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Started By
Message
Gents with experience in hunting timber leases, what to expect with harvest.
Posted on 1/10/23 at 7:27 pm
Posted on 1/10/23 at 7:27 pm
So the timber company is clear cutting a section of the lease, luckily not a big chunk, about a 5th-6th of it, they are starting right now. What can we expect in regards how long until they replant and when that section will be good for hunting again?
TIA
TIA
14
Posted on 1/10/23 at 7:36 pm to GREENHEAD22
So this is what I have seen I’m sure some others will give some answers and have better info.
If they cutting now they will not plant until next winter because I’m told they want to plant while the tree is dormant. This year they will leave it and it will be a thicket by next season but you will be able to see through it to hunt.
They will then plant it prime hunting time next year either machine or hand plant either one will be several days of prime rut regardless of when your rut is!!
The next year they may not do anything and it will be huntable again the third year they will spray it right before the winter and it really won’t mess you up to bad from there on out and you will have one more decent year of being able to see down into the trees.
They are not worried about your roads, your plots or your hunting!!
If they cutting now they will not plant until next winter because I’m told they want to plant while the tree is dormant. This year they will leave it and it will be a thicket by next season but you will be able to see through it to hunt.
They will then plant it prime hunting time next year either machine or hand plant either one will be several days of prime rut regardless of when your rut is!!
The next year they may not do anything and it will be huntable again the third year they will spray it right before the winter and it really won’t mess you up to bad from there on out and you will have one more decent year of being able to see down into the trees.
They are not worried about your roads, your plots or your hunting!!
Posted on 1/10/23 at 7:39 pm to GREENHEAD22
It’ll be great hunting until you can’t see the deer in it anymore.
Posted on 1/10/23 at 8:33 pm to GREENHEAD22
It should open the canopy to allow briar thickets to grow, which will hold deer. Should be a good thing for you.
Posted on 1/10/23 at 8:38 pm to GREENHEAD22
The cutting is a good thing. Sunlight hitting the ground grows deer. Deer will be in it at night while the equipment is sitting there, nipping at the regrowth. The dirt they tear up will release the seed bank and be deer candy, along with the little hardwoods they lop off. Stands on the edges of it will become the best on the property overnight. Look for bottoms that create fingers out into it, deer will stage there and wait for dark.
What you’ll need to be dreading is when they spray it. You may get lucky, this is late in the cycle to both cut and plant. They typically plant in winter and usually spray a few weeks before planting. Could be looking at excellent bow spots for next year if the cutting drags out. Once they spray, then you have about two years before the briars take back over from the broomsedge and it becomes a good source of food and cover again. It’ll never be as good as it was before they sprayed but it will hold deer.
Now is the time to be conscious of doe harvest. If one fifth of your lease is 50 acres, proceed treating it like a big food plot, but if it’s bigger then take a look at shooting a few extra does between not and Jan 31st. If they spray next fall you’ll see a bump in nutrition this fawning/antler season, but then take two steps back next year when they kill it.
What you’ll need to be dreading is when they spray it. You may get lucky, this is late in the cycle to both cut and plant. They typically plant in winter and usually spray a few weeks before planting. Could be looking at excellent bow spots for next year if the cutting drags out. Once they spray, then you have about two years before the briars take back over from the broomsedge and it becomes a good source of food and cover again. It’ll never be as good as it was before they sprayed but it will hold deer.
Now is the time to be conscious of doe harvest. If one fifth of your lease is 50 acres, proceed treating it like a big food plot, but if it’s bigger then take a look at shooting a few extra does between not and Jan 31st. If they spray next fall you’ll see a bump in nutrition this fawning/antler season, but then take two steps back next year when they kill it.
Posted on 1/10/23 at 8:43 pm to TheDrunkenTigah
Damn, TheDrunkernTigah spitting some knowledge. You in agriculture or forestry? Or just a seasoned deer chaser? Lol
Great feedback!
Great feedback!
Posted on 1/10/23 at 9:01 pm to GREENHEAD22
They will spray and or burn it after harvest. Then replant next year. It will be barren until they replant. It will then become a huge thicket in the years to follow and hold deer but be hard to hunt. Watch it next season if it’s still clear cut or fresh planted. Deer keep their patterns. You may see a stud walk the same trail he always has even though it’s wide open.
Posted on 1/10/23 at 9:38 pm to PaBon
quote:
You in agriculture or forestry? Or just a seasoned deer chaser?
I’m not an expert by any means but the vast majority of my hunting over the years has been on pine plantation, and currently have access to about 3500 acres at various stages. Been three big cuttings since I’ve been on this property, so I learned how to deal with it.
Posted on 1/10/23 at 10:00 pm to TheDrunkenTigah
Yea I know it usually helps out and adds good browse and cover, the place is already hard as hell to hunt so that is nothing new. Weyerhaeuser doesn't spray so the grass and brush is head high in a lot of the lease, it's a jungle with one road that the bucks bed right off of.
Posted on 1/10/23 at 10:11 pm to GREENHEAD22
There is a bottom that splits down the middle one area they are clearing so that will make it easier to hunt that area.
Posted on 1/11/23 at 1:34 am to GREENHEAD22
I’ve shot a ton of deer hunting cutovers. Literally killed deer while loggers were running chainsaws a few hundred yards away. It’s almost like the deer were curious what area the loggers were cutting. When it’s bald it’s great because you can see a long ways. Like others noted after a few years, visibility becomes limited and different tactics need to be utilized to catch them going in out and out of those thickets. Once the shooting starts the smart ones go hide in that mess and don’t come out of there until dark.
Posted on 1/11/23 at 8:00 am to GREENHEAD22
It's kinda late to plant it right now. They probably won't touch it until until next fall when they spray it. Then they'll probably row it and plant it in the winter. The turkeys will love it this spring, and the deer will be all in it browsing on new growth till they spray it, likely at the beginning of hunting season. 
It'll take a year or two to get some good browse built up in it, but soon the deer will be all in it. Any stands on the edge of it will be prime and if you can make some food plots or shooting lanes out in the middle, now is the time to plan for it.
It'll take a year or two to get some good browse built up in it, but soon the deer will be all in it. Any stands on the edge of it will be prime and if you can make some food plots or shooting lanes out in the middle, now is the time to plan for it.
Posted on 1/11/23 at 8:05 am to TheDrunkenTigah
quote:
The cutting is a good thing. Sunlight hitting the ground grows deer. Deer will be in it at night while the equipment is sitting there, nipping at the regrowth. The dirt they tear up will release the seed bank and be deer candy, along with the little hardwoods they lop off. Stands on the edges of it will become the best on the property overnight. Look for bottoms that create fingers out into it, deer will stage there and wait for dark. What you’ll need to be dreading is when they spray it. You may get lucky, this is late in the cycle to both cut and plant. They typically plant in winter and usually spray a few weeks before planting. Could be looking at excellent bow spots for next year if the cutting drags out. Once they spray, then you have about two years before the briars take back over from the broomsedge and it becomes a good source of food and cover again. It’ll never be as good as it was before they sprayed but it will hold deer. Now is the time to be conscious of doe harvest. If one fifth of your lease is 50 acres, proceed treating it like a big food plot, but if it’s bigger then take a look at shooting a few extra does between not and Jan 31st. If they spray next fall you’ll see a bump in nutrition this fawning/antler season, but then take two steps back next year when they kill it.
I absolutely love posts like this. Pretty much covered everything in one fell swoop. Well done.
Posted on 1/11/23 at 8:31 am to GREENHEAD22
quote:
Weyerhaeuser doesn't spray
Sure they do. If they are cutting right now they'll probably spray in October of this year so the ground will be clean for planting in Jan/Feb 2024. Then they may spray in Oct 2024 or Spring 2025 again to give those seedlings another year to jump start.
I've gone through this on multiple leases for the past 30 years. It's just part of the process. Nothing to worry about. Some years it gives, some years it takes. Leasing the land and having to put up with it is a lot easier pill to swallow than buying the land in order to control it. As someone else said, cutting doesn't affect deer much. I've killed deer within sight of loading grounds dozens of times. You just have to adapt your hunting style. Instead of climbing in a stand you may have to sit on a pile of logs. The only thing I don't like is when they move onto a tract during turkey season. Turkeys will move and it's hard to hear them when there is logging going on in the vicinity.
Posted on 1/11/23 at 8:54 am to tenfoe
I showed up to my lease on opening morning a few years ago and followed a logging truck in the gate before daylight. I knew this was gonna suck. Sure enough, birds shut up with all the racket. The weekend before I had heard at least 4 different birds at daylight from standing in one spot. 
Can concur. They spray before rifle season, so any plans for a new stand isn't great for at a least a couple years after, but you can still plan ahead and get your shooting lanes/plots and stands located for when the browse builds back up and gets good. You don't want to have a 500 acre clearcut with nothing in the middle at all if you can help it.
quote:
Sure they do. If they are cutting right now they'll probably spray in October of this year so the ground will be clean for planting in Jan/Feb 2024. Then they may spray in Oct 2024 or Spring 2025 again to give those seedlings another year to jump start.
Can concur. They spray before rifle season, so any plans for a new stand isn't great for at a least a couple years after, but you can still plan ahead and get your shooting lanes/plots and stands located for when the browse builds back up and gets good. You don't want to have a 500 acre clearcut with nothing in the middle at all if you can help it.
This post was edited on 1/11/23 at 8:58 am
Posted on 1/11/23 at 10:03 am to GREENHEAD22
Is the owner of the land a paper or timber company? If so they will likely plant it back. If it is a private owner don't be surprised they just let whatever trees come up naturally grow.
Timber sucks as an investment now and will likely suck for several more years. People just do not want to invest much in timber. There are fewer buyers as sawmills consolidate. Timber companies often have enough of their own property to run a mill.
I have been trying to sell 70 acres of timber for two years now and I have not been able to sell it. I will not replant it in friggin pine trees when I do get it sold.
Timber sucks as an investment now and will likely suck for several more years. People just do not want to invest much in timber. There are fewer buyers as sawmills consolidate. Timber companies often have enough of their own property to run a mill.
I have been trying to sell 70 acres of timber for two years now and I have not been able to sell it. I will not replant it in friggin pine trees when I do get it sold.
Posted on 1/11/23 at 10:45 am to tenfoe
So plum creek sprayed the lease every year or according to the guy I got it from. I got it when WH took it over, they have never sprayed in there, I know they will for planting.
I wish they would burn, I have often thought about "accidentally" starting a brush fire.
I wish they would burn, I have often thought about "accidentally" starting a brush fire.
Posted on 1/11/23 at 11:49 am to GREENHEAD22
quote:
wish they would burn, I have often thought about "accidentally" starting a brush fire.
Some trespassing kids drinking and burning shite one night let it get loose and burned about an acre of 10yr pines, didn’t hurt the trees and WH didn’t accuse us since the blunt wrappers and condoms made it an open and shut case, but they got the sheriff out there quick.
Be really nice if they still burned. Herbicides getting more advanced and replacing burning/mechanical prep is a big factor in turkey numbers being down across the south IMO, but I’ve got nothing to back that up.
Posted on 1/11/23 at 2:32 pm to TheDrunkenTigah
I wish the states would put guidelines in place that would basically give them immunity for burning.
Posted on 1/11/23 at 3:01 pm to GREENHEAD22
"I wish the states would put guidelines in place that would basically give them immunity for burning."
Is that why there is not more prescribed burning? I assumed large tracts of timber company land is not burning because it is cheaper and less liability to spray chemicals.
Is that why there is not more prescribed burning? I assumed large tracts of timber company land is not burning because it is cheaper and less liability to spray chemicals.
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