Wildlife Habitat – Scenic Rivers Farm & Forest Consulting LLC

January 27, 2021January 27, 2021

Observations of snow, snow-clothes, wildlife, and how God made the world.

If you grew up in a region that had snow, you might remember a few things as I do. Snow is cold, and the air that helps form it is COLD! Brisk wind blowing across my face made my cheeks cold and often numb. I remember feeling vulnerable at times, imagining life without the clothes provided for me, and thankful that they were. If you had as much snow as I remember, I often made tunnels and such in the snow. One thing I remember very well about tunneling in the snow, was just how warm it was in there, and how wonderfully quiet and serine the earth was around me. I loved it! I understood the result as a child, but didn’t understand the science behind it, but I experienced clearly that snow was a good insulator as long as the snow wasn’t touching my skin. The snow only aided in keeping me warm if I had good clothes on.

The earth is similar in this way, in that the earth surface can keep warmer, and become more inhabitable if it has “good clothes” ( Matt 6:28-29 ) on between it and the snow, and the COLD air above it. The better the clothes, the more hospitable the ground is for important soil biology and the wildlife that make their living at ground level (rabbits, quail, etc.)
The snow is nothing to fear when you have good clothes ( Prov 31:20-21 ).

Observe the difference in this picture (1/27/21) and note that where you can see plenty of brown above the snow in the Native Warm Season Grass field, there is a network of void space in and under the canopy of grass bunches. In the food plot which is primarily clover this year (not designed for cover) the snow is in close proximity to the soil surface and not a place for small game and wildlife to find refuge and warmth.

Consider putting some clothes on your open land, some good clothes. Your land and the wildlife that use it will benefit.

This video from 2019 shows when the food plot had a good stand of cold hardy brassicas in it and still provided food in winter, but as it transitioned and clover became the primary food source, so went the deep winter food. BUT, the video showcases the voids under the snow, the winter clothing if you will.

November 29, 2018January 31, 2019

Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) Pays in more ways that one! (new study shows)

Good forest management involving proper timber harvest and TSI not only benefits you, but also benefits the wildlife that use your forest. Let me briefly highlight for you a few of those benefits, and share a new study from the MSU Deer Lab that supports our observations:

Increases health and productivity. Forests that are thinned so that the best trees are maximizing the available growing space are healthier and grow to their full potential. Watch this short video from a previous post and see it in action as I explain the process!
Increases advance regeneration. TSI removes or sets back undesirable trees in the forest to make room for oak seedlings to sprout and gather enough sunlight to stay alive. This banking of an adequate amount of advance regeneration is important for when a tree blows down or needs to be harvested, the growing space will be occupied by a desirable oak tree. (See a previous post for further explanation)
Increases browse for deer and cover for wildlife. Most trees that are cut during a TSI operation will re-sprout with a flush of new tender shoots that are desirable browse for deer. The downed trees provide immediate cover for wildlife, and the new found sunlight on the forest floor initiates growth of desirable herbaceous plants. (see a good example here!)
September White Oak acorns are an important wildlife food.
Increases mast (acorn) production. Proper thinning of forests increases health and growth of crop trees. If a healthy oak tree has a opportunity to expand its crown it will grow more terminal buds . Consequently, the flowers that grow the acorns start from these buds, and the leaves and the twigs that support them come from these buds. The more buds the more acorns, and the more buds the more leaves, and the more leaves the more growth (see #1).

A new study from the Mississippi State University Deer Lab puts some actual numbers to our observations showing that crown release thinning of white oak trees increased acorn production between 47% and 65%. That is a significant increase! An increase like that will certainly be noticed by deer and turkey in your neck of the woods after proper thinning is done.

September 25, 2018

Fall is here!

Sometime, usually in early September, the first noticeable “cold” front of the year bringing a slight chill to the air and the beginning of the end of summer. Its hard to describe how it approaches and even harder to predict the exact moment it sneaks up on me, but it always does.

I don’t think its merely a temperature change, but also the combination of associated smells and feelings that pave the way. None the less, thoughts and anticipations of hunting season and all the trimmings sneak their way in. Trimmings? Yes, thoughts of even cooler frosty mornings, quieter evenings in a tree stand, longer views through the woods, chili & cornbread suppers, pumpkin pie and another log on the fire start to sound wonderful at the end of a busy hot summer.

Hopefully you’ve spent a few of the last hot summer days preparing, doing habitat work and planting your fall food plots.

Now is the time to take an easy walk, surveying your work, dreaming of that big buck, and your magic moment.

Join me as I survey habitat, my labor of love on the first day of Autumn.

July 18, 2018July 18, 2018

Old trees arn’t always big! (maximizing growing space)

I’ve heard the way to manage timber is to “cut the big old trees and leave the small young trees to grow into big old trees and then do it all over again in about 10 to 20 years or so”.

That method of tending the forest sounds intuitive enough and quite good and reasonable, but unfortunately in our oak and pine forest systems, its just not that simple, and quite frankly, slowly degrades forest production and quality.

In a generally even aged forest (for which most of the central hardwood forest is comprised) its important to understand first, how these 4 concepts below interact:

How trees grow
Shade tolerance
How trees interact with each other
Tree age

How trees grow – Trees are like factories, where production is dependent on how many workers (leaves) can gather sunlight, convert carbon, and store it in the warehouse (trunk or stem) as wood.

Shade tolerance – Not all trees respond to light and shade the same way throughout their lifespan.

How trees interact with each other – If a tree doesn’t have enough light it will either not grow at all and die, or it will grow slowly and with poor form.

Tree age – Certain species of trees will only live to a certain age range, and must interact with other trees to gain a competitive advantage to become a large productive tree.

If two or more trees start as seedlings with plenty of light, generally a few of those trees gain advantages by either genetic superiority or a localized patch of good soil to get started. Once those few trees gain the advantage, the advantage carries with them through most of their growth and life.

More sunlight means more workers (leaves) to invest in, and therefore bigger roots, more branches to support more leaves, more height, more sunlight to catch, and the process gains traction from there into a big dominant tree.

The trees that don’t gain the competitive advantage early, fall further and further behind and go into survival mode, which means they only invest in enough leaves and growth for the limited light it receives under the shadow of the bigger trees.

For these suppressed trees, this means less branches, smaller root systems, and ultimately a smaller stem. These trees do this and ride it out until they don’t get enough sunlight at all and die, or until they reach the end of their lifespan (maturity) and then die. Often times, these suppressed trees are mistaken for younger trees, and its assumed that if given room to grow, they will grow into a big old tree.

Lets look at a live example:

Note: This vertical panoramic picture exaggerates how bent over the tree looks. Its actually a fairly straight tree.

If a black oak tree can only live 90 – 100 or so years on a fair growing site, then both of these trees only have 10 to 20 years left to occupy the growing space.

There are many factors to discuss here, and many of them to long winded for a blog post, as if this post wasn’t already long winded enough. But a few take home points from all this information would be:

Don’t assume a small tree is a young tree, and it will grow big if you cut the big tree next to it. Often times, it wont!
Evaluate which trees to cut in a stand based on their ability to provide the most return and value for you and wildlife in that limited growing space for the long haul.
In an oak forest, don’t let suppressed trees get to old or die before they are cut. Oak trees can sprout from a cut stump using the existing root system and will contribute as a future tree in the forest. If a tree dies, the root system dies with it. Use that process to your advantage.
Use a trained forester with experience to help you manage your timber. It pays now and into the future!