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.

The Case for Hunting and Gathering (And Trapping and Fishing)

I strongly believe that humans are hardwired to be hunter gatherers. Whether you believe we evolved on the African savanna or were created in the garden of eden people were designed to acquire their sustenance from nature's abundance.

In ancient times the majority of people's lives revolved around acquiring food. Yes we still needed to build shelters and find water but these were relatively simple and straightforward tasks that didn't require too much time or effort. Hunting on the other hand led us to create the first tools, spears and knives to take down and process game. It also gave us an important reason to speak so that we could coordinate a hunt and express a strategy to take down large and dangerous game like mammoths. Watch any documentary about modern hunter gatherers and you'll realize that most of what they talk about is food.

In modern times even people in industrialized countries show signs of being hunter gatherers. Look at the concept of shopping. People go to grocery stores and malls to “forage” for food and goods and many find this a very pleasurable experience even to the point where they would call it a hobby. For many people this is the closest thing we have to actually foraging in the wild for our food. Then there are people who like to go hiking and exploring the backcountry, which helps fill this need to see new territory and find out what's over the next ridge. In ancient times this wanderlust helped us scout for game and find new hunting territory as well as productive fruit and nut areas to forage.

Then there are people who just love to hunt like myself. There is a huge industry around hunting in America today.  It makes you wonder why would people want to spend so much time, money and effort wanting to go out and kill something, drag it out of the woods and butcher it themselves when they could much more easily just go buy meat at the store? I think the answer is that there is something innate in people that gives them an immense amount of pleasure for pursuing and harvesting wild game. I believe it's just what we're meant to do. This feeling is somewhat hard to explain to somebody who's never hunted before, but it is commonly expressed by first time hunters how they feel this deep connection with the hunt that they never realized they could experience before.

Like hunting, practically everyone who has ever gone out and picked wild berries would describe it as an all around great experience. You get to be out in nature and there are these sweet little treats just growing wild without any human intervention. It's hard not to smile when picking an eating wild berries. Even people who plant berry bushes or an apple tree in their yard will tell you how cool and fun it is to get food right off the branch. It's just an experience we are designed to enjoy because for centuries it helped keep us alive.

Another huge reason I advocate harvesting wild foods is because they are simply healthier than modern foods. Wild foods generally have much higher nutrient contents than their domestic counterparts. For plants a big part of this is because in nature there are no pesticides or fertilizers applied to them so they are forced to create their own in the plants themselves. Also the fact they generally grow in healthier undisturbed soils with all the soil organisms that help distribute nutrients throughout the entire plant. Then you have the wild game that is generally eating mostly wild foods unlike many domestic animals which eat mostly processed feed. Since the wild game are eating mostly a variety of nutrient dense wild plants then their meat becomes more nutrient dense as well.

Many now argue that the modern diet is so deficient in nutrients that it is actually a huge reason why things like cancer, heart disease and many other ailments are becoming so common. People are essentially becoming malnourished because the foods they eat are so nutrient poor causing our bodies to become weaker and less resilient. To me this makes sense and I believe if everyone ate wild food then at the very least many of the common diseases we see today would be less prevalent.  

Another huge reason I advocate hunting and gathering is because it helps us place a real value on nature. There is this common mindset today that is shared by people who claim to be environmentalists that we should completely leave nature alone and just take ourselves out of the picture. They might advocate that hunting and fishing and any kind of human development be banned in our wild spaces because they think that it is better for nature if humans are completely out of the picture. I think this is hugely misguided. While I do agree that human activity has done some major harm to the natural world, that doesn't mean humans are fundamentally bad for nature. In fact it is hunters and other outdoorsman that help fund the vast majority of wildlife conservation. That is because we are able to place an actual value on nature because it is able to produce things for us that we need and want. Hunters give money to fund wildlife conservation because they actually will get a return on their investment by having a better hunting experience with more plentiful game. If we get to the point where we ban hunting then we will have no real reason to value nature. Yeah it will be pretty to look at and the fresh air is always nice, but it doesn't have any real tangible benefit for people and  nobody will really see value in conserving it.

The reality of the situation is that people are meant to interact with and be a part of nature, not to look at it like this foreign separate thing. It's true we have degraded lots of ecosystems, cut down vast forests and desertified once fertile areas, but I believe we have the ability to heal the land as well by working with nature to make it possibly even more productive than it had been previous to human intervention. By using techniques like permaculture we can establish healthy and productive ecosystems in areas that were once barren and lacked hardly any wildlife. And if we did this to the world's degraded lands then we could once again rely on nature to help us meet our needs especially when it comes to getting healthy nutritious food and we would have a better reason to then preserve it's bounty.

Some people say we cannot feed the world on a diet of wild foods, because these wild ecosystems are just not productive enough. I think this is true for now, but if we started turning places like the midwest back into fertile prairie and savanna, instead of the industrialized monocultures of corn, soybeans and wheat, then we could turn them into productive hunting and foraging meccas that could potentially feed even more people than what is currently produced there. I'd advocate planting fruit trees, berry bushes, edible meadow plants, and nut trees. I'd bring back the elk and the bison and encourage current populations of deer, bears and turkeys to expand. I'd create ponds, swamps and wetlands to create habitat for fish and waterfowl. It would become a paradise for us to feed ourselves from the land and it would be more productive, sustainable and resilient than any kind of modern agriculture going on right now. At least that is my vision. So if we were able to create a paradise like this then yes I believe we would be able to feed the world off wild foods.

So that is my case for hunting and gathering (and trapping and fishing). To me, almost any way you look it, it seems like it would be a better way for people to feed themselves. It would be better for us, better for the environment and more productive and sustainable.  I'm not saying we'd have to live primitively like ancient hunter gatherers, on the contrary I think we still could benefit from all our modern technology and economy, but the main difference is we would be healthier, happier and just better off just because that's what harvesting and eating wild foods can do for you.

How to Live the Almost-No-Money Lifestyle

One of the major benefits of managing a property for wild game in the way I talk about is that you can create a sustainable food source that over time will be practically free. This fact is a huge contributing factor for why I endorse this land management strategy. However, there are many other things you can do to live a lifestyle that approaches $0. While this post will be a little off topic compared to my other posts I think it can tie in nicely to the lifestyle I talk about.

One of my major goals in life is to reduce my expenses as much as possible, especially recurring expenses. Things like a mortgage, student debt, rent, power bills, gas, food etc. are all recurring expenses that most people have to pay. But each one can be reduced, and most can be done away with completely.

Let's look at housing.  The vast majority of people either rent or have a mortgage. This is usually a huge chunk of a person's annual costs. The solution to this is to use cash to purchase a house or bare land and park a trailer or build your own home. Now most people can't afford to do this which is why you need to plan very carefully on how to save up money first. This takes a lot of discipline and hard work, but I believe practically everyone can do it no matter how bad their current financial situation is. It just takes a lot of sacrifice and a minimalist lifestyle.

Once you have your own home most other things become easier because that's the largest chunk of money in most people's annual expenses. Now obviously I’d recommend you buy a property with at least 5 acres to hunt and grow food on so your annual cost of food could be brought down to near zero. Some other things I'd recommend are avoiding any other kind of debt like student loans and a car payment. This is essential in getting rid of recurring expenses. If, for example, you have to go to college, which I would discourage the vast majority of people from doing, then I would definitely find a way to do it without taking on any debt. Like buying a house with cash though, it is hard to do and takes hard work and sacrifice.  

Here are some ways to get rid of monthly utility bills. For electricity I highly recommend getting solar panels. This is a one time expense and once you have them they will give you free energy for a long time. You just need to maintain them well. I also recommend doing things to conserve energy in general that way you don't need as much and there are a million different things you can do for that.

For water the best solutions are digging a well, developing a spring and collecting rainfall from your roof. Again these are all 1 time expenses that once they're paid for will last you a long time.

While getting rid of your phone and internet bill is impossible unless you just want to completely cut them out, you can get bare minimum plans that will help save you a lot of money. And it's not impossible to live without phone and internet, but it would be a pretty big sacrifice.

For gas for your car the best solution is to get a very efficient vehicle. Maybe consider getting a scooter or small motorcycle that has really good gas mileage. Another thing you can do is try to not drive a lot. If you have to commute to work then live really close by so your gas bills will be reduced. Another exciting new alternative would be to get an electric vehicle and charge it with solar power. Most electric cars are still very expensive but this new technology is improving fast and it's likely there will be more affordable options fairly soon.

Lastly there is food. This one is what my blog focuses on the most. I think hunting and foraging for food instead of buying it at the store has huge benefits. And if you set up your property like I talk about in my blog then I think this way of acquiring food could be completely sustainable in the long run. The only costs would be hunting license/tags which are very cheap compared to buying food at the grocery store. Then there is all the hunting equipment you need such as weapons and ammo etc. But most of it is a small one time buy except maybe ammo. But nonetheless this way of getting food would be much less expensive than the grocery store. Also some other ways of getting free food are scavenging roadkill which sounds gross but as long as it's fresh there's really nothing to worry about. Also foraging for wild plants and mushrooms on public lands can be done for free. In some areas where there are nuisance animals like feral pigs and beavers people will actually pay you to remove them, so there's a way to get food and get paid at the same time.

So what would an almost no-money lifestyle look like? Well let's say you graduate high school and instead of going to college you decide to get 2 dead end jobs and work your ass off for a few years while still living with your parents (I did this for 1 year and saved over $20,000). Alternatively, if your parents aren't as generous you can live out of a van to save money on rent only paying for gas and food (I also did this for a year). But anyways you save up a good chunk of cash and buy a cheap bare land property. Next you can buy a cheap used camper trailer and park it on your property while you save money to build a cabin. You build a cabin, collect the rainwater off the roof, install solar panels and manage your property to attract game animals to hunt. Many of the trees you plant to attract game will also produce food for you such as fruits and nuts. You shoot some game animals fill your freezer, pick some fruit and nuts, maybe grow a small garden for some veggies and you are pretty set.

You can do all this while at the same time working and saving most of it in order to finance the establishment of the lifestyle. But once all of this is established your only annual expenses might be property taxes, a phone/internet bill, hunting liscences/tags, health and car insurance, maybe a little bit of gas if you don't have an electric vehicle, and that's pretty much it. And if done right all of these expenses can be greatly minimized too so that you will have extremely low annual expenses. So much so that you can work much less than the vast majority of people and retire very early. Or you could keep working and save a ton of money for international vacations , “toys” like a boat or 4 wheelers, starting a business or give it to charity. If you minimize your cost of living to this super low point then the biggest gain is freedom.

So here are some of the main takeaways. Don't get into debt. If you already have debt get rid of it as quickly as possible. Work hard for a few years and save up money for your biggest expense which will be your property. Try to reduce all your other expenses as much as possible. If something seems too extreme do it anyways as you can always adjust later on.

So while a lot of this does seem extreme I have personally done a lot of these things in order to save money and the ones I haven't done I've researched enough to know they could be easily done. So if your dream is to live free knowing that your lifestyle costs practically nothing while at the same time owning property that you can hunt on and feed yourself from then I recommend trying a few of the things I've talked about so you can live free too.

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.