Wild Life Habitat

Land owners who want to increase there income and help improve the environment can do so by converting a portion of there land to use as a wildlife habitat. The Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP) provides cost-share assistance to private landowners to help them enhance wildlife habitat areas on their lands. WHIP complements other cost share/incentive programs and provides a mechanism capable of overcoming two major obstacles to increasing wildlife habitat area. First, WHIP compensates landowners for the lack of market incentive to invest in public goods, such as watershed and wildlife protection. Second, it encourages landowners to make long term investments in maintaining the natural resource base (particularly land management practices capable of improving habitat areas).

Helping feed the homeless.


In the absence of government assistance, landowners often abstain from making investments in wildlife habitat enrichment, not only because habitat is a public good, but also because the time horizon involved many habitat projects exceeds landowners planning horizons. Cost share is a proven means of overcoming landowner reluctance to make this sort of long term investment in public goods.

The primary objective of wildlife management on the Forest is to maintain as diverse and complete a population of animals native to the North as possible. This is accomplished by employing forest management practices that create widely varied habitat conditions.

Improving their habitat, integrating wildlife management services with your timber management program can have a profound effect on a landowners profitability and land value.

The number of deer any given property can support is known as the "carrying capacity". The carrying capacity of an unmanaged property varies throughout the year. There is an abundance of forage in the spring and summer months. In the fall, mast crops (acorns, etc.) are the main food item. Because of the lack of forage and mast crops during the lean winter months the deer herd can become stressed.



Timber management techniques, well planned food plots, wildlife feeders and mineral blocks can make up for the lack of food during the lean months of winter. This will help to increase the carrying capacity as well as over all health of the deer herd.

Turkey habitat are centered around the availability of food, water, and absence of predators. Food plots can supplement the existing food sources. Mature hardwoods may be left during the timber harvest to ensure the mast crop are left in tact. Hardwood stands also provide roosting locations in areas that were harvested for timber. In dry areas, ponds or watering locations can be created. Turkeys prefer to roost near water, so the location of water sources is important. Predator control may also be necessary. Bobcats, dogs and coyotes can seriously impact your Turkey population.

Wildlife management activities include harvesting mature timber and developing younger pine stands, protecting lowland hardwood communities, and increasing the non-forested acreage (i.e., grassy fields and areas with early-successional plants) in all divisions. The effective use of undisturbed or carefully manipulated vegetation corridors is another aspect of wildlife management carried out on the Forest. As a result of these activities, Forest supports a wide array of wildlife species.

By implementing wildlife management program landowners can comprised of desirable deer forages such as American beauty berry, beggar's lice, honeysuckle, blackberry, and muscadine. Not only do these high quality deer forages flourish, but their biomass production increased over time with a four-fold increase in forb production and an eleven-fold increase in grass production compared to untreated area. The results are encouraging.

the effects of a combined vegetation management approach involving prescribed fire and fertilizer. The combination of these techniques are known as Quality Vegetation Management%u2122 (QVM). Our goal was to compare the cost of producing quality forages using food plots to the cost of encouraging growth of natural vegetation under the existing pine canopy using QVM.

forestry research has shown that mature pine trees can increase their radial growth rate by as much as six percent after receiving treatments similar to QVM. If this trend continues, and assuming quality saw timber, the volume increase and associated economic return at harvest could easily allow the landowner to recover the QVM investment cost. Because QVM eliminates hardwood stems that normally remain after a timber harvest, it can also assist site preparation for a future timber rotation.

In addition, QVM users may receive more accurate timber pricing bids because foresters can more easily navigate within a QVM-treated stand. Deer are not the only wildlife that can benefit from QVM practices. Burger and Jones reported that QVM-treated areas experienced an increase in total bird species, including early successional birds such as the Bachman's sparrow - a species of concern in the Southeast due to its population decline from loss of open pine habitats.

Game birds such as bobwhite quail and turkey can also flourish in QVM-treated pine stands because such areas create the annual grasses and forbs required for good nesting and brood rearing habitats.

The benefit of QVM to hunters can be dramatic as well. Deer in these native vegetation food plots can often be seen foraging earlier in the afternoon and QVM areas can serve as travel lanes to funnel deer into planted food plots. These areas provide aesthetically pleasing hunting grounds with increased visibility, often leading to improved hunting success.

Properly managed pine stands can provide quality habitat for deer, turkey, quail, and a host of songbirds. Deer managers should consider using a QVM approach in conjunction with traditional food plots to cost effectively improve the nutritional forage base for whitetails. And, by removing unwanted mid story vegetation from forestland, the area becomes more aesthetically pleasing. Active forest management can ensure that trees produce a significant financial return to non industrialized landowners while simultaneously fulfilling their other wildlife-based management goals.

The Quality Deer Management Association works to educate and encourage hunters, managers and landowners to practice proper herd and habitat management techniques. With nearly 30,000 members in 48 states and several foreign countries, the QDMA helps to disseminate accurate, up-to-date information to wildlife professionals, hunters and wildlife enthusiasts.
With patience we can have more wild life to combat hunger for the needy families. We have the resources.

Sources for this report: Quality Deer Management Association, call (800) 209-DEER or visit www.qdma.com.
http://www.imbmonsterbucks.com/info.php?id=75
http://www.fs.fed.us/spf/coop/programs/loa/whip.shtml
http://www.worldclassoutdoors.com/illinois_hunting.htm
http://www.iowadnr.gov/news/io2003.html

Have you ever wondered what it must have been like to hunt whitetails during the 1700s? An old painting shows a Native American stalking a deer in an open, almost park-like, pine forest. This painted warrior was peering around a very large pine tree, standing in knee-high vegetation, patiently waiting for a doe to walk within bow range. Several more deer were visible about 200 yards through the woods. The scene was quite different from what many pine forests and hunting situations look like today.

Deer, rabbits and birds, as well as many endangered and threatened species of plants and animals, benefit from the work of land owners improving the land to increase it values and give aid to public service to increase the wild life in the area.

Habitat management "is basic to wildlife enterprises," says wildlife biologist Russell Stevens, and without it, landowners hoping to add a wildlife management dimension to their farming or ranching operation will be hard-pressed to provide the kind of experience hunters, fishermen, even bird watchers, are willing to pay for.

A wildlife and range specialist at the Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Okla., Stevens says a landowner might be able to do something with pen-raised and released animals on marginal wildlife habitat, but for native wildlife such as whitetail deer, bobwhite quail, and turkey, he has to have the proper habitat - more than a monoculture of bermudagrass or other forage crop."

A combination of uncertain income from traditional agricultural enterprises and a burgeoning demand for outdoor recreation make wildlife management a promising enterprise for landowners, he notes. But a successful operation takes more than declaring a ranch available for lease, guided hunts, or other recreational use.

"Good wildlife habitat includes native rangeland, with a mixture of native grasses and forbs (broadleaved herbaceous plants), brush, and/or timber."

Maintaining an adequate amount of forbs may mean changes in weed control practices for ranchers, Stevens says. "Many ranchers spray every year to kill weeds, but some of those weed species provide excellent food for wildlife."

He says Illinois bundleflower, partridge pea, tick clover, and western ragweed, among others, provide excellent food and cover for birds and mammals, such as bobwhite quail, wild turkey, and deer.

"Most legumes (forbs) are also good, and offer both direct and indirect food sources for quail. The birds can eat the seed produced by forbs, and plant communities dominated by forbs provide excellent 'bugging grounds,' areas that attract a lot of insects. Quail and turkey, especially their poults, rely on insects as a source of protein. Many species of forbs are a very important food source for whitetail deer as well."

Stevens says ranchers interested in implementing a wildlife enterprise must strive to manage for a balance between wildlife and cattle to make the best use of the land.

The traditional landowner's or hunter's management response to this condition is to supplement the habitat by planting food plots. Although valuable, there are certain limitations associated with food plots. First, pine-production acreage must be sacrificed to create food plots, which typically results in only one to two percent of forested property available for food plots. Secondly, food-plot production is sensitive to rainfall patterns, so success varies over time. Lastly, food plots are expensive to establish and maintain. These limitations do not preclude use of food plots as part of the habitat management plan for producing quality deer, but they certainly indicate the need to consider additional options.

If planting a food plot is not always the best option, then what about managing native vegetation? Certain habitat management alternatives can be used to reestablish high-quality habitat, but limitations apply here as well. Prescribed fire can be an effective tool but should not be used in stands with dense midstories, otherwise you might experience what we call a catastrophic, stand-replacement fire. Similarly, a mechanical treatment such as bushhogging undesirable tree species that have the ability to sprout from a stump will simply add to the problem.

The key to reestablishing high-quality upland pine habitat is to essentially "re-capture" the forest from the controlling influence of the undesirable hardwood midstory. The existing hardwood component, with its established root system must be killed, which will open up the forest floor to sunlight. Secondly, the litter layer should be removed to promote the natural establishment of high-quality, shade-intolerant plants, such as legumes and other forbs.

Recapturing High-Quality Habitat

Developing a common strategy over larger acreages is much more effective. ... Integrating Deer, Turkey, and Quail Habitat - Texas Agricultural Extension.

When it comes to attracting wildlife, owners of forestland can focus their management objectives to enhance habitat and increase activity.

Deer habitat is affected by timber management practices. Cutting, thinning, controlled burning, and forest regeneration activities change the amount and quality of deer forage - usually (but not always) for the better. Any activity that opens the forest canopy and allows more sunlight to penetrate will stimulate growth of low-growing plants, thereby increasing the amount of browse available. Timber management practices that improve deer habitat the most are harvesting (cutting), thinning, and controlled burning. Controlled burning, used primarily in pine management, stimulates growth of legumes and other plants that offer additional food for deer. Practices that may be detrimental are clearcutting large blocks (more than 40 acres), converting large acreages to even-aged pine stands, removing cover along streams, and cutting all hardwoods. Stream bottoms and drains should be protected by uncut buffer zones. Avoid taking all hardwoods since deer depend on acorns for a large amount of their winter food. Leave some mature mast-producing hardwoods.

Wild turkeys are birds of the forest during the winter and are found in field margins, cutover areas and openings during the summer. Many activities carried on in these places affect turkey populations because they change turkey habitat. Due to their particular requirements, woodland changes influence wild turkeys more than other forest game species. The woodland owner's management decisions, to a large extent, control the destiny of this popular game bird. Therefore, it is important to consider the wild turkeys' requirements when planning woodland management.

Wild turkeys must have suitable food, shelter, nesting and brooding places and a minimum of disturbance. Habitat requirements of wild turkeys are more critical than for other forest species such as deer, which can adapt to a broader range of conditions. Turkeys spend most of the year in flocks, so habitat must be sufficient to support a flock rather than just a few individual birds.

Oaks are the primary ingredient in wild turkey habitat. Therefore, the hardwood portions of the forest should be managed for maximum acorn production. Hardwood stands should include at least several large acorn- bearing oaks (age 50 to 100 years) per acre. Other mast producers (beech, hickory) should be managed the same way, and the presence of these species is vital in years of low acorn yield. Even small areas with just a few hardwood trees should be maintained if they are good mast-producers. In addition to the large mast-producers, it is important to create and maintain understory species such as dogwood, wild cherry, grapes and berries since all of these are important in the turkeys' year-round diet.

The woodland owner's share of the process is to provide habitat for the animals and the opportunity for hunters to harvest wildlife by granting permission to hunt. The hunter's share of wildlife management is to take the desired number animals within the framework of the regulations, in a safe and sportsmanlike manner, and with proper regard for the landowner and the property.

For more information, contact Marcia Elliott, Livestock/Forestry Agent, Vance & Warren Counties, at 257-3640.

Rural road

source http://southwestfarmpress.com/mag/farming_cattle_wildlife_habitat/
http://www.qdma.com/articles/details.asp?id=97