So last year the land owners on my lease got a grant to have all of the honey suckle on the property professionally sprayed and killed... They got to one 5ish acre block of timber before the season started so I have some experience with hunting this scenario - but the deer seemed to use it WAY less. They definitely were not using it as bedding as they had in the past. In my opinion it made the hunting - for that block anyway worse... You walk into the woods in August and expect to see lush green forage - instead you walk in and it look like January! I can't find the positive in this at all... Fast-forward to 2020 and the entire property has been sprayed... Long term I believe it might be a good thing. Will certainly help new ground vegetation/cover come up and will probably help the trees etc. But from my experience that very thick honey suckle not only makes good cover/bedding but acts as a decent food source for the deer. Trail camera data of mature bucks is down compared to the past 5ish years. Bucks and deer in general in the bean fields are down! I think a lot of hunters/land owners want to get rid of these invasive plants but I am not sure I see the upside - what do you all think? The one thing I really like about the honeysuckle is that once the leaves fall and winter hits you still have quite a bit of ground cover left from the honeysuckle because the winter doesn't effect it too much. The deer don't seem to mind it - they move through it pretty darn good. My hunting solution? I don't have one - I think I'm going to make more adjustments on the fly than in the past. I'm also reaching out to some other land owners/farmers to see if I can get permission on some new properties just to give myself a few options.
I fertilize any honeysuckle I have. The deer love it. I always see deer eating it. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
You guys have the vines...we here the bushes also grey dogwood, wild rose and autum olive. I choose to control not eradicate these. I had a DEC foresters once asked me how are you controling these?. Not that hard. Just remove the ones you don't want each winter. Deer instinctively know what they need and where to get it. Every plant provides something.
The upside to any invasive removal is always in the long-term benefits to habitat and wildlife. The first year or two it's a barren wasteland, but you'll have deer pass through it once they start moving around. If you have acorns they'll love being able to find them and not have to pick through all of the honeysuckle to get at them.
And now at my place they got none of it - scratch that. Every block of timber around me has it - gotta be the best cover/protection/habitat for them. I do have crop fields and most of these other pieces don't so I am not out of options.
That's a good suggestion that had crossed my mind - focus more on hard mass. But I'm like - I kinda focus on that anyway. But I didn't consider that it would just be easier for the deer to find in places. It will also mean less clearing and more shooting lanes - it's not all bad. Allows me to hunt some thicker stuff than maybe I would have in the past.
