Outdoor columnist Dan Geddings: The advantage of management

As much as I like to hunt, I enjoy managing the land and wildlife just as much. I think that management can go a long way toward realizing the potential of a property, and some ingenuity and resourcefulness can help. Management activities can extend a hunter's outdoor enjoyment year round.

Aldo Leopold defined management as "a deliberate and purposeful manipulation of the environment." Prescribed burning, food plot construction, bush hogging and winter plowing are a few examples of wildlife management techniques.

Leased hunt club lands can be managed within certain restrictions that do not conflict with the landowner's primary use. For instance, timber companies lease land for hunting and allow food plots in certain areas but no burning or tree cutting. Old logging decks may be cleaned up and converted to food plots. Consult with the company representatives to find out what you can and can not do on the property.

At a lease I had in Bloomville, we established food plots in loading decks and other open areas that were overgrown in briars and small brush. Bush hogging cleaned those areas up. We put out salt and mineral blocks and kept them in place year round. Water was a problem there, or I should say a lack of water was a problem. There were no permanent ponds or creeks on the place. The solution was a 300-gallon cattle tank. We installed the tank alongside one of the interior roads in the center of the property. I have a 300-gallon water tank that can be strapped down on a trailer and hauled to the site to keep the cattle tank full.

We managed the size of our deer herd by keeping records and adjusting the harvest as needed to keep the herd in balance with what the land can provide. Too many deer will ruin a property's ability to provide a quality hunting experience, and too few will do the same thing. Hunters want to see deer and have a reasonable chance to harvest a nice one. Our turkey management efforts were focused on openings. The property was heavily wooded with a thick understory, and I learned over the years that turkeys will not use thick woods unless there are travel corridors and openings. We bush hogged old roads and firebreaks and connected them to openings.

Management techniques might not be instantly obvious or may not even be beneficial. It's a work in progress and can be constantly revised and changed. Good managers create their own skills by thinking, observing and experimenting with different techniques over time. For instance, I learned through experience that food plots can be more effective using a variety of seed blends. Most wildlife food plots are small, usually less than an acre. Deer will eat all the soybeans or cowpeas in a small plot. If there's nothing else planted there, you will have only grass or weeds until you plow and replant. I started mixing in grain sorghum, sunflowers and buckwheat. If the deer eat all the beans and peas, there will still be the other plants that the deer will eat and the turkeys, quail and other wildlife will also use.

On another property that I hunted, we conducted prescribed burns there for many years. It was old farm land that has been set aside and allowed to revert back to an early successional stage. The land is mostly open and is a mix of broomstraw, weeds, briars and volunteer loblolly pines. Every year after deer season I plowed fire breaks around the woodline and throughout the property. I am a state certified prescribed fire manager and use the proper equipment and personnel to safely conduct a burn. We never did more than about 10 acres at a time. The benefits of the burns to wildlife are numerous, as it stimulates new plant growth and builds up the soils. The plowed firebreaks are another benefit in that the winter time disturbance of the soil stimulates the growth of natural native plants like ragweed, partridge pea and beggar lice that are preferred quail foods. The burned sections are favored by wild turkeys, green up quickly in the spring and provide excellent brood rearing areas during the summer.

None of the management techniques that I have described are costly or difficult and could be conducted by just about anyone. We get a better result from the land if we put in a little effort. Habitat improvements, food plots and even routine maintenance exhibit a commitment or stewardship to the natural world, and I believe that stewardship is our responsibility to nature.

Reach Dan Geddings at cdgeddings@gmail.com.