It's impossible to have a crystal ball to see the future of wildlife and habitat in a given area.
Here's a bit of how history has gone on my place. Bear with me, it eventually talks about hinge cutting.
I bought my 1st 20 acres in 1986. It was basically 75% hay fields and 25% mature hickory and black walnut with a few oaks, ash, and black cherry mixed in. There were some wild apples, too, but not many. The property had lots of edge, but it was mostly a hard edge. Thick cover existed on adjacent properties, but mine was not very thick.
The DPSM was probably more appropriate than it is now. IMO, we have too many now.
Then I started hearing about the wonders of Imperial clover, QDMA, the old forum, etc. I toured the Dougherty property, too. One thing kinda led to the next. Eventually I was jumping in with both feet. One very important aspect of why I chose how I was proceeding...I had no idea what the future held for the surrounding properties (all small acreages) so I was determined to make my small postage stamp as attractive to deer as I could make it. I wanted to increase my cover while maximizing food. If the surrounding property ever became developed, or off limits for me to hunt, I wanted to insure I would have my own little corner of paradise. We moved to our property to escape from a fast developing suburbia so I saw 1st hand how quickly the property ownership, development, and hunt able habitat and permission can vanish.
So I started developing cover around 1990 by just not keeping the hayfields mowed. Native stuff popped up and I was creating nice cover,
lots more edge and tons of food. In order to maintain the substantial, feathered edge that I created, I started hinge cutting trees that were trying to advance into 2nd growth stage. I did not want to lose that early succession growth to a maturing forest.
Fast forward to the present day. We've expanded to 31 acres and the surrounding properties have not been developed and appear to be stable in ownership. The ash trees are all dead. The amount of sun within what used to be shade is now substantial.
And my property has become a frickin mess. I do have great cover, 4 or 5 acres of plots, a few dozen soft and hard mast trees plus raspberry, etc. We have a ton of deer and a slew of turkeys.
Oh, but the invasives!! They are exploding within my nice cover that I created and maintained (via hinge cutting) which has become a "nursery" for all kind of highly undesirable stuff.
If I don't work my ass off to keep the crap at bay, my place will be nothing more than Mile-a-Minute, Stilt Grass, grape vines, Canada Thistle, and Oriental Bittersweet. Most of this stuff either vines and climbs and blankets desirable stuff or smothers the ground and prevents native forbs. Getting in with brush hogs to keep the sh*+ beaten back is nearly impossible without totally destroying the GOOD stuff that lingers within the losing battle. The stilt grass is now over taking my switch grass. How do I fix that?
I could do a property tour showing just how ugly invasive plants can become.
What led me down this road? Initially, it was the fear of development of the surrounding properties. In my case, those fears were unfounded but, at the same time, the reasons for those fears were very realistic. But none have come to fruition. Hind sight is 50/50. If I had it to do all over again, I would have maintained the property in the hayfield/mature forest state that it was in 1986.
Man, it's hard to see the future. Should you hinge cut? I wish I knew the answer to that a few decades ago. I still don't know the answer.