What to do with cleared property line?

[Charlieyca]

So our south property line is getting bulldozed 10ft wide 1000 yds long. Technically the path will be about 15 ft inside the line so that I have a tree line for stands and a buffer around the property. This should be happening in the next 2 weeks which is plenty of time for me to get it planted afterwards. It is on the property border and next to a clear cut property, that to my knowledge is not hunted. It is a little over 0.7 acres. Plan to add 2 stand directly on this clearing to hunt with a north wind. What would you do?

1. leave it alone and let it sprout and grow whatever it wants for browse, dont attract deer to border
2. Spray it afterwards, leave bare, lime and fertilize and plan for a spring planting
3. spray it and immediately plant Rye, turnips and red clover mix to control weeds and new growth
4. Spray and keep clear as an access trail and not attractant

 

[j-bird]

What does the area around the path look like? If it's tall hardwoods or pines to where the path itself won't see sunlight - I simply don't worry about it. If the ground will receive sunlight - then I plant a short cool season grass and maintain with spraying and mowing, and feather the inside edge and consider growing a screen on the 15 feet of offset. I would not plant anything with the intention of drawing deer to within 15' of a property line....that is just asking for trouble. I would also keep the path clear as perimeter access on a property can be a luxury many folks don't have. The deer may use it as well, but I would not promote that use, use it for wheelers, trucks or hunters on foot to access stands, and facilitate other habitat work. By sticking with perimeter access you can push deer away from the property line and hopefully to more secure cover inside your property.

 

[Charlieyca]

10ft wide strip of thin trees (mostly sweet gums, pines) and thick understory with clearcut on otherside, so should get good light. Food is limiting here and clearings are hard to come by in this thick undergrowth so thought pros might outweigh cons.

 

[OkieKubota]

Keep those lanes clear for access as has been mentioned. Have the dozer clear you some places in the interior for food plots. If you plant those lines along the borders in food then 3 things will happen. You will draw deer bedding on your place to the outside boundary. You will draw neighbors deer to the boundary but no further. You will have neighbors or their friends sitting there hunting that line when you aren't around even if they don't hunt now...

 

[Mennoniteman]

Bare dirt is bad. Plant ryegrass asap. Deer won't eat it, but it will suppress the stuff that you just got rid of from coming back right away.

 

[Berserker]

What do you border? I have a tractor and not a crawler. I have trails on my border, which on one side is national forest, which I encroach on, and other sides absent owners. All heavily wooded. So I see no point in adding anything on my side. I am not trying to block other people.

I think it really varies by where you are in the country and how you view things. If you are $$$$ an acre and are in country city, its different.

 

[Tap]

I'd also try to push the dozed trees to the inside of the road and not to the outside to create a screen as much as possible. If you intend to use those roads as access routes, screening the road from the core of your property will allow less disruptive travel by you. You can always cut some crossing routes through the brush screen in strategic locations later on.

 

[Berserker]

Maybe. I tend to think if you are traveling on the trail, they will know you are there. I go with why make you property harder to access by you? I am heavily wooded. Last year had heck of time getting to deer to get him out.

Deer like trails. They use them. IMO the entrire property should have trails to some extent. I have spent lots of time cutting 4 wheeler trails, and some bigger. I want access, and so do the deer. So I would push towards the neighbor.


What I do when making trails is make big piles. Figuring that spot is out of use for 10 years or so, but don't want to make a mess of everything. No scientific evidence to support this. But I like it. When doing remote trails, then I will line a side or such, to define the trail. Stuff grows up and you don't always get to it. But if you see logs sawed or stacked, you can follow it.

 

[Jerry D]

I'd plant some grass or leave it bare and just keep it as access and maintain it. Maybe line the edge of it with some trees if it gets any sunlight.

Id only do a food plot if the neighbors don't hunt the property beside the clearing.

 

[Charlieyca]

Moot point now, Forest service cant do it since a burn is too far into the future. Hope to work on a private contractor thats affordable.
Right now, we can not access or hunt the bottom 1/3rd of our 45 acres. The back third is a sanctuary, so I dont feel like we are maximizing the huntable ground we have. I plan to have at least 2 stands on this south border (or close to it) so on a cold front with north winds, we can hunt the wind correctly. Right now, we are hunting inside out and increasing pressure as season goes on.

 

[Charlieyca]

Maybe. I tend to think if you are traveling on the trail, they will know you are there. I go with why make you property harder to access by you? I am heavily wooded. Last year had heck of time getting to deer to get him out.

Deer like trails. They use them. IMO the entrire property should have trails to some extent. I have spent lots of time cutting 4 wheeler trails, and some bigger. I want access, and so do the deer. So I would push towards the neighbor.


What I do when making trails is make big piles. Figuring that spot is out of use for 10 years or so, but don't want to make a mess of everything. No scientific evidence to support this. But I like it. When doing remote trails, then I will line a side or such, to define the trail. Stuff grows up and you don't always get to it. But if you see logs sawed or stacked, you can follow it.

We are so thick that I can not see the trails that most deer use. We have a tractor and bushhog, but it is slow going through 15ft pines and briars you cant walk through. We are working trails that connect our plots and orchards togethers, but deer trails are secondary to access trails right now.

 

[Charlieyca]

What do you border? I have a tractor and not a crawler. I have trails on my border, which on one side is national forest, which I encroach on, and other sides absent owners. All heavily wooded. So I see no point in adding anything on my side. I am not trying to block other people.

I think it really varies by where you are in the country and how you view things. If you are $$$$ an acre and are in country city, its different.

This side Borders an absentee landowner who clear cut for chip wood last spring. Back side is pine plantation with crops 500yds or so away, north side is thickets and pins similar to my land, and its hunted.

 

[Charlieyca]

REd is my property line, yellow is current stands, pine is proposed new stands, blue has been logged since aerial image. All food plots are north of 2 10 acre additions to the farm.

 

[Weezy]

I'd also try to push the dozed trees to the inside of the road and not to the outside to create a screen as much as possible. If you intend to use those roads as access routes, screening the road from the core of your property will allow less disruptive travel by you. You can always cut some crossing routes through the brush screen in strategic locations later on.

I would do this and just keep it mowed.

Maybe add a v, boomerang, or turkey foot shaped plot 30 yards or so off the trail. Have the crossing route at the bottom of the v. Place stands off each side of the cut. Hunt w and any n wind, e if you want but it's blowing toward the outside of your sanctuary. I would also blockade your whole west line in the back and leave an opening in the Sw corner. Try to funnel those deer coming back from the crop fields. Think low impact high odds.

 

[Berserker]

Cut and chuck. Takes a long time and is hard work. Drop the trees, cut into pieces you can handle. Hardwood becomes firewood. It can seem impossible at the start. Stumps suck.

I use my box blade to try flattening stuff. I also use it more for clearing small brush, drag it and rip up sapplings. Anything bigg saws and loppers..

I would want atleast 4 wheeler trails into all my property. Plus if you get a deer and it runs, its acessibly. At the very least carve waling trails, that can grow over time.


Deer like trails. They are lazy.

Its alot of work. I enjoy running a saw, and need the exercise. If I had a 2nd person, it would be like having a road crew.

Built 20 yard accordian bridge this summer. That was a hard couple hours.

 

[Weezy]

Moot point now, Forest service cant do it since a burn is too far into the future. Hope to work on a private contractor thats affordable.
Right now, we can not access or hunt the bottom 1/3rd of our 45 acres. The back third is a sanctuary, so I dont feel like we are maximizing the huntable ground we have. I plan to have at least 2 stands on this south border (or close to it) so on a cold front with north winds, we can hunt the wind correctly. Right now, we are hunting inside out and increasing pressure as season goes on.

Is renting a dozer a option? The newer ones with the joysticks are really not hard to operate. Blazing a trail doesn't take any skill.

 

[Charlieyca]

I would do this and just keep it mowed.

Maybe add a v, boomerang, or turkey foot shaped plot 30 yards or so off the trail. Have the crossing route at the bottom of the v. Place stands off each side of the cut. Hunt w and any n wind, e if you want but it's blowing toward the outside of your sanctuary. I would also blockade your whole west line in the back and leave an opening in the Sw corner. Try to funnel those deer coming back from the crop fields. Think low impact high odds.

There is v ditch at the west property line, and only 2 places they really cross near my property. I have a ground blind in my sanctuary for a possible late season hunt on one of those trails. I probably could build some funnels into that stand, but have intentionally stayed out of it as much as possible.

 

[Charlieyca]

Is renting a dozer a option? The newer ones with the joysticks are really not hard to operate. Blazing a trail doesn't take any skill.

It is an option, but there is a creek bisecting my property and would have to be timed during a summer drought for me to feel safe taking rental equipment across. A tractor I can use a chain hoist to get out. Dozer, not so sure.

 

[THE LLC]

1 or 4

 

[Charlieyca]

Consensus says do not plant anything to attract, so once it is clear looks like grass seed , spray, or continue to bushhog.