Starting to get a game plan together to create some thermal cover on our property. I have a SSE facing side hill in our pasture which is my main focus right now. Depending on how it's laid out, it would be anywhere from 2-8 acres worth of ground in this particular area. Looking to have diversity throughout with spruces, cedars, switchgrass and some shrubs of some sort. What are some good books/podcasts/websites and so on that you guys would recommend for me to look at? Any personal experience to share? I've been looking at a lot of Jeff Sturgis' stuff lately which has helped a lot. Anyone have his books? Thanks!
I despise cedars personally...they can cause real issues for fruit trees and eventually create deer deserts below them void of any use except for only a small window of time where they seek them out for thermal cover. I personally wouldn't do a monoculture of anything...but think in random numbered and shaped clusters of evergreens. A cluster of 5 here, 8 there...7 over there....all providing your goal of thermal cover but not eventually creating a deer desert void of use. In all the inbetween spots couple options...think Craig Harper wise (my favorite habitat biologist out there) and learn to encourage herbacious forbes, woody browse, legumes and such...will provide excellent fawning cover, food source and bedding even depending on growth stage. OR Go with bush type plantings, still keeping spread out somewhat to allow native weeds and forbs and such inbetween but making more all round bedding possibilities. Keeping these under control with a few trips each year after 4 or 5 to sculpt and keep light coming down....even discing winding paths through this whole thing (will look like a drunk driver) every other or 3rd year will encourage explosion of dormant good weeds that deer will browse on tremendously. As for the tree selection for thermal I am a big spruce fan...Norways getting the most love from me.
That's the one thing I've learned so far is to make it look at natural and random as possible. That's my number one so far so good to hear. Is there any reason I shouldn't do a zippered pattern or a couple of rows on the north and west side with something for a solid wind break and then do everything else on the downwind side in random blocks?
Sounds pretty good so far. I try to gear everything with game birds in mind primarily. Deer and turkey are crossover species from an ideal game bird based environment. So, I prefer to base my builds on game birds and then enjoy the benefits to the deer and turkey. The only thing I didn't see mentioned is a grass element. With a good grass blend, you could really do without any trees or shrubs. I don't know what all grows well up there in your part of the world, here I like warm season grasses. Switch is the easiest, bluestems, indian, gramas, dropseed mixed with some forbs and legumes is a winner. Of course that said...here I'm mostly always going the other way with this stuff. We have so much brush and invasive crap, I usually find myself trying to salvage crop/foodplots from the cover already there. Cedars suck and like Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say about that.
Covey is right I stayed away from the grass discussion since trees were main topic but I agree wholeheartedly. Honestly he is 100% that a stand of thick switch would supply the windbreak and even dense thermal cover as well....I'm like Covey as well in that I don't want just a impenetrable mess of switch though, throw other grasses in as well...however I'm also incorporating plenty of the other stuff I mentioned. IF a boundary style line is desired the double rowed concept of spruces is fine and years where you burn the grasses you'll be thankful you have it IF you go the more grass route.
I like trees and small woody plants that provide cover, seeds and fruit for the birds and browse for deer too, it's just that it takes that stuff a lot of time to get going and it's a crap shoot for survivability. Switch is hard to beat for a grassy screen type cover that's fairly quick and easy. You can almost grow walls with the stuff and it's pretty dependable. That positive about it is also it's, almost only, negative, too thick in the wrong place and it's a wasted resource but at least it's manageable. I do like it a bit heavier in a blend than most places mix it. If I have to start from scratch here to build habitat, my first year with clear land I will just put it to clover and try to manage it weed free. The following spring I will let it explode and then spray it down and no-till it to a native mix like I mentioned. After that I take my time and plan and add herbaceous plantings and trees as I can. I generally have a lot of clover come back but the grasses take it over in time as the clover pumps nitrogen into the soil. The clover helps control the weeds and volunteer grasses while the drilled grass mix establishes. I've had decent luck using fescue in a similar fashion as a sub for the clover but it doesn't fixate N (obviously) and it's hard to kill it out and not much good for anything but cattle along the way from "A" to "B". The times I started out trying to just plant the natives into soil, the weed and grass competition made it a hell of a mess and establishment took much longer. I don't have a ton of experience with building thermal cover specific areas. In the last thirty years I've planted and managed a few hundred acres of NWSG. We have so many good natives here that once you get grass established, you can almost sit back and let nature grow the woody elements. Most evergreens don't do that well here (not counting cedar). Most of the ones I've planted over the years failed outside of a few scotch pines here at home and a hand full of long leafs we had at another property I haven't owned in over a decade. The new farm I'm setting up as rotation pasture, I am setting up exactly as I described above.
I am incorporating Miscanthus Gigantus though too a solid amount....just gotta always be sure you get sterile ones.
I have a slope on the north side of my property that follows my driveway. The neighbor has conifers on the property line and the slope faces SW. The drop from the property line goes from 10 feet up to 25 feet. The tree line with the aspect facing s-sw is ideal. Cold windy days I see deer bedded taking advantage of the wind break and aspect. The deer are actually bedding in oak scrub that suckered out of logged stumps 25 years ago and hazel nut brush with a few mature oaks and red cedar trees.
It looks promising. I have a lot of trouble trying to use any non-native species though because my landlord is extremely weary of anything non-native and possibly invasive....and rightly so. Some of that stuff is potentially an environmental disaster waiting to happen.
The nice thing about where I plan to do this at is the it's 100% grass that gets about 2' tall by the time the cows get back into that pasture; a blank slate that I could take just about anywhere. If anyone is interested I can send a google earth aerial so you can see the areas I'm talking about.
I also have a spot about 300 yards west of this area completely surrounded by crops. It's a south facing hill (2-3 acres) that leads down to a drainage ditch (which leads to the original post area) I was thinking of doing a 100% switchgrass blend. Of course this wont happen until we don't have cattle anymore since it gets baled now.
Yup, the danger comes What kind of grass though? Termination of what is there if Johnson or other not desirables may be needed once you start.
Mixture of a bunch of things by now with quite a bit of clover throughout. I have no problem killing what's there, just stating there's no undesirable trees/shrubs of any type in the area that needs to be addressed first.
You, Ty is a good guy but he don't know squat. hehe jk Yeah you, forage for cattle not deer. I've never grazed any of ours yet but I'm told it makes decent forage over summer.
Oh yeah, supposed to be pretty decent and fills a nice gap in between cool season forages. Might want to look into that, you may be happy to trade out that old pasture for switch. Granted you're way further north so I don't know how growing season will effect the situation but they've been using switch for forage for a long time down here. https://extension.tennessee.edu/publications/Documents/SP701-B.pdf https://cropwatch.unl.edu/benefits-switchgrass-hay-and-forage https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/418/418-013/418-013.html
