Category: Habitat Management

The white-tailed deer hunting season has closed on most hunters, but there is a new season among us, something I have termed “mid-winter deer habitat management season.” Admittedly, it’s kind of a long name and unfortunately it’s not a hunting season, but the deer and other wildlife found on your property will definitely benefit from it. It’s during this mid- to late-winter time that many landowners and hunters put whitetail deer out sight and out of mind, but the animals that you will be hunting next year are still out there, right now. If you have ever needed a reason to stay out in the field during late January and February this is it.

The time from late January through the month of February is one of the best periods to perform on-the-ground deer habitat management. The practices performed during this time will positively impact the deer on your property throughout the year. These practices include prescribed burning, brush control and tree thinning, and protecting bottomland areas. These management practices will not only improve the health of the plant communities found on your property, but also increase the quantity and quality of deer foods for the whitetail that live there. Other deer management activities that can be performed during this period include spring food plot preparation and predator control. When combined, all of these practices will lead to improve deer hunting on your land.

Habitat Management Practices for Whitetail Deer

Prescribed Burning – This is one of the least expensive deer habitat management practices out there on a per acre basis, but it’s also one of the least used. The benefit of prescribed burning and well-applied fire on habitat for deer and other critters had been well documented. The time to burn for increased cool-season forb production was months ago, but you still have time to pull off a late winter burn that will promote native grasses. Grass comprises very little of a whitetail’s diet, but they will readily utilize nutrient-rich grasses following post-fire green-up. Native grasses also provide valuable fawning cover later in year. Burning as a habitat management practice should be completed before mid-February.

Brush Control & Forest Thinning – This is one of the more popular deer management practices, but sometimes the word “brush” is over-applied. Make sure that the brush being removed is not a browse plant that the whitetail in your area rely on. Most of the brush species out there do provide some benefit, whether it be from leaf or fruit, but not all. These undesirables should be the target of removal, making space for forbs and better browse plants and to decrease competition for water. Complete removal of brush can occur in small patches, but avoid the desire to open up huge blocks of land (i.e. 100 contiguous acres) in the name of deer management. Smaller clearings take more work, but they also provide more edge. Whitetail deer are edge species, so limit patch clearings to 5 to 25 acres in size, do not clear more than 50 percent of your property, and think ahead. Make sure to leave a network of wooded corridors so that deer feel secure traveling within your property.

Brush management or even forest thinning is not a one-and-done management practice. Brush management not only includes the removal of “old-growth” plants, but also the removal of those trying to establish or re-establish. Open and recently-cleared areas must be monitored at least every two to three years so that unwanted regrowth can be removed.

Riparian Fencing – It’s always a good idea to keep livestock at proper numbers for a property, but it’s especially important to limit their access to riparian areas. The term “riparian” is just a fancy word for the area immediately adjacent and around a drainage such as a creek, stream or river. Riparian areas typically have the richest soils and the highest plant diversity on a property, so fencing livestock out of these areas for the majority of the year means the high quality browse and forbs found in these areas ends up in the mouths of antler-growing bucks and fawn-rearing does. Help deer and the plants they eat on your place, take advantage of the cooler temps, and build riparian-protecting fences during late winter.

More Management Practices for Deer

Food Plot Prep – Food plots are not the be-all, end-all cure for deer management, but they can help substantially in areas where they will grow. Deer located in more arid areas are out of luck, unless irrigation and the money to do so are in place. Late winter is a great time to start prepping deer food plot sites for spring planting. Food plots are not necessarily habitat, but they can supplement it. Avoid the urge to plow under fall and winter food plots. Many will continue to grow into May or June, providing leafy forage and seeds for deer and many other wildlife species.

Predator Control – It’s tough sledding when it comes to finding food in late winter. This is true for whitetail and all other wildlife, including predators. Animals that are hungry tend to move more often, cover more ground and increase their daylight activity. All of this makes predators more susceptible to shooting and trapping during mid- and late-winter. Clean up on coyotes and feral wildlife, especially wild hogs, to minimize their impact on native animals and the habitat they need. This will not only help white-tailed deer, but also help all ground-nesting birds such as quail and turkey.

All wildlife species need food, cover, water and space to survive. White-tailed deer are no different. Most regions of Texas have been pretty thin on food and water for wildlife this year due to pitifully low amounts of rainfall, but many properties have been impacted by wildfires too, consuming dry vegetation (food and cover) and completely setting back white-tailed deer habitat. Burned lands can look bad, real bad at first. However, the benefits of fire on native habitats have been well documented.

Fires used for habitat management purposes are always prescribed fires, not wildfires. Prescribed burns differ greatly from wildfires in that planned fires can be set to accomplish specific objectives. This is not the case with wildfires, which can also destroy homes and other valuable infrastructure. But from a habitat perspective, fire is fire. The plant communities found in Texas are well-adapted to fire. But what can properties impacted by recent wildfires expect? Continue reading “Deer Management Strategies for Burned Properties”

The wildfires plaguing various parts of Texas have got me thinking a lot about prescribed burning over the past few days. Prescribed burning, prescribed fire, controlled burning, or however one refers to it, is a tool used for many purposes. It is commonly used for white-tailed deer habitat improvement, but it can also be used to prevent, contain and extinguish wildfires.

In recent years, prescribed fire for range and wildlife habitat improvement has increased substantially. Granted it’s not for everyone, but many land managers understand the utility of this management cost efficient management practice (which is also a naturally occurring process).

Prescribed burning is a tool used by land managers for increasing forage quality for livestock, reducing and controlling invasive brush species and for actively managing wildlife habitat. In fact, prescribed fire can accomplish many objectives simultaneously. For example, one fire be used to reduce brush cover, eliminate fine fuel loads, increase forage quality for wild and domestic animals, and improve wildlife habitat for deer, turkey and quail. Fire sets back many woody species and eliminates fire intolerant ones such as ashe juniper (cedar).

Why Use Prescribed Fire?

Prescribed fire is used to reduce fuel loads (existing dead and dormant vegetation) and reduce the threat and severity from wildfires should one occur. Prescribed fires also reduces woody plant encroachment and are beneficial for many native plant species in a way mechanical and chemical management treatments cannot duplicate.

Wildlife, both game and nongame species, also benefit from prescribed fires which results in new plant growth and restoration of habitats which they use both for both food and cover. Benefits from prescribed fire include:

• Reduce hazardous fuels, protect communities from wildfires
• Reduce the spread of pests and disease
• Provide habitat and forage for game and nongame species
• Recycle nutrients back into the soil
• Promote native species
• Promote a diverse natural landscape

Prescribed Burns Often Misunderstood

Most landowners realize that not all fire is bad. Wildfires are bad when the loss of life and property are involved, but  prescribed, controlled fires are not. Often times, the vegetation found on a particular property requires a managed fire, not a wildfire, to come along at the right time and under the right conditions in a controlled manner. This is prescribed burning.

Once the objectives of the fire are determined and the conditions under which the fire should be used are established, it is only then than a prescription for carrying out the fire have been developed.

The prescription should include landowner objectives, personnel requirements, firebreaks and environmental factors such as air temperature, relative humidity and wind direction and speed. The bulk of the work takes place long before the first flame hits the ground. However, proper land management after the burn is essential for both wildlife and livestock. Cattle frequently concentrate on a burn because forage is more palatable and nutritious. However, this does not mean these grass-eating machines should be released onto burn sites immediately. As with any major event, some rest is warranted afterword.

Fire is a Tool for Active Managers

As with many tools, the quality of the work depends on how good you are with the tool. Prescribed fire for brush management/control and deer habitat improvement is no different. Without a doubt, experience is the best teacher of fire behavior. Inexperienced managers can learn a lot by observing prescribed fires lit by other folks. Considerable knowledge can be learned about fire behavior relatively quickly, but it takes years of experience to get good, but even then you will not (should not) feel totally confident. Even trained professionals do not lose their fear of what fire can do.

The benefits of controlled burning for wildlife are well documented. Burning is good for deer because of the nutrient-rich browse and forbs that respond post-fire. Fire also knocks back many of the root-sprouting browse species that have outgrown the reach of deer. Fire promotes native grasses, which in turn creates better quail nesting habitat, improved water infiltration, and drought-tolerant forage. Additionally, fire is a relatively inexpensive management tool, especially for landowners interested in controlling cedar. Costs can range from $2 to $8 per acre depending on the size of the burn, prep work, and personnel needs.

To wrap up, prescribed fires have different uses depending on the objectives. The most common use of controlled burns is to reduce fuels such as pine needles, leaves and dead herbaceous vegetation such as grass and weeds. Controlled burning can also be used for brush control and quail, turkey and white-tailed deer habitat improvement. Although prescribed burning is a very effective tool, it can be incorrectly applied. Prescribed fire, just like any habitat management practice, should only be implemented once the need has been completely evaluated and deemed effective for achieving the desired objectives.