Meeting with a forester

[dakids]

In about a month I will be meeting with a forester on our hunting land in cass county.  We will be discusing our goals for the land and going over what we would like to do to improve the habitat.  He will then write up our forestry plan so we can apply for several gov. plans.

The land is 24 acres total, 7 acres of hay field along the road and the remaining land was a pasture until 3 years ago.  The pasture is mostly mature oaks with a LOT of new growth starting to get about 3-4 feet tall.

What can I expect and what have your experiences been?  Any insite would be greatly appreciated.
thanks

[Mayfly]

The Forester... is there a fee for this service?

[dakids]

DNR charges 230 (they use a sliding scale based on acres.)   
I was told by the guy at the usda that they pay for it or provide the service.  The guy I talked to is based out of Walker

[LandDr]

Keep in mind that most foresters are great at managing for trees but are not always good wildlife managers.  That is a generalization however so you need to make that observation.  My guess is that the forester will put a plan together for some selective harvest (which is usually a good thing) and a plan to plant the 7 acres of meadow to trees (which is a bad thing in my phylosophy).  Almost always food is the limiting factor.  I would propose to plant trees along any open edges of the meadow but try to develop much of it into food plots.  Since it is sod bound and probably pretty rough, I would recommend planting Roundup Ready Corn and Beans the first year to get the weeds and ground under control...you can get more diverse with your food plots the following years.

Keep us posted on how it develops.

Land Dr
www.HabitatNOW.com

[Big E]

Land Dr is right. They came and looked at our land and their main concern is Timber production. If you have poplar on your property you could hinge cut a few of them along with any maples. They both do nothing for wildlife as mature trees but the new growth from these and the cover they provide when you hinge cut them is gold. My cousin has done about 100 maple on his land and it has worked awesome. Grouse, Turkey and Rabbits love this too. I'd turn that hay feild into a couple 1 acre food plots then plant the rest in shrubs like dogwood, hazelnut, plum and elderberry.