The HOT-POINT Approach for Creative Habitat

My friend Ted Marum had nine whitetail bucks travel past his tree stand one November morning this past fall. And those weren’t mere sightings; every deer passed within an easy bow shot of his platform. Though three of those bucks were 3 ½ years old, my selective buddy passed on them, hoping they’d gain another year of maturity.

Then the tenth buck arrived. This deer — a heavy-beamed giant Ted would be happy to tag — was about to make his final steps when a distant doe caught his attention. We can all write the rest of the script. One more impending slam-dunk buck encounter thwarted by a slickhead. Don’t like shooting does for management reasons? Adopt a different philosophy — revenge. It’s much more gratifying.

Back to Ted. His multiple-buck morning fascinated me on several levels. First, we all dream of those days when the timber erupts with buck activity. But this was no right-spot-right-time-lucked-into-a-hot-doe morning. Though no one can make deer appear, it’s possible to dictate significant portions of their movement after they’re on their feet. Ted had made that happen, and his technique was simple: He used a chainsaw.

The previous winter, Ted had clear-cut a sizeable chunk of timber in this area. But before he fired up the implement, he studied the ground carefully. Terrain features created a handful of nice funnels, but my friend was determined to steer deer toward a site where the wind and other factors was in his favor. After he’d picked the spot, he completed the clear-cut so all the trees fell in one direction. The tangle of close-lying tops was a nightmare for deer — even cantankerous bucks — to travel across, forcing them to swing around the cut for easy travel and a walk within bow range of my friend’s ambush site. As the 10-buck morning proved, the creative logging worked like magic.

Managing a whitetail property is a dynamic project. We can never rest on a spade handle or sit on a seed drill and say, “Well, my work here is done.” In addition to the preparation, planting and maintenance of food plots, habitat projects should be part of any landowner/manager’s annual plan. I like to call these projects “hot-point” work, because they frequently generate heat from the worker(s) or tools used. Hot point also refers to a small, specific area that can benefit from some rehabilitation or improvement and make life easier for whitetails. And finally, hot point can also refer to a hunting opportunity that occurs because of such a project. Let’s look at a few examples.

Chainsaw Capers

Aldo Leopold said the most important tools for managing deer were the ax and the rifle. Well, if the chainsaw had been around in Leopold’s day, there’s little doubt the father of modern game management would have updated his tool list. Creating the dense regrowth whitetails adore for feeding and security cover is made easy by the chainsaw, and any whitetail enthusiast without one lacks an important tool.

Clear-cutting some tree species is the best way to increase browse abundance and regrowth. Just this past weekend, a friend invited me to walk a piece of property he’d purchased. Because the parcel is relatively small (80 acres), Dave wanted to do all he could to attract deer. We weren’t long into our walk when I found the perfect place for his goals; a rolling ridge covered with mature aspen (popple) trees. Clear-cutting is the preferred method for harvesting aspen and is also the best way to encourage regrowth of this fast-growing species, which is a top browse source for Northern whitetails. Naturally, deer also love the dense security cover provided by young saplings.



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