The Need for the Integration of Agriculture and the Natural World

Many people believe we need to separate ourselves from nature. They think that humans are an overwhelming source of harm against the natural world and thus we need to set aside sanctuaries and preserves where there is little to no human impact. These in and of themselves are not a bad idea. We do need to protect species against habitat destruction, pollution and other potential harms that people are creating for wild ecologies. However, this mindset can take a dark turn when people come to the conclusion that the only way to save the earth is to remove people from the equation completely.  Not only do they believe that human numbers should stop growing, but some believe we need to do things like sterilize people and even phase out human growth altogether leading to a controlled human extinction.

The main problem with this mindset is that they are looking at only one side of humanity which is it's destructive side. But there is another side that is often overlooked that can actually heal and restore natural ecosystems and make them even more ecologically productive than nature itself can.

Unfortunately this "good" side of humanity is not in control for the most part right now and it is evidenced pretty obviously in the dominant way we grow our food using conventional agricultural practices.  Annual tilling of the ground leads to depletion and erosion of the topsoil. Vast fields of monocrops creates largely lifeless areas that only support the hardiest and most adaptable wildlife. Large scale irrigation draws down reservoirs and aquifers leaving less water in rivers for fish such as salmon and steelhead. Frequent spraying of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides kills off the beneficial soil life leading to dead lifeless soils as well as chemical runoff into rivers and oceans creating huge dead zones. All of these practices are increasing slowly over time and as our need for more food grows to feed the growing population of earth they will destroy natural wildlife habitat and continue to pollute the earth.

So from a certain perspective it is easy to see why a lot of people have an overall negative view of humanity and think that the earth would be better off without us. I however do not hold this view. I think there is a way to prevent these problems and not only stop the destruction of the natural world, but actually improve it and make it even more productive than what nature can do on it's own. The key would be not to separate, but to integrate humans with the natural world.

What do I mean by this? Well basically there is only so much land on earth. We need land for our own settlements as well as for all the food we need to feed the world. We also need to protect and even restore the natural environments so that we can reverse environmental damage and prevent species extinction. The only way to really do this is to largely share the same space with the natural world. Our food production areas need to double as great wildlife habitat. Cities and towns can also be integrated with the natural environment to some extent and even the extraction of resources such as mining and logging can be done in a way that is largely sustainable or at the very least able to be restored after the extraction process is done.

But the largest areas on earth that will need this integration are our food producing regions.

So how then could we go about this integration of natural ecosystems and our agriculture? Luckily there are many different options for us to choose from. For large scale commercial agriculture one way might be what is referred to as restoration or regenerative agriculture.  This style of food production uses no till methods, polyculture plantings, natural forms of fertilization and pest control, cover crop plantings, livestock integration and many other methods that leads to very productive and resilient crop production that can often exceed the production of conventional crops. The other benefits of this type of system is less inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, etc which leads to lower overall costs and higher profits. It also will naturally build the topsoil over time and increase fertility leading to even more productive harvests down the road. The use of polyculture also supports a more diverse range of wildlife and leads to a healthier ecosystem. One person who is well known for this style is Gabe Brown and I would recommend googling some of his lectures if you're interested in learning more.

Another possibility is to use what's known as permaculture. Permaculture is a very broad category of agriculture and goes even beyond agriculture in a sense. The basic premise is to mimic nature in order to produce a sustainable and highly productive source of food. One well known method is to create what's known as a "food forest". With a food forest you mimic a natural ecosystem by planting edible plants for all the niches in the ecosystem.  For example you could have nut trees in the canopy, fruit trees in the subcanopy, berries for the shrub layer, grapes and kiwis for the vine layer, root vegetables for the root layer, etc. These types of systems are usually very diverse and since they grow and develop just like a natural forest would they tend to make excellent habitat for a huge variety of wildlife. Other things you can do with permaculture are make hugelbeds and earthworks that help store moisture underground lessening the need for irrigation especially in drier regions. Permaculture offers a huge amount of possibilities for the integration of human and natural ecosystems and some people who are popular proponents of this system include Geoff Lawton, Sepp Holtzer and Paul Wheaton. I would highly recommend checking them out.

The last food producing system I will talk about is the one I created this blog for which is my own wild game system that not only integrates the natural world with a human source of food, but it makes the resources of the natural world, wild game, into a sustainable food source.  With this system you are basically creating optimal habitat for multiple game species in order to produce a high amount of wild game calories on a per acre basis. So in practice this would mean planting the most optimal plant species that will be able to feed game species year round as well as produce plant based foods for people to harvest as well. This would look very similar to the concept of a food forest, but would likely be more open resembling more of a savanna ecosystem for the majority of the target game species in America, but could easily be altered depending on the species that you'd be managing for. A lot of these areas would include forbs and broadleaf browse species that would produce a high amount of optimal forage for various herbivorous game species such as deer and elk. A lot of the food species would double as cover providing everything needed by the game in a relatively small area. I believe that If done correctly a system like this could produce a very high amount of meat calories per acre as well as some plant calories and could potentially be more productive and with less inputs than more conventional food producing systems. This system would not only produce high numbers of game, but also a ton of other non-game wildlife that would benefit from the high production value of the managed ecosystem.

I believe that in order to solve the world's environmental problems as well as feed the earth's growing population then it will be completely necessary to integrate ourselves and our production systems with the natural environment.  Luckily for us there are several possible options to use to successfully produce this outcome. It will likely take a mix of these types of food producing systems as well as ones that have yet to be thought of in order to fulfill this integration.  And once these systems are implemented and refined then it's likely our quality of life and our health would greatly improve and we could once again see the positive side of humanity and its ability to live in balance with the natural world.

Common Weeds that make Excellent Deer Food.

What are the Deer Eating on Your Property?

When managing for game on your property it's important to know the preferred food sources. On my property I am mainly managing for White-tailed deer. Because of this I need to continually observe and determine which food sources the deer on my property are using. In this post I will show you how to figure out what game are eating on your property using my property as an example.

The main thing I am looking for when trying to determine what deer are eating is plants that have been browsed on. I will walk my property and look for the signs of browsing on certain plants as well as look at other general signs of deer such as beds, trails and droppings.  

Browsed plants will look like normal plants except the ends of the plant will be broken off abruptly. If it is fairly fresh the browsed tip will still be green and could be releasing sap, which can sometimes look milky such as with prickly lettuce and salsify. If it is not fresh then the tip will tend to be more brown and dried out while the rest of the plant will still be green. Once you have identified plants that have been browsed it becomes easier to spot them because you are training your eyes to pick them out.  Once you have learned to identify some plants that are known to be preferred browse species then you can more closely inspect them when you find them on your property and get a good idea of how much they are preferred compared to other plants on your property. Here are some plants that I've noticed are preferred browse plants by deer on my property.

This is Red Clover. It is a herbaceous cool-season perennial that is found throughout most of the country. This is a highly preferred species in most areas and on my property the majority of the red clover I find has been browsed on,  however it is somewhat uncommon on my property so it is probably not a staple in my area.

This plant is Yellow Salsify. It is a herbaceous cool-season biennial that is common in drier meadows, especially in the west. This is also a highly preferred food source for deer. It is very common on my property and in some areas it is almost the dominant forb. Probably about 30% of the individual plants of this species I find on my property have been browsed and because it is so common I believe it makes up a large bulk of the deer's diet during spring and summer.

This next plant is Prickly Lettuce. It is warm season annual that is common throughout most of America. It is a highly preferred food plant for deer and most individual plants I find have been browsed, however it is somewhat uncommon on my property so it likely is not a large percentage of the deer's diet.

This plant is called Campion. There are several varieties including White and Bladder Campion which I believe are herbaceous annuals. This species is fairly common on my property and seem to get a moderate amount of browsing from deer. It does not seem to be a highly preferred food source though.

This plant is Sulfer Cinquefoil. It is a herbaceous cool-season perennial. It is extremely common on my property and is the dominant forb on the majority of it. This species is known to have a high amount of tannin in it's leaves which make it mostly unpalatable to deer. However, I have noticed that when it is growing in mostly shaded areas that it receives a lot more browsing from the deer. It is likely that the shaded conditions makes the plants produce less tannins and this makes them more palatable to deer. In general though this is not a preferred food source and likely is browsed mostly because of it's sheer abundance.

This plant is known as Heal-All and is a herbaceous perennial forb. It is common across most of the US and is somewhat uncommon on my property. It seems to receive a moderate amount of browsing from deer on my property and likely has a moderate preference.

This last plant is a species of Dock which is in the Rumex genus and which I believe is a biennial. It is somewhat uncommon on my property and does not seem to be a preferred browse, however I was able to find a few that had been browsed on especially in shaded conditions similar to the Cinquefoil. It likely is a low food preference for deer.

As you can see there is quite a large variety of plants that deer will eat and I focused only on herbaceous species during late spring and early summer. During other times of the year and in other areas there are many many more plant species that deer will eat. But these are some good examples and can help you determine what deer are eating on your property.

Once you determine what the deer are already eating on your property then you can use this information to help determine how you will manage your property.  If you are planning on making a "Wild Game Meadow" like I talk about in my previous posts then this information will help you determine which plants you will want to allow and which ones you will want to get rid of. When you allow these preferred food sources to grow on your property as well as add seeds of other preferred foods then you will be able to make your property that much more attractive to the wild game on your property.

My Plan for Creating a Wild Game Meadow on My Property

Creating and maintaining a food plot should not be something that requires a lot of work. If left to mother nature a disturbed area will eventually transition into a meadow. So in theory if we can design a meadow made up of highly palatable and nutritious perennial and self-sowing grasses and forbs that mimic a natural meadow and that are adapted to the planting site then it should be possible to simply choose the right seed mix, plant it, possibly do some minimal maintenance and then reap the benefits with healthier wild game and an awesome hunting spot.

I think the key here will be in choosing the right seed mix. We will need to figure out species that fill all the niches that exist in a natural meadow. You'll likely need both grasses and broadleaf forbs, both perennial and self sowing annuals, as well as cool and warm season species. The plot will need to have as much dense growth on it as possible to prevent spaces for weeds to take hold. This is because weeds need sunlight and soil contact to germinate. If you can create shade with living plants and mulch with dead vegetation then weeds should not become a huge problem. And with less weeds means less weed seed and you will greatly reduce the seed source for weeds in the future. This also means we will most likely be using a pretty dense planting of desirable species. A lot of the seeds we plant will likely not make it, but it will also ensure that weeds will have a harder time as well.

So for my plot this is how I will go about setting it up. I will be starting it in an area which is mostly covered in dense perennial forage grass. This area was once an old cattle pasture and possibly a hay field as well so it is already in a meadow like state. I will need to get rid of as much of the grass as possible and try to prevent most of it from coming back. This gives me a few options. My first option would be to simply hoe or rip up the grass in order to til it under which would likely get rid of the vast majority of it. This however would expose a lot of the soil to sunlight and potentially create a perfect environment for weeds to germinate.  My other option would be to cut the grass to soil level several times during the growing season in spring and early summer to suppress it and that way the cut grass would act as a mulch in a way to somewhat cover the soil surface, keeping it shaded and allowing less weed seeds to germinate. This, however, would likely not kill all the grass which I'm not too worried about since this grass type is a preferred forage grass for wild game especially in the springtime, but I would just need to make sure it didn't take over the rest of the species I plant. So after I take care of the grass with either method my next step would be to start spreading seed. If there was a light mulch of dead grass left over I could likely just broadcast the seed and it would fall in between the mulch and make contact with the soil surface while also being somewhat shaded and protected from seed predators such as birds. If not then I would either lightly rake the seeds into the soil or add a thin layer of dead grass over the top of them. Depending on the species I would either plant in late summer, fall or early spring. I may even do multiple planting on the same plot in different seasons to make sure it is well seeded. After that I would monitor the plantings during the growing season and remove any weeds or grass that was too dominant. And that would likely be it for this initial planting.

I would probably start on a fairly small plot not much bigger than a large garden and if I saw it was a success then I could expand the area out every year until it was of the desired size. In the meantime my previous plantings would likely be maturing and ideally would be growing well enough and dense enough so that I wouldn't really need to worry about weeds.

This method if successful would likely be able to be replicated in practically any environment as long as the seed was well adapted to the property. Over time it is likely that this type of planting would mature into a mostly perennial dominated meadow, but if any small disturbance happened such as a mole hill etc then the seed bank would contain seeds from some of the self-sowing annuals that were originally planted. Also if enough disturbance was created at the edges of the plot then it is likely that it could gradually spread out across the property intermingling with the vegetation already established on the property creating even more food for wild game.

As I've stated several times doing your research and choosing plant species that are adapted to your site would be one of the most important aspects determining the success of your plot. After a lot of research I think I have a good base of possible species I could plant on my property. My property is a temperate dry summer climate with somewhat cold snowy winters, wet springs, and hot dry summers.  Some of the species I think might do well on my property are Alfalfa, Sanfoin, Red and White clover, Small burnet, Lamb's Quarters, Common Ragweed, Chickory, Prickliy Lettuce, Salsify, Aster's, Goldenrod's and Sunchokes. These are just a few of the species I'd like to create a mix of. One thing to notice is that I have both native and nonative species as well as some people would consider weeds. However, many species people consider weeds are actually excellent wild game forage, a good example being ragweed as a deer forage. That's why it's important to keep an open mind and let the research show what are the best forage species for your area.

So this is my basic plan for my experimental test plot on my property. As you can see it is extremely simple in terms of the type of work and maintenance I will do. I think this is important because if I can make this work than it will show that you don't need expensive equipment and loads of fertilizers and herbicides ect to make a productive food plot. This is the way nature does it. All it needs is a seed source, a disturbance and the right climate and soil conditions and a meadow will naturally form. We're just tweaking this natural process a little bit by choosing species that are attractive to wild game and will create an awesome food plot, or "wild game meadow".

In the future I will document and keep you updated on the establishment and progress of this plot. There's a chance it might not work the way I think it will and I might experience problems I didn't foresee, but even then I will be able to learn from my mistakes and come up with a better plan. Then on the other hand it might work out better than I expect and could become my best idea yet for creating awesome wild game habitat. I'm hoping I can share my successes and failures with everyone who is interested in creating better habitat for game animals on their property that way they too can be better set up to enjoy nature's bounty.

Managing Invasive and Unwanted Plants

One of the most important parts of managing a property for wild game is being able to produce a diverse amount of food sources. The more plant species your property has on it, especially highly palatable species, the more game animals you will be able to support. With a diverse amount of food sources the game animals on your property will be able to meet all their nutritional requirements through the seasons and allow them to grow and reproduce more effectively. However managing for a high amount of plant diversity can be somewhat complicated and there are many different factors that could come into play one of the major ones being how to manage invasive and overabundant plants.

Managing invasive woody plant species is somewhat straightforward. Basically you need to selectively cut anything that is outcompeting other tree and shrub species especially if it is not producing any real food source. For example if your property is covered in Tree-of-Heaven trees which are a pretty useless tree for wildlife as well as highly invasive, than you should continuously cut them back and plant other species until they either die out or are shaded out by other species. On the contrary if your property is covered in apple trees and nothing else then you should likely keep a large percentage of them, but still cut some out to allow room for other species as well. We want to aim away from any type of monoculture even if it is a productive one that provides a good food source for wild game. While apples are a great food, they are available only seasonally and will not give wild game their full nutritional requirements leading to fewer game over time.

Dealing with invasive trees and shrubs is relatively simple, however when it comes to grass and forb dominated habitats it can become quite difficult to manage them for a high diversity especially if it is already being overtaken by aggressive weedy species. There are both native and nonnative grasses and forbs that can completely take over open meadow type areas and can prevent plant species diversity. Many people know the common "weeds" in their areas. Out west a very common one and one that I am faced with on my property is yellow star thistle. This annual forb can completely take over some areas, especially in disturbed and degraded soils, preventing the establishment of any other plants as well as providing practically no food value to wild game. This is a type of plant I would like to be without, however it has essentially become naturalized in my area so it is best to learn how to manage it. Without using herbicides, which would also kill the plants I want, I will need to learn more about the plant and it's life cycle to determine the best way to manage it. After doing some research I figured out that if you can prevent it from going to seed then you can control it long enough to establish more desirable plants that will prevent it from taking over. To do this you need to cut it back to the ground such as with a weedeater right around the time it is beginning to flower which is usually around late spring and early summer. Once the first flowers start opening I will aggressively cut it back with the weedeater once and then again a few weeks later as new sprouts come back. This will essentially kill that years seed and help prevent future infestations. This will need to be done several years in a row due to seed stored in the soil, but eventually it will greatly reduce this plant almost to the point of elimination.  During this time it will also be necessary to spread desirable seed to establish and help provide a barrier to possible future infestations. This type of management is labor intensive for a few years, but once the right plants are growing, ideally a diverse mix of palatable forage species, then anymore starthistle that invades that area will have a hard time reestablishing itself to those high levels. Every plant will have it's weaknesses, whether it be frequent mowing, targeted seasonal weedeating, grazing patterns of livestock, plowing, shading out etc. But it will be up to you to research and figure out how to remove the invasive plants on your property.

One of the best things to prevent invasive species from taking over your property is to already have a healthy diverse amount of species established. This means you will need to plant and spread seed of many different plant species to not only give more food options to wild game, but to also provide that healthy barrier against aggressive monoculture forming plant species. There are many factors that will determine how successful you will be at establishing desirable forage plants, but it will likely take lots of trial and error to find something that works specifically for your property. Like always research is key and knowing the biology and ecology of your chosen plants will be important to figuring out the best method of establishment and management once established.  

One more point I'd like to make is that just because a plant is not native does not mean it will be bad for your property. A good example of this is the bienneal forb Salsify. This is a nonnative "invasive" weed that has become common in the west. In some instances on disturbed and degraded soils it can take over and become an unwanted weed. However in much of the west it has naturalized and become a part of the balanced ecosystem of the open grassland regions. This plant also happens to be excellent deer and elk forage and some studies have shown that some deer and elk preferred to eat this forb in spring and summer more than any other plant in that particular region. So I just wanted to point out that not all nonnative "weeds" are necessarily bad for your property and there are in fact many that are an excellent food source for wild game. And at the same time many natives are practically useless for wild game habitat and some will need to be managed so they don't take the real estate of more desirable species.

Many species of plants that have come from other countries are here to stay. Some of them are bad for wild game habitat and some are good. It is practically impossible to get rid of them at this point. But if one is able to manage their property carefully then they can make sure to have a wide variety of both natives and nonnatives that will lead to better habitat for the game on their property.

Forget Food Plots. Create a Wild Game Meadow.

Almost everyone in the deer hunting community has heard of a food plot. A food plot when it comes to managing a property for whitetail deer generally consists of a plot of land tilled, planted with forage crops, such as clover or radish, and then maintained through irrigation, fertilizing, herbicide application and eventually reseeding.  This concept is actually pretty brilliant when you consider how productive and beneficial to the deer they can be. And they can also greatly improve your chances at a giant buck if you hunt the travel corridor to a plot. However, food plots, at least as they are conventionally maintained, have some major problems, especially when trying to design a long term sustainable wild game property.

The main problem is how much time, effort and money that goes into maintaining a food plot. It simply is a lot of work to maintain these over any amount of time. There are a ton of inputs needed to maintain a conventional food plot. You need to buy the seeds which seems reasonable, but many are brand name varieties that probably come at a much higher price than one would think for the amount of seed that you get. Then you need to purchase the equipment to till the land and plant, fertilize, irrigate and apply herbicide. This additionally costs gas with all the passes you have to do with the tractor. Some people will put more time and effort into a food plot then they will a large garden which to me seems ridiculous. Regardless, to me a conventionally done food plot seems like the wrong way to create better game habitat. But what if you could create a similar system, but with practically zero work past the establishment of the plot. What if you instead created a wild game meadow that would be self sustaining much in the same way woody browse is largely self sustaining. To me this would be a much more reasonable idea and fit perfectly into my wild game management system.

This is something I've been thinking about for awhile and I have considered doing something similar on my own property. However, this is not my area of expertise and it is going to take a good amount of research to even know a good place to start. The main issue would be to figure out the right seed mix to start the plot. You would have to find a great mix of species likely containing both annual and perennial grasses and forbs that would one, be productive, highly palatable and nutritious game forage. Two, it would have to be adapted to the climate and geography of the property to which it was being planted so that it would reproduce on its own naturally with no need to be reseeded. Three, it would have to be able to withstand the pressure of being grazed by game animals. And lastly it would have to be able to compete with the existing vegetation on the property well enough to need very little extra care. At most, maybe the occasional mowing,  brushhogging, or prescribed fire could be used to get rid of competing vegetation, especially the encroachment of woody species.

These are pretty strict conditions, but I believe that if enough research is done most properties would be able to come up with a suitable mix that would meet all these requirements. It would likely require a ton of trial and error to see what would work best in certain conditions and climates, but over time some recommendations I think could be developed.

I believe if done correctly these “food plots” would resemble a natural meadow with many different species all coexisting together.  Diversity would be very important. Especially when starting out. If a few species die out from the original planting over time then that would be ok, because ideally you would still have a good amount of different species that would still be doing well. Having a high diversity would also help give the game a more nutritious varied diet.

This is something I will continue researching as I admittedly do not really have as good of an understanding of possible forage species for wild game as I do for woody browse species. Nonetheless I think it is a very valuable idea to explore and I will likely write more on the topic later after more research has been done. So stay tuned!

Managing Disturbance on Your Property

A disturbance is any kind of event that kills or gets rid of existing vegetation in an ecosystem. A classic example of a disturbance is a forest fire. A forest fire will kill trees and other vegetation by burning through the bark which prevents nutrients and water from reaching new growth. There are however many types of disturbances. Some natural types include blowdowns from windstorms, volcanic eruptions, overbrowsing by wildlife, insect infestation, disease, flooding and severe drought. There are also man made disturbances such as plowing the soil, logging, brush clearing and mowing. Managing disturbances is an important part of maintaining a property for wild game and the specific techniques you use will depend on many factors such as climate, local wildlife species, types of existing vegetation and management goals.

Climate is one of the most important things to consider when managing disturbance. In general when managing a property for wild game it is best aim for a mosaic of savanna and shrubland habitat. This will consist of open meadow type areas, and scattered trees and shrubs, the exact configuration depending on the game species you're managing for. To create this type of habitat you will have to use certain disturbances such as clearing brush, coppice, and possibly mowing. But this will largely depend on your local climates. On one extreme you have very wet areas that generally succeed to dense climax forests. In these areas you will generally have to create new disturbances quite often due to the fast establishment and growth of trees. This is especially true if your region is already covered in dense forest which will provide an abundant source of new seeds. In these types of areas a clearcut forest can reestablish and start it's growth very quickly turning into a dense brushy stand of new growth in just a few years. On the other extreme is a dry barren desert type area where you will want to almost eliminate any disturbances due to the very slow growth of new trees. On these types of sites you will have to baby your plantings by watering them regularly and providing mulch at least until they are more established. Creating a disturbance in this environment would be counterproductive and set you back too far in succession. In this type of climate you will lean towards more inputs. More seeds, more watering, more mulch, more earthworks, and more work in general just to get your plants established. Where as in very wet areas you will be aiming more for taking away vegetation because of frequent vigorous growth. Another consequence of this is that you will have to closely manage browsing pressure. So for drier properties you would want lower browsing pressure due to the fragility of the habitat so in general this would mean lower game populations especially with browsing species such as deer. On very wet sites you could get away with higher populations and more browsing pressure due to the more vigorous regrowth rate of the vegetation. If you want the least amount of work i would aim towards a middle ground for a climate that is only moderately wet, but also may have occasional dry spells. These types usually will also resemble the habitat your trying to create generally supporting a savanna and/or open woodland/ shrubland type environment.  Although for the highest game densities a wetter environment may be better.

Most properties will not be homogeneous, but will instead consist of several microclimates. These include dry uplands, wet bottoms, cooler and wetter north facing slopes and warmer drier south facing slopes. Your management of disturbance on your property will be different for these different microclimates. In general for drier upland areas and drier south facing slopes I would recommend creating less disturbance than on other areas of your property. This is because these areas are generally harder to get vegetation established. If you create too much disturbance in this area it might take a long time before you can reestablish a significant amount of vegetation. On wetter areas however such as bottoms and on north facing slopes you can generally get away with more disturbances and if you do too much it is more likely to grow back quickly.

The way you manage disturbance will also be dependent on the game species you are managing on your property. For browsing species such as deer you will want a majority of the vegetation to be within their reach so they can make use of the food on your property. This will mean you will have to periodically cut trees and shrubs that have grown too high above the browse line. Most browse species will be able to be cut just above the ground level and should resprout from the root crown. This technique is called coppicing and is a way to manage most hardwood trees and shrubs. Conifers will generally be killed if this is used unless there is still a growing tip left on the foliage, but I would not recommend coppicing conifers as they will most likely die. Other trees I would not coppice are nut and fruit trees, especially large healthy specimens that are producing a large amount of food. Other possible techniques such pollarding and hinge cutting may also be used depending on the existing vegetation and your overall management goals.

For species more adapted to grazing such as elk you will want to have a larger proportion of open meadow type habitats with grass and forbs. For these areas you may need to clear brush or mow occasionally if woody shrubs and trees start to encroach. Another possible option in these areas, especially on larger properties might be to do a controlled burn. This if done right and in a safe manner could drastically improve large open areas with relatively little work. But again make sure you do a ton of research and use professional help because of the dangerous potential for the fire to get out of control.

The way you manage disturbance on your property is very important to developing good wild game habitat. Too much disturbance can destroy too much of the vegetation that is used for food and cover, but not enough could shade out plants at browse height because of shade from tall trees. You will want to study and observe your property to find the right balance so you can create the optimum habitat for the game animals on your property.