7th Heaven

[Brent]

I have been obsessed with habitat threads for the past couple of years and I've been excited to get one of my own going. I'm situated in the southwest Missouri Ozarks (zone 6b) and hunt a mix of private and public land throughout the entire western half of the state. Our family owns a crop farm in zone 6a that contains approximately 7 acres of huntable timber. I've hunted this area a handful of times over the past few years but I've yet to see a deer on the hoof- nothing but coyotes and turkeys. During the winter of 2015 I decided to begin the process of transforming this little bitty piece of property into productive whitetail habitat.

Yes, this property is much, much smaller that most of the habitat threads that you'll see. I know I won't be managing the herd or growing deer and that's fine with me. I understand the limitations and I realize that 7 acres isn't much to work with, but it's my place to escape and learn- hence the name 7th Heaven.



The property is a part of a long, uninterrupted riparian corridor that is backed by cropland as far as the eye can see. It is unique in the fact that it is the widest strip of timber along the corridor. The property is composed of your typical bottomland species- cottonwood, sycamore, willow, boxelder, silver maple, and a few hackberries. Unfortunately, I have been unable to identify any hard or soft mass species on our land.
My two main goals are to develop a small hidey-hole plot and manage the native vegetation to provide as much food and cover as possible. Nearly 100% of our work has been and will continue to be accomplished through the use of hand tools. Aside from attracting deer, I am focusing on doing what I can to protect water quality. My day job is to improve and protect our local waterways and I'm try my hardest to minimize erosion, avoid over fertilization, and reduce reliance on herbicides.

I'm looking forward to sharing updates and soaking in everyone's valuable input. I'll do my best to get pictures and information from this past year's work up ASAP.

 

[dogghr]

Two properties I have permission to hunt, I typically only hunt 2 acres on each of prime funnels, despite them each being 300 ac. So land size isn't a requirement if it has, or you make it have what it needs, work. Looking foreword to your tour. Congrats.

 

[Native Hunter]

7 in the right place is better than 70 in the wrong place. Looking forward to following your work!

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

I look forward to following your thread. I agree with the others size sometimes doesn't matter (depending who you ask). My favorite places to hunt are fence rows and small blocks of timber. All of the bigger deer I have killed has came out of fence rows and small blocks of timber 10 acres or less. By bigger deer I mean 150" or better mature bucks. I find that big old bucks like to push the hot doe into areas like this away from the herd so there is less competition to breed.

 

[Jeff H]

Glad to see you start your own thread Brent. I look forward to following along. There is lots good advise to be had here. That combined with your wildlife management education and family (ag,farming) background and I'd say your 7 acres has a bright future!
If there is any way I can help directly just ask.

Jeff

 

[dogdoc]

7 in the right place is better than 70 in the wrong place. Looking forward to following your work!

That is so true!
Enjoy following along your journey.

 

[Brent]

Thanks for the warm welcome and words of encouragement! Here are some photos from the past year.

This is what we began with. A blown down hackberry adjacent to a well traveled trail had created the perfect opening to build off of. After an hour or so of saw work we had the makings of our plot.

Later in the spring we trimmed a few more trees and raked away all of the leaf litter to let the sunlight hit the ground and allow for the native vegetation to fill in.

We returned in late July to spray the vegetation to make room for the plot.

In late August we returned to clear the duff and broadcast a blend of red, crimson and Durana clover along with a light application of lime and fertilizer. Leaving the soil so exposed is one of my biggest regrets with the project to date. Looking back, I probably would have been fine to just broadcast the seed into the standing dead vegetation, but I felt that removing it would create a blank slate and allow for better seed to soil contact. Thankfully, we didn't experience any noticeable erosion.

We also took the opportunity to open up the canopy a little more with the pole saw. Its amazing what a difference you can make in a matter of minutes.

 

[Brent]

I came back in late September to inspect the plot. I was fairly disappointed with the results, but I realize that clover can be slow to establish.

In November I overseeded with cereal rye to act as a nurse crop while the clover established itself and hopefully provide the deer with a green food source going into winter. Last weekend I was finally able to return and I was happy to see a lush green carpet of rye covering the plot. The plants were showing some signs of browse, but my utilization cage didn't show any significant difference.

 

[Brent]

Last weekend while I was out I did a little tree work to hopefully thicken up some of the thinner areas adjacent to the plot. I'm beginning by hinge cutting what I call the "D" trees- damaged, diseased, deformed, and dying*. The reason I put an asterisk next to dying is because I like to leave any standing snags because of their wildlife value. I only targeted smaller trees this trip because all I had on me was a folding saw. Still, I was able to hinge a number of trees that should create good eye-level browse, funnel deer towards my stand and allow more sunlight to penetrate through the canopy to the forest floor. I was very impressed with how the native understory vegetation reacted after I opened up the canopy while clearing the area for the plot. Hopefully I see similar results in some of these smaller openings I'm creating. Fingers crossed it won't just fill up with Japanese hops, which is the most abundant invasive I'm currently dealing with.

This tree is one that we tried hinging last winter, but it fell in the wrong direction so we decided to to just completely remove it. We decided to leave the chest high stump to see how many suckers would come off of it in a year.

 

[lakngolf]

Good luck with your improvements to 7th Heaven. Hidey Hole plot should work great and in the first picture the trees even form a 7

 

[Brent]

Good luck with your improvements to 7th Heaven. Hidey Hole plot should work great and in the first picture the trees even form a 7

Ha! You're right! Kinda does. Thanks for the support Lak. I've enjoyed following your property tour since the days of the QDMA forum. Good luck with your winter and spring improvements.

 

[OkieKubota]

Good luck with your place, it is looking great.

I can't tell perspective but how high are those hinge cuts? If you want to form blockades to deer cut them lower like 3 feet and below, if you want cover cut them chest to neck high...I am starting to cut all of mine neck high after making the mistake of cutting them too low a few years ago on another property we own...

 

[Brent]

Good luck with your place, it is looking great.

I can't tell perspective but how high are those hinge cuts? If you want to form blockades to deer cut them lower like 3 feet and below, if you want cover cut them chest to neck high...I am starting to cut all of mine neck high after making the mistake of cutting them too low a few years ago on another property we own...

Good advice! The hinge cuts in the photos are all about 3' tall. All of the hinged trees so far are along a trail that enters the plot, so I'm more or less using them to direct traffic while providing some additional browse. I'm trying to avoid creating bedding areas too close to the plot, so I'm trying to be cautious about where and how I affect cover.

 

[Brent]

Got the soil test results for a sample I took from the plot a couple weekends back. I was shocked to see the results, especially the pH. Looks like things are in pretty good shape! Gotta love those fertile river bottoms.

I did notice that they reported the plot as .8 acres, when it is really .08 acres. This shouldn't skew the results any I wouldn't think, since I don't require any amendments for clover establishment. Thoughts on the test results?

 

[Jeff H]

Ok, that's just not fair! When I fill a bag with soil, half the bag is filled with rocks, and I can barely get away with using a shovel much less a hand spade like the one in your picture.
I'll bet you can sink a t post there in 3 whacks there too.

 

[Brent]

Ok, that's just not fair! When I fill a bag with soil, half the bag is filled with rocks, and I can barely get away with using a shovel much less a hand spade like the one in your picture.
I'll bet you can sink a t post there in 3 whacks there too.

Haha! Yeah, I feel pretty fortunate. Nothin like our red, rocky soil around SW MO. Not sure on the t posts, but I was able to sink my utilization cage stakes by hand without issue.

 

[Jeff H]

Yeah,yeah...rub it in!

 

[Seabee]

I really enjoy these small property threads! As the owner of only 10 acres myself, I feel more connected to these types of posts. Looking forward to your updates.

 

[Brent]

I really enjoy these small property threads! As the owner of only 10 acres myself, I feel more connected to these types of posts. Looking forward to your updates.

Thanks Seabee! I'm finding it to be challenging to work with such a small footprint, but it's fun to see things begin to take shape and see the wildlife respond. Congratulations on Dagger! Such a beautiful animal. I'd love to see more photos of your land as well.

 

[Brent]

Here is a current map of the property.

• Improved Trail- A deer trail that we improved last winter by trimming trees and knocking down vegetation throughout the summer. Native vegetation alongside the trail was lightly fertilized to improve cover and forage. Trail usage has increased tremendously.
• Plot- Initially seeded red, crimson and Durana clover in August. Winter rye broadcast in November.
  
• Swamp- low-lying area filled with downed trees from past floods. This area is choked full of vegetation with a heavy dose of Japanese hops in the sunny areas. Mosquitoes are so bad they make you want to scream.
• Flagged Exit Trail- Planned stand access.

Due to a busy schedule last fall I never had the opportunity to hunt this particular property. Until recently, my plans were to only hunt this area in the evening with S, SE winds to avoid blowing my scent across the plot and deeper into the timber. I planned to use the flagged exit for stand access. In the summer and early bow season, this entry and exit basically passes through hell- downed trees, blood thirsty mosquitoes and occasionally shin high muck. Its awful. Until last month I had never identified any bedding areas on our property. When I was out I discovered several beds within the swamp not far from the exit trail (see map). I did not notice any beds in this area this past summer or fall, so I have either completely missed them while scouting (probable) or they just decided to bed here this winter. It makes sense. We're behind on rainfall, so this area is currently not as wet as it tends to be. They chose a small little "island" in the swamp that sits slightly higher than the surrounding area. The dense vegetation and sparse canopy provides excellent thermal protection and warm afternoon sunshine. I'm happy to see the deer utilizing the property, but this really throws a wrench in my plans! My stand is in one of the only decent trees adjacent to the plot, so moving my stand isn't a great option. I'm thinking that I should rework my entry/exit strategy further to the south and be extremely conscious of the wind to avoid bumping any deer that bed in the swamp. This would likely end up being a shorter, more pleasant romp through the timber to get to my stand. This may end up being the number 1 thing on my to-do list when I return to the property at the end of this month.

What do you guys think? Is this a seasonal bedding area? Would it be best to reroute my entry and exit to avoid the swamp? What winds should I hunt the property? Thoughts on what I should do with the lower SE chunk of timber?