last pic is what I used to do the majority of the work in taking down saplings and brush. This will be an ongoing process for me for a few years.

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