The Shotgun Method for planting quickly and cheaply

Creating habitat for wild game can seem like a daunting task. Especially on larger properties where you are planning to plant many new species for forage and browse. On many properties a lot of the existing vegetation will need to be replaced with higher quality species that will provide better food and cover for wildlife. This may seem like an expensive and time consuming task even on smaller properties, but it doesn't have to be. One way to cut down on costs for new plants and the time spent on planting them is by using what I call the Shotgun Method.

The shotgun method is basically acquiring a very large amount of desired tree and shrub seeds and then spreading them across your property by digging small holes and planting the seed directly into the ground where you want them to become established. I call this the Shotgun Method because like a shotgun you're using a large quantity, in this case seeds instead of bullets, knowing that at least a few trees will survive similarly to knowing at least a few pellets from a shotgun shell will hit the target.This method if done properly will speed up the process of establishing tree and shrub species and do it in a way that is much cheaper and less time consuming.

In order to do this method properly you need to start with certain conditions. Most seedlings are going to need a certain environment in order to sprout and grow on your property. One major factor will be how much sun the seedlings are getting. While some will do well under shaded conditions most will need mostly to fully sunny conditions. This means you'll have to make sure there is not too much overhead cover from existing trees and shrubs. So basically you'll need a mostly open area such as a meadow or field.

The next factor will be competition from other low growing plants such as thick grass and weeds for water and soil nutrients. Using a tool as simple as a shovel it is best to till a small area of soil about a foot in circumference where you will plant your seed. This will kill the roots of the plants in the immediate vicinity and as they start to decompose in the soil this will add extra nutrients into the soil that your seedling can use. Once this is done then you can plant your seed.

When planting a seed a good general rule is to plant it at a depth 1 to 2 times the size of your seed. For example if you have a chestnut that is 2 inches wide then you will want to plant it 2 to 4 inches deep. Depending on the species, spring or fall will usually be the best times to plant, but do your research to figure out what is best for your selection.

Once your seed is planted I recommend pulling up some grass or weeds near your  planted seed and spreading it across the disturbed soil covering your seed to use as a mulch. This will help keep the soil moisture high and protect it from extreme temperatures. If the soil moisture is already fairly high at the time of planting then watering will usually not be necessary at the time of planting, but if you find the soil to be fairly dry then a quick watering will help the seed break dormancy and start to grow. Then your seed will be ready to start growing.

Once you get the hang of this process then you can plant a seed every 1 to 2 minutes and really cover a large area in a relatively small amount of time. This method will also save money because you will not need to buy expensive plants from nurseries. When it comes to acquiring your seeds I recommend getting them for free by locating a property with the right types of plants and with permission collecting the seeds yourself. In my area I put an ad on Facebook looking for anyone with an English Walnut tree that would like me to clean up all the nuts in their yard. To my surprise this worked very quickly and somebody contacted me and let me collect as much as I wanted mainly because the nuts were more of a nuisance for them because it made it hard to mow. I was able to collect 2 large grocery bags full of nuts and will be using them to plant on my property this spring. Another possible option would be to find public land with your species and collect them there. Usually this will not require any permission. I've collected many types of oak and hickory seeds this way. As you can see it is not hard to find free or cheap seed sources to use for your property.

Once you've collected your seeds and planted them then it's time to let nature take over. While it's true many might not make it, it is likely that only the seeds with genetics able to grow in your specific environment will do well and thus ensuring that they would be hardy enough to self propagate on your property. That's why it's also important to use species that are adapted to your climate. However, I'll also say that it doesn't hurt to use species that are supposedly borderline for your area that way you can add to the diversity and figure out what really will do well despite what other people may say.

As your seeds sprout and grow into seedlings it may be helpful to walk your property and see which seeds have survived. You can do some minimal care as these plants grow such as adding mulch and watering during droughts in order to give them that extra nudge. But other then that there will likely not be much else you need to do.

One exception to this will be if you have an overpopulation of game species in your area. If this is the case then your tree will likely be browsed on by deer or other game and if the browsing is bad enough then it could potentially kill them. Other than caging these trees until they can grow above the browsing height, which can be very expensive on large properties with a lot of trees, you could also try what I've done on my property and use the existing vegetation as a nurse plant in order to keep deer from reaching them. This basically consists of planting your trees next to or slightly underneath a shrub, especially a thorny species like rose or bramble, that will act as a natural tree cage by preventing browsing by using thorns as a deterrent. I have seen many feral apples and plums growing up through rose bushes and out the top on my property. By mimicking the natural way these plants are escaping browse pressure I can save a lot of money by not having to buy cages.

Other ways to decrease browse pressure include building an exclusion fence, using dogs to chase deer off your property (Done properly to avoid problems), and by increasing hunting to lower the population.

Planting a lot of trees and shrubs doesn't have to be an expensive or time consuming process. If you use the Shotgun method like I do then it can be relatively simple and cheap. And once you start to see your property begin to turn into a game magnet then you will be glad you put in the effort early on, because once established these plants will self propagate and do all the work for you and provide abundant wildlife habitat for generations to come.

A Vision for Wild Game as a Sustainable Food Source

I have this vision of what a possible future for wild game as a sustainable food source could look like in practice. In this future most people who owned property of more than 2 or 3 acres would be actively managing their land for a high calorie production of wild game. They would be using mostly permaculture techniques to do this. In Permaculture a property is usually divided into zones 1-5. Zone 1 is intensely managed for annual plants like a vegetable garden. Zone 2 is a little less intensely managed but still pretty high think generally livestock and some orchard species are managed here. In zone 3 it is common to grow what is called a “food forest” which is a forest planted with edible species, but grown in a way that mimics a natural forest so it can be self sustaining. Livestock can also be periodically ran through zone 3 areas for light grazing. And then zone 4 is usually a semi-wild area that is very lightly managed for various reasons and zone 5 is considered unmanaged wilderness. In my ideal system for wild game management it would be some zone 3, but mostly zone 4 that we would be using. On a property of 20 acres this area would possibly use about 15 acres the rest being used within the first 3 zones. On larger properties this could be up to 99% of the total land area. Any zone 5 areas would be places that either already contain ideal wild game habitat or they would be areas that haven't been managed yet.

In my vision most people in rural areas would have something resembling a small garden for vegetables, a small orchard, a food forest area with a more wild growth pattern for fruits, nuts and other plant foods, and also maybe a few livestock such as chickens for eggs and meat and maybe a few other livestock species. And then the rest of their property would be lightly managed wild game habitat mostly for meat production. Ideally this last area would be unfenced allowing wild game to pass through to other properties with a similar setup, while the other zones could be fenced to keep out game from browsing gardens/orchards etc.

If implemented on a large scale among most landowners this could have some interesting consequences. For example in the great plains region, vast areas managed for cattle ranching and monoculture crops could instead be turned into habitat for bison, elk and antelope. These game species would be free to once again roam across the plains unimpeded by barbed wire and each landowner would be managing their properties to draw in these animals by producing the best game habitat they can so that they could hunt them and acquire meat. To me this seems like it would be a way more sustainable system than the one we currently have with cattle ranching and monoculture crops being the dominant land use.  I believe that if a system like this were set up then everybody could potentially produce their own food fairly cheaply and easily. I think it would be easier, cheaper, produce healthier food, and be better for the environment than our current food production system. And best of all I think once people realized the benefits of managing land in this way then people would voluntarily decide to use this system on their properties. So no government would be needed to force people to manage their land in a way they wouldn't want to. There obviously would still be people who would want to manage their land for cattle or corn or wheat using more modern methods but if enough people decided to manage their property in the way I talk about then those people would be the outliers. Instead of bison being a rare meat, it would become as common as beef is today and beef would actually be the rarer meat. To me this system would be much more sustainable in every way you could think of.

While some wildlife habitat destruction today can be contributed to urban sprawl and the expansion of cities and towns, the vast majority of wildlife habitat has been destroyed through conventional farming and ranching practices. In places like Iowa more than 90% of the land is grown as monocrop of corn, beans etc. And many other states are in similar situations. Iowa used to be prairie and savanna that was habitat for very large numbers of wildlife such as bison, deer and elk, but now all that exists is a few pockets of steep wooded terrain along rivers that are home to white tailed deer.

Another huge benefit of this system would be it's resiliency. Once established this type of land management strategy would be able to go along with very few inputs. All that would be needed would be periodic disturbances such as cutting down trees or small managed fires to create a more early successional habitat. This would be an extremely easy system to maintain and would cut down massively on the use of energy leading to cost savings and an improved environment.  

This would also be a better system for meat production because the wild game would feed and take care of themselves and all you would need to do is harvest them. This would be opposed to raising livestock which is very costly because of the need for feed, shelter and other costs associated with taking care of domesticated animals.

In this future I think many modern problems could be solved/helped this way including malnutrition, obesity, wildlife habitat destruction, pollution, environmental degradation, etc. It would turn America into a giant eden with plentiful food and clean air and could even encourage people to move out of cities and back into the country to get their little slice of heaven which could help encourage better social environments and small communities.

There is obviously a lot of speculation here because nothing like this has ever been implemented before, but I'm excited to use this land management strategy on my property and encourage and help others to do the same and then we will see if a system like this could be implemented on a larger scale.

Podcast #1 (Test) Invasive Species as Nurse Plants

Taking A Close Look At Your Property

The first thing to do after purchasing your property in order to create better wild game habitat will be to take a detailed look at it to figure out your starting point. Is your property mostly wooded? Is it an overgrown field? Or is it a gravel pit or desertified type environment? Depending on what the habitat looks like from the beginning will determine what your first steps will be when coming up with a design for your property.

One of the most important first steps will be to see what type of plants are already growing on your property. If you’re lucky your property could already contain some desirable food and cover species that will help attract game. For example if your property contains a mature forest with large oaks scattered among other non- mast producing species then it would make sense to keep at least a few of the best producing oak trees so wildlife will have acorns to eat. Many other mature tree species that are not mast producing could be cut down, hinge cut,  or sold to a timber company for cash. Some species of trees when cut will sprout profusely from the stump and could provide valuable browse and cover early on after harvesting mature trees. In areas of your property where cut trees did not re-sprout you can plant desirable tree and shrub species or scatter forb and grass seeds to create a small meadow. If you can’t find any areas like this, you’ll need to continue to harvest and recut some sprouted trees in order to get areas to plant more desirable species.

Another possible property you could find yourself with is on old field or meadow type habitat with  early successional plants like grass, forbs, shrubs and sapling trees. This is usually a good point to start off with because structurally this type will closely resemble an ideal habitat for most game species. It will usually be somewhat brushy but still somewhat open at least in certain areas and will likely have a lot of browse and forage species already growing. In this type of habitat you will mostly be taking out a few non-useful tree and shrubs and replacing them with more useful species. Doing a thorough walk-through throughout the whole property is essential to see what plant species you are working with. Do your research and learn to identify all the species on your property that way you can determine which ones to keep and which to get rid of.

If you have acquired a property that has poor soil or has been desertified with few plants growing there then you will need to work the land more in order to create good growing conditions. One thing that I would recommend for these types of areas, especially in drier habitats would be to create swales on contour. This is a common permaculture technique that is basically just a ditch that will hold water after rain events or spring snowmelt and they will allow the water to seep into the ground instead of running of the property. This will increase the soil moisture and allow a wider variety of plant species go grow. Another positive aspect of creating swales is that they collect organic matter which will increase the nutrients in the soil and will especially help degraded landscapes like gravel pits and bare soil areas. Another technique i recommend when you decide to plant in this type of habitat is to mulch very heavily. This will also help increase soil moisture by slowing evaporation and the much will gradually decompose into a nutrient rich organic soil over time which will help your plantings grow. This type of habitat is definitely the hardest to work with but over time it can be turned into very productive game habitat if the right techniques are used.

Any property can, in theory, be turned into great wildlife habitat It is essential, however, that you do your research and determine the species that are already growing on your property, that way you will know which plants to keep and which to get rid of. Once you do this then you can move on to the next step of actually working the land, planting new trees and shrubs and spreading seeds and eventually you’ll have a property that will be very attractive to wild game species.