Private Land vs. Shared Public Land

[Mennoniteman]

Your neighbors shouldn’t be considered freeloaders because obviously there is something that the deer are attracted to on their land when they leave yours. The deer that use our place I would say spend more than 75% of their time on the neighbors. The main thing they find on our place is food and does. The neighbors have better bedding so when they go to bed most leave...I am going to be working on that hole in the bucket this winter...

I consider bedding as one of the easiest things to provide for deer, and it doesn't take a big area, an acre of tight cover can provide bedding for a big group of deer. I consider sunlight to bare dirt as the most important tool to make bedding cover. Getting rid of shade, and scarifying the dirt to break up any thatch is a must, and the sun will do the rest. And, reading your posts with your extensive wisdom on deer, you know more about this stuff than I do. Good luck on fixing your bucket.

 

[OkieKubota]

I consider bedding as one of the easiest things to provide for deer, and it doesn't take a big area, an acre of tight cover can provide bedding for a big group of deer. I consider sunlight to bare dirt as the most important tool to make bedding cover. Getting rid of shade, and scarifying the dirt to break up any thatch is a must, and the sun will do the rest. And, reading your posts with your extensive wisdom on deer, you know more about this stuff than I do. Good luck on fixing your bucket.

If you look at my photos and videos of our place you notice mostly all open woods...we do have a few places where some of the deer bed such as the 10 acres we purchased after the 80 and a few areas I have hinged and clearcut with my chainsaw but what you don’t see is my neighbor to the north has about 30 acres that was logged about 10 years ago and is a huge bedding area. We have some of that same thing going on to the east of our place as well. I have worked on it as time has allowed over the past few years but unfortunately that wasn’t much time. I am waiting for our rifle season to end and once that happens I am going to work in earnest. I have also started talking to some loggers to log about 30 acres of the place and I should have a dozer of my own within the month so this place is getting ready to be transformed pretty drastically... I would say at any one time we may have 6 or 7 deer bedding on the place but morning, evening, and overnight we have over 20 on the place at any given time... I would like to have 10-12 more deer bedding here...

 

[Mennoniteman]

If you look at my photos and videos of our place you notice mostly all open woods...we do have a few places where some of the deer bed such as the 10 acres we purchased after the 80 and a few areas I have hinged and clearcut with my chainsaw but what you don’t see is my neighbor to the north has about 30 acres that was logged about 10 years ago and is a huge bedding area. We have some of that same thing going on to the east of our place as well. I have worked on it as time has allowed over the past few years but unfortunately that wasn’t much time. I am waiting for our rifle season to end and once that happens I am going to work in earnest. I have also started talking to some loggers to log about 30 acres of the place and I should have a dozer of my own within the month so this place is getting ready to be transformed pretty drastically... I would say at any one time we may have 6 or 7 deer bedding on the place but morning, evening, and overnight we have over 20 on the place at any given time... I would like to have 10-12 more deer bedding here...

Logging is head&shoulders above any other deer habitat creation method, they do all of the work while you sit and watch with a cold drink in your hand, and get paid to sit there. Then right after the logging you use your grapple to open roads and move treetops to create barriers. I have TSI logging going on in a section every couple years.