Wildlife Habitat/CREP Restoration Help - Please Offer Suggestions

[Hotspotter]

So here's the rub......

Finally talked the old man into enrolling his marginal flood plain land into CREP this year. It's a 45 year easement with a cost sharing program on the plantings, designed to protect riparian cover along a small crick that floods often. It will be a great deal to the taxpayers of MN, and the wildlife in our area.

And this is my opportunity.

What to do, and how to do it? Do I make a whitetail heaven, or a pheasant farm? Do I restore native conditions and presettlement vegetation, or do I create a sanctuary for non-game wildlife. Can I do them all at the same time? Which is the most ecologically responsible and feasible? Which is the easiest to maintain and best for the land?

Here's the property. 28 acres of flat riverbottom farmland, to be converted into any collection of grass, trees, shrub, and openings. The field is 28 acres in the center of the picture, surrounded by wooded hillsides to the north and west, along with more floodplain to the northeast and southwest. A big wooded ridge is directly to the east. The property is defined by the river on the east and south, the road on the north, and a fenceline on the western edge.

I'm currently reading about as much as I can, and am consulting the DNR as well. Please offer all the advice you can with past projects you've performed, or have heard of. I'm especially interested in what patterns, rows, or complexes I could put in to "steer" deer, turkeys, and/or pheasants.

A few things I don't think I'll do are:

1) Plant non-native food plots. Our area is full of corn, soybeans, and alfalfa. However, I would be open to planting native shrubs or fruit bearing trees.

2) Plant solid trees or solid grass. If we do plant grass, we need a total of 5 species, 3 of which need to be native.

Any suggestions, please help!!! The sky is really the limit here.

Joel

[Mark Christianson]

What a wonderful problem to have....

I guess a big start to answering your own questions is:

What are your goals for the property?

We are doing a ton of restoration, habitat improvements, etc on my Dads place.

We had a Woodland Stewardship Plan done by the DNR for the entire property. We have 120 acres. About half of which is fields and sloughs. The other half is woodland.

In that plan, the first question they asked us was what we wanted to get out of the property in the end.

From there, they went to town. The documentation and suggestions from them are just outstanding.

[gspman]

Contact Pheasants Forever. They may have some suggestions.

[tealitup]

Be mindful of where you put trees - and the type of trees you plant. Low hanging trees mean preditory animals have a place to stalk.

[WaveWacker]

Oh it's fun to dream of what a piece of property is going to look like in a few years after doing some habitat improvement work. Dealt with the MN River CREP so not sure of the what is allowed under the current program. First of all, generally any habitat work is going to benefit game and non-game species. Shooting off the hip here is what I would do.

Trees-I'd look at "beefing" up the area along the creek with shrubs and conifer (mainly spruce) trees. This is if soil types will allow. I'd stay away from Colorado spruce. The reasoning for this is to try to create some good winter woody cover planting. Maybe 2-3 rows of fruit bearing shrubs closest to the creek, 8 rows of Conifers and then another 2-3 rows of shrubs on the other side of Conifers. The rest I would put into native grasses and mix in some wildflowers as well. I would look at a 5 species grass mix which could consist of some of the following:

Big Bluestem

Indian Grass

Little Bluestem

Switch Grass

Side oats Gramma (maybe a touch of Canada wild rye as well)

I'd also invest in a cheaper/easier growing native wildflower mix. May not be mandated to plant but that flower content in the grass with attract insects which is the primary food source for pheasant chicks.

If a food plot was desired, I'd plant that in the SE corner of the property, inside (or 1/2 ways incorporated into the tree planting. Not the ideal spot for the food plot with it being open to the predominantly NW winds but it will be close to winter cover. Maybe a row or two of shrubs around it to act as a snow fence and help "dump" the snow out before it covers the plot.

Remember with the trees however, it is going to take some time before they start to fully serve their purpose. I would also plant a clover perenial type grass in between the tree planting and manage that as a food plot for deer/turkeys as well.

A little tough to say without seeing the land itself, but hopefully it will get some things turning in your head.

[Hotspotter]

Wavewacker:

Phenomenal. Some of the same ideas I had rollin' too. Thanks very much for the detailed advice. Will post how it turns out.

BLB, others: Thanks for the suggestions. I'll be working to get it into the DNR Forest Stewardship program as you suggested.

Thanks again,

Joel

[bigbucks]

I know when I did my tree plantings the DNR said not to put clover between the rows, at least at first, as it's sod forming & could choke out the seedlings. Mine was just planted primarily with rye & timothy. Some areas didn't come as well & are pretty weedy. I've been mowing it 3-5 times per summer the last 3 years. A brush mower isn't picky about what it mows so if you're going to mow the trees plan on buying a lot of flags. I mowed a lot off, especially the first year.

[WaveWacker]

Bigbucks has a good point. Notice that I stated to plant clover/perenial grass and "manage as food plot". That means mowing it to allow new growth. Keeping weeds down around trees for the first couple of years is essential to allow for the survival/quickest growth of the new seedings. Tree mats or tree fabric rolls are options to help keep vegetation down around trees.

My first contact would be with the local Soil and Water Conservation District. They should have trees to sell, know where to find or have a tree planter to use, and/or actually come out and plant the trees. They can also assist with the plan design.

One more thought. Try to keep a mowed path between the trees and native grass planting. The easiest and best way to manage native grasses is with fire. Maintaining a good 10' wide fire break makes all the difference in the world when it comes to burning. Plus I invision a nice path to walk on as roosters are bubbling out of the tree planting!!

[CodyDawg]

I would contact both your local chapter of Pheasants Forever and the regional wildlife biologist at the corporate office (651-773-2000). The biologist will either be Eran Sandquist or more likely Aaron Keuhl. Also, order a copy of the Essential Habitat Guide from the PF HSOforum (pheasantsforeverdotorg). It give some great info.

The local chapter can help you with funding and potentially manpower/equipment. The regional biologist can work with you on a plan and get you in contact with the PF Habitat Team which can do the work for you. This is what PF does!

[6969]

I own 160 acres that have been enrolled in Minnesota River CREP for the last 3 years. I, at the time of the

planning stage didnt actually know what I wanted to do with planting, food plots, or ground cover either.

The local soil and water conservation office, along with their hired engineering firm made a site visit, and

made a project plan. I had the voice to say if I wanted changes but pretty much they are the experts at this

and the plan was followed. 4 to 5 thousand trees,and wild prairie grasses were planted, and wetlands were

dug. They actually do all of the work, and or hire it out. You will not have to worry about food plots, actually

I do not think that they can be planted on the CREP acres, your neighbors fields will hold the food and you

will have the habitat haven, the birds and animals will come. What ever wildlife is in your area they will come.

[luckey]

jnelson,

I agree, it's a great "problem" to have. I'm partial to trees so bear that in mind. You don't have a lot of time to get some plan in motion. I think you have to submit your tree planting plan by October to be eligible for cost share next year. I don't know the exact date but it's not far off. Start planting trees now. It takes a while to get a woods going but you can always whack some of them down in a second. Good Luck.

[lawdog]

If I'm looking at the picture right, it seems to me there are already a ton of trees immediately adjacent to this property, and that would lead me to look more towards grasses with nothing more for trees than a small low height shrubbery area or something like that. You have woods, give them grass and food!

[Hotspotter]

Fellas:

Just like to throw out a very sincere THANKS to everyone!!!

All your suggestions and past experience have been helpful in getting the ball rolling. I'm meeting with a very experienced forester by the name of Lance Sorenson from the Lake City DNR office to help develop a planting scheme/plan.

I'll be using this base plan to take to various entities, hopefully including a Pheasants Forever Biologist, a Whitetails Unlimited Biologist, and hopefully an NWTF representative. From there, we'll tweak the plan, and fine tune it to make sure the plot is beneficial to wildlife, ecologically as responsible as I can make it, and as economically feasible as possible to maintain.

I'll let you know how it all turns out, and please feel free to make further suggestions. Really want to throw everything to this right now. It's an incredible opportunity, and I want to make good on it while the gettin' is good.

Thanks again,

Joel

[Pistolero]

Here is a resource directory that might be of help. Hope so.

http://truaxcomp.com/rd.html

[renny]

It's a wonderful problem to have. when my dad enrolled in program (and he is not a hunter) he was kinda told what they (brown co. soil & conservation) wanted to do. I'am not for sure if he had a choice. they strictly wanted to manage it for pheasent habitat, and ducks. they dug in 9 potholes and planted naturals grasses. they did'nt or do'nt want any trees. although trees are growing out there, (cottonwoods, and ??). plus i guess they want to control burn it someday also. I'am only guessing here, but when they give you the money, they may want some say in it also?? but I will tell you this, the land has turned into some fantastic hunting, and substaines all of Gods creatures. turkeys are even showing up. I suppose each area has its own criteria, and being were in southern mn. they are trying to manage it for the way it used to be. have fun, cause it will be your little peice of heaven.