UP hunting.. horrible or just me?

Unfortunately oak only grows in certain regions of the UP as well. None in my range what so ever. Beech trees still produce nuts in my area on the few trees that still exist. On those years, I do see more deer and consistently using those ridges and areas the do live.

 

While I understand the need to remove the scale or bark diseased trees, I do not understand the need to remove all based on it's likely hood of it appearing. Again, if it's an issue, address it. The eastern UP and northern LP were the areas hard hot with this disease. Alger county had some amd originally back in 2000 was a core area. They removed most of that problem with few trees having it remaining. They continued to remove those with removing the remaining healthy trees as well. It's not only the beech that are being wiped out. These areas are being clear cut and left like moonscapes. No cover or food for deer/bear. I believe this location in my core hunting area is the cause of the deer/bear moving out. I'm no wildlife biologist but speaking to a couple very knowledgeable biologists, they conclude the same. Wiping out huge wooded areas has huge impacts on local populations and they do leave these areas finding better habitat. Maybe this can't be helped and maybe it's not the intent of the project but it is the end result.

 

We do have some Beech on our property in Dickinson County, which I believe is probably close to the end of its range. Every one of our beech trees have bear claw marks on them so I know bears like the nuts which grow only every few years. Hoping the beech bark disease doesn't make it this far west.

We only had 1 lonely Red Oak on our property when we purchased it but I have been planting oaks for years and I am finally getting some acorn production on them. Unfortunately, bears are climbing my young oaks and breaking branches down so they can eat the acorns on the ground.

 

Many times headed to a stand during deer season, I've bumped bears feeding under beech trees. It's a favorite food of bears also. Like I said, not much can be done with the eradicating of beech. I've voiced this clear cut issue on state lands numerous times and many of the clear cuts are happening in Plum Creek or other private lands so that's not even worth questioning. Having a camp close to my hunting grounds makes it tough to want to travel too far to hunt being quads are used to travel to parking locations for hunting. I travel around 4-5 miles on quad to my area as it is. Think I'd scout another hunting location and put a new camp in that location if I had to travel too far by quad.

 

The fewer the beech, the less opportunity there is for BBD to spread from tree to tree (even though wind is a major spreader). It has not yet affected my scattered beech in Menominee either, knock on wood.

Just as an FYI: There are a couple things that I found quite interesting about BBD that were presented at some otherwise somewhat boring symposiums on forest pests. The first was that, in general, trees near the edge of their range seem to have greater genetic diversity and thus there are likely to be a higher percentage of disease resistant trees. The second is that beech with smoother bark seem to be more resistant than the ones with rougher bark.

Another FYI: Beech scale is the predecessor of BBD and can easily be overlooked by the casual observer. Sometimes it takes a year or three until its numbers balloon and turn the trunks of a few trees in an area so white they can be seen from many feet away. It generally takes three to six years after scale appears for trees to die.

Then there is something called "beech snap", a result of BBD. It doesn't occur on all infected trees but is common enough to be concerned about and named. On many infected trees a person might see the potential for it but it can also occur on seemingly healthy trees if the scale and resulting cankers are high enough so as not to be easily observed. In the interest of "an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure" and "better safe than sorry", beech have been removed from several campgrounds because of this very real possibility. As far as hunting around beech on windy days, keep an eye out! FM

 

My boys(3) and I last hunt for the UP rifle season, no deer sightings yesterday or today so far , have most of the bucks on cam still but all at night except a small spike. Still holding some hope for one of them to connect tonight. Not the best for us up here this season

 

Smoke a pack a day, save the Up deer heard.

 

Good luck. I wish I had some time off to go back up there. This was the first year in a long time that we had quite a few bucks on camera.

 

Not trying to be the turd in your kids sand box but I did exactly what you wanted to do. Hunted from the 15th thru the 20th. Came home because temps and wind were very bad. Headed back up that following Sunday morning cause heard temps were starting to drop and snow coming in. Well, snow was only a skiff and warm temps returned. Wind was up some again too. All cam pics showed night time activity. Came home Thanksgiving morning to try my property here. Monday snow coming up in. I guess I'll chalk up this years hunt to the rest of 2020... Different !!!

 

I was up from November 2-16. I would like to head up the end of December if I could.

 

I didn't bow hunt our camp this year as I usually do. Typically we bow hunt from the 8th thru the 13th, take a day off getting ready for the gun opener and hunt another 7-10 days. This year I hunted Ohio from Nov 2nd thru the 11th. Headed to the UP on the 12th. I'm also thinking I'll muzzleload the UP for 3-4 days maybe more depending on how it goes. Next year I'll be back to doing a back to back bow/rifle hunt in the UP. 2021 can only go one direction luck wise compared to 2020. Look forward to it. Lots of fishing from winter thru summer to keep busy between now and then. Good luck.

 

But what about the silent ones?

 

Just a point...CFR lands do not allow motorized vehicles on their holdings, only foot traffic. Plum Creek is not very lenient on this point, from several incidents I have heard of in Delta county

Red Oak comprises about 20% of the UP forest area, yet it has a disproportionate benefit via its mast, just like beech. Another point that should have been offered earlier to Trophy Specialist's complaints about MDNR Wildlife Div. management; the MDNR has oversight of roughly 20% of the 10.6 million acres Again, roughly three quarters of the deer up here live on less that 30% of the land area. This is one of the successful side benefits of the UP Habitat Work Group's efforts since they have been able to get State, Federal Forest, Private Corporate Forest and private land owners to participate in this coordinated common effort to stabilize and then restore key Winter Deer Complexes throughout the Upper Peninsula.

 

No worries on ATV use on Plum Creek or any other paper company properties in my area. Can't speak for other areas but I've spoke to several Plum Creek personnel on the property in the decades hunting here and it's never an issue on their lands. Same with Kimberly Clark and Weyerhaeuser lands. 4x4 trucks, Jeeps and SxS vehicles all use the lands equally. Camping is allowed also.

 

Neither Plum Creek nor Weyerhaeuser own those lands any more. I would also strongly doubt Kimberly-Clark owns much, if any, land at all. Plum Creek sold it all to Weyerhaeuser who in turn sold it all to a small TIMO (Timber Investment Management Organization) out of Vermont - Lyme Timber - still a bit less than a year ago.

https://www.lymetimber.com/portfolio/lyme-great-lakes-timberlands/

What their policies are on their CFR holdings I wouldn’t know. But when land changes hands, the past is often irrelevant.


At least the Red Oak and Northern/Upland Pin Oak had an OK crop this year in some places. I doubt that the fairly rare UP Bur Oak did though, but possibly.