But ive been doing alot of reading on creating cover for deer. Food and water are plentiful in my area, but creating cover is something that interests me alot. Does anyone have pictures of there farms or properties and the improvements they have made to them?
I have done some hinge cutting and will do more this year,also planted 1500 trees and 2000 shrubs,check out qdma.com if you haven't,they also have a great magazine
There are many things you can do to create cover, hinge cutting, clear cuts, native grasses, edge feathering, shrub planting.
it is mostly used for upland game birds but is effective for all species. It basically is eliminating the hard edge transition from lets say a woodlot to a field. To create edge feathering you would go along the edge of the woodlot and hinge cut all the trees about knee high and fall them at a 45 degree angle into the field. you would do this all the way along the field and just stack the trees on top of each other. wildlife feel safer along a soft edge than a hard edge and are more prone to use the area.
If you're willing to wait a few years some great quick cover/sight line shield and such are the Giant Aborvatae(sp?)/ White Pine and even Douglas Fir (Red cedar fairly quick too). All of these grow at a decent clip and will break up your property soon enough, although I'm a huge fan of hinge cutting personally we are actually planting a bunch of white pine and a few giant arbovatae this early spring.
Check with your state forestry dept.they usually sell bundles of 25 for around 10.00,you will need tubes unless you plant enough to lose some.if it's around crop ground and you own the land I would talk to your county NRCS office and see about a program such as the riparian buffer zone that pays you to plant trees and shrubs
