Habitat in the NLP

[#1duck]

What should the state be doing to help deer habitat in the NLP? And what can we as hunters do to help deer habitat on sate land? I am asking about STATE land not private.

[Luv2hunteup]

Contact your state representative and have them push to release the $6M that has been collected for deer range improvements.

One of the cheapest things for the state to do is clearcut land. I wish they would do more cuts on the mature forests in the UP. The fed controls much of the area near my land so I don't expect any changes in the near future.

[A-plus]

But for the area were I usually hunt there is plenty of cutting going on in the upland areas, providing good habitat from spring through fall with lots of Aspen clearcuts, hardwood thinnings and pine plantation management. What we are sorely lacking is winter habitat work in the traditional 'yards'. Most of them are very old, with much of the browse long since eaten off by excessive numbers of deer in years past. This is to say that while the DNR stands to make some money from habitat work in the upland areas, it costs money to do the work for good winter habitat.

The problem seems to be that there is a market for them to sell the Aspen, Maple, Oak, Beech, Pine, etc..., that needs to be managed. However there is not much market for the Hemlock, Spruce, Tamarack, or even Cedar that needs to be cut in the difficult-to-harvest lowlands to promote regeneration of new growth for the deer and other wildlife that use these areas in the winter. If you also factor in that due to still excessive herd sizes in some areas, much of the work would not pay off because the deer would eat it faster than it could regenerate. Work in these areas is compounded because it is expensive to operate equipment in them, potentially very harmful to ecosystems if done incorrectly and traditional clear-cutting methods, which are most profitable for the loggers, are often devastating for the habitat.

[#1duck]

In what areas of th NLP are there "excessive herd sizes" ? Not trying to be a smart @ss I'd just like to know.

[A-plus]

#1Duck - I don't think it is a smart ass question at all, and I don't mean that there are necessarily lots of deer, just excessive for the amount of winter habitat available. Around my house last year, with an average of probably less than 10 deer/square mile, and a fairly average to mild winter, we still had a few deer die of starvation, though the coyotes killed several weak ones before starvation got them. It is not that the herd is very big, but that the winter habitat is in that bad of shape. Even this winter, which is very mild so far, I have been watching deer feeding on hemlock, spruce and tag alder already. Had a cedar fall over in the big winds a couple weeks ago and it was nearly completely eaten within 24 hours.

[Ogre]

I think we need thousands of more acres of Jack Pines (tongue in cheek).

[wagoneer]

A-plus, you have made some of the same observations I have. My hunting partners were very frusted with the reduced herd in our area, but as I look around, I don't see any prefered browse species and very few medium browse species, (at least as well as I know them).

I am not convinced clear-cutting alone will do the trick anymore. I wonder if there are enough 'seeders' out there of good natural deer feed to repopulate a clearcut or if they are now growing in with species less desireable to deer. The cuts around my area, and there are many, grow a mix of aspen and some brush I have not identified, but I have scouted around it and while there is a lot of traffic in the older woods next to the cuts, there is little to NO traffic in the clearcuts.

This heading to this thread is a good question. Other than lobbying for habitat improvements is there anything we can do? Like request a volunteer program be allowed, kind of like they have for trees to be planted in public parks and right-of-ways?

I hear Pennsylvannia started fencing off areas to keep deer out and monitered them to see what grows inside the fence. Is this feasible in MI? Is it worthwhile? I don't know, but at least it shows an interest by their DNR in something other than forestry industry and the Kirtland Warbler.

[MI newguy]

How does clear cutting cost the D.N.R. anything. A buddy of mine is into wood cutting and owns his own business. They are selling the wood in these area's they have clear cut to the highest bidder. Wonder where all that money goes???????? Plus in my area over the past ten years they have even sold state land to private individuals.

I think many people see more deer in the Lower section of the state, because of the shrinking area the deer have to live. With all the development going on the woods are disappearing. Leaving less land for the deer to roam.

[beer and nuts]

More clearcutting--not around here thank you!! My perspective on clearcutting around here is, poor management after the clearcut. I think they are clueless on when to chip the tops or leave the deck with the tops and the decision is based on $$ and not habitat improvements for wildlife. Row plantings of red pine do thing but board feet in 25 years--which is fine, but again nothing for wildlife improvements. There is virtually no select burning going on anymore which needs to be done on alot of parcels around NE Michigan in order to get the regeneration of jackpines(the only thing that grows in alot of areas around here) and for that matter other "pine" trees, which produces thick stands that a ton of wildlife love. Aspen/hardwood cuttings do reproduce some fine stands of young growth BUT it also depends on what they do with the forest floor, whether they chip the tops or leave them or something in-between.

Also, winter grounds for deer(yards) such as large cedar yards and hemlock etc.. are for the most part not there for a food source but are used for survival, a complex and intersting part of of survival for deer. Basically a deer yard has less snow(canopy above) creating less energy to walk, provides a warmer temperature-sometimes up to 5 degrees difference or more, brings deer together which provides more eyes for predation but also is natures way of weeding out the weak in a large herd. Its not regeneration of winter yards that is needed but the destruction of winter yards that needs to be limited, we keep taking away the fringes of these yards little by little that is the problem.

[A-plus]

Beer And Nuts - You make some very good points about a lot of the yard areas being chipped away around the edges. The increasing land conversion for residential purposes is a habitat problem all over the country with no easy solutions in sight. But a deer yard in good condition does provide a certain amount of food for the herd staying there in the winter. There are many plants available in a yard in good condition, including green foliage under the snow, dogwoods, willows and nanny-berry bushes, even the cedars, which are considered to be a prime winter food. These have to be available in amounts that can help get the herds through the coldest part of the winter when the snows are deepest. A cedar tree that has no branches within 7 feet of the ground, offers no food for the deer, just thermal cover. So, yes, there needs to be some regeneration promoted in the yards, or in a normal to hard winter, they are just a place for the deer to go and starve to death.