Habitat management

[Etxnoodler]

We got our 1100 acres 18 months ago. So far we have had a dozer out to clear a ton of roads which created brush piles and places for forbs and grasses to grow. We also expanded 2 tanks to almost double what they were so if/when we get rain they will be a lot bigger. In the process of clearing the roads we found a couple of springs/seeps so we had the dozer create a water hole there. Our best one has about 3' of water in it without any rain. In the next month we will plant deer plots, dove plots and about 5 acres of native seeds focused on deer. My goal is to plant 5 acres of native seeds every year and after a few years have the existing plantings start expanding naturally.

The first 18 months have been primarily focused on set up for us including stands & feeders, clearing roads and cabin build. Now that most of that is complete our focus will hopefully shift to habitat management.

Is there a way to get rid of cedar with out equipment? Chain saw I'm assuming but will they come back? Or is there a spray like remedy that can be used as well to help combat cedars?

Cedars will not resprout. Burning will kill them if hot enough. Or just cut, no need to paint stumps

[HappyM]

Great thread.

I am retired now and my favorite thing to do is try to make my place better by improving the habitat. Our place was overgrown with dense yaupon thickets, huisache infested flats and thick late growth pastures that had not been grazed in some years. The first thing we did was work on existing food plots, expanding some and adding others. This was beneficial and pulled in the deer but the real prize was the other 95% of the ranch!

I worked with several TPWD biologists and ranchers I respected to develop a plan for each habitat type. . I also get a lot of good ideas from Grant Woods growingdeer.tv.

About 40% of our place was mature hardwood thickets with a dense yaupon understory.
I have run a dozer and a mulcher through these areas on a quilt pattern to open up the understory and allow the sun to hit the ground. The response has been amazing. Sa far I have attacked about 20% of this habitat type. In part of the impacted area we have taken out canopy trees to open it up even more. In areas with huge mature oaks we have completely cleared under them to allow for more turkey roost habitat to hopefully encourage more turkeys to hotel with us. I have yet to decide if the mulcher or the dozer is more effective in this habitat. The dozer is expensive and leaves lots of piles and tends to need to remove more young trees to maneuver through the big trees but is very definitive at removing whatever you target. . A mulcher is very quick and selective but you get resprouting very quickly which then involves follow up management like spraying and fire. We have stated using prescribed fire through this habitat but have only seen what I would call positive response after we used either a dozer or mulcher. Think yaupon just does not burn well under controlled conditions.

30% of our habitat was thickly infested huisache flats. I have found the best tool by far here is a D5. If soil conditions are right you can do a good job getting a bunch of the roots and you stimulate a lot of forb growth with the disturbance. Follow up spraying and fire will keep it down but you do get some regrowth and new growth. You really got to stay on top of it. The really cool part about this habitat is it is often along side some of our drainages. When you get rid of the water hogging huisache you get AMAZING flush of forbs and native grasses. It’s kind of scary the first time because you are removing a lot of cover but in our spotlight surveys we see most of our deer count where we have removed the huisache. The biologist also tell me this is the best brooding habitat we have on the ranch. We are about 50% through this habitat and my goal is to completely convert this habitat into early succession native openings. (Remember 40% is hardwood cover)

The remaining 30% was “improved” grassland or overly mature native-ish pastureland. We are deploying a pair of tools on these habitats. We are using fire on the improved pastures and cattle on the overly mature pastures. We have done either 2 or 3 rotations through these areas and I am so excited about the flush of new growth we are seeing. Although I am not sure we can sustain it, we are going to try to deploy the regenerative grazing practices on some parts of this habitat to see if we can improve what appears to be very depleted soils. The remainder we will be doing quicker rotational grazing essentially using the cattle as lawn mowers and disturbance.

We have also done other projects like increasing water availability , an irrigation project, a small peach and pecan orchard, turkey roost development, and trapping lots of nest raiders.

So what have I observed?
1) our deer herd is thriving and our body weights are way up while protein consumption has been essentially flat. We have shot several bucks exceeding 220 pounds. Lots of good groceries.
2) we have more turkeys. Still not very many and I would love to have a lot more but they are now living on us vs just visiting and this spring I have seen more than we have ever seen at this time of year.
3) we have doves but just not during the darn season. All the disturbance has brought on huge flushes on croton, clovers, native grasses, and some bare ground that has brought in lots of doves during late summer and late winter. Still working this.
4) we now have a few coveys of quail. A couple years ago I saw my first quail chicks ever on the ranch. The last few years we had 3 or 4 coveys until late Sept early October when we see alot of hawks coming through. Fingers crossed they get a better hold as the regrowth happens.
5) lots of rabbits

I bought the place 12 years ago and I can see the improvements taking place but it does not happen overnight. Lots of work and it takes time for Mother Nature to repair years of abuse and neglect. We are going to keep biting off bite size projects and making steady progress. I think late succession woody invasion like yaupon , huisache, cedar and others are a big part of the problem particularly with ground nesting birds and to some extent the deer herd.
In my experience , the critters I want on my place thrive in early succession phase of almost any habitat. God bless and all the best.

[HappyM]

A few pics

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[cehorn]

Cedars will not resprout. Burning will kill them if hot enough. Or just cut, no need to paint stumps

Good to know. I always thought they did but sounds like I may need to teach the kids how to run a chain saw and turn them loose....

[hog_down]

Cedars will not resprout. Burning will kill them if hot enough. Or just cut, no need to paint stumps

Incorrect, red berry cedar (juniper) WILL resprout. Blue berry cedar, if cut below the first branch, will not resprout, and die. Both are found in Texas.

[EastTexun]

Incorrect, red berry cedar (juniper) WILL resprout. Blue berry cedar, if cut below the first branch, will not resprout, and die. Both are found in Texas.

Can confirm that the red will resprout, even if cut even to the ground.

[Etxnoodler]

Incorrect, red berry cedar (juniper) WILL resprout. Blue berry cedar, if cut below the first branch, will not resprout, and die. Both are found in Texas.

Eastern red CEDAR will not resprout if cut off at the ground.

[Bjayroe]

Your plan sounds pretty comprehensive. Good work!

[Etxnoodler]

Burned another 37 acres last for the year. This was probably 17 year old pine plantation.

[El Paisano]

Filled out the paperwork for changing my county appraisal from timber to wildlife. One important note. After I cut the pine timber last year I had some really big tops. If I had left them there to dry and later burned the place, it would have made the flame tops very high and likely let the fire get away across the property lines. While the guys were building the lake I had them bring out another D6 with a rake on the blade. They raked up all the big tops and burned them, but the other big benefit was that in the process the rake rooted up most of the yaupon. Yes, it cost $250/hr, but look at the benefit.
By the way, I have been seeing a lot of doves, some ducks and geese have stopped in for visits, and large raptors. Deer are looking good, and not a hog sighted for months.