Establishing Wildlife Habitat
In Your Little Slice of Heaven

Whether you farm, live a country lifestyle or are a landowning outdoor enthusiast, creating and managing wildlife habitat on your acreage can be a labor of love and a year-round source of satisfaction and enjoyment.

Today, the average landowner has many resources and programs to help create habitat and have a positive effect on wildlife. With a few pieces of easily available mid-range equipment and some insight from professionals, a landowner can transform sparse environments into vibrant, wildlife-abundant landscapes.

To begin, inventory the surrounding habitat. Wildlife need food, winter cover and escape cover for survival, and nesting or rearing habitat. If either is in short supply, consider planting it. A complete range of habitats increases the diversity of wildlife and improves survival rates.

Planning and Preparing For Your Wildlife Habitat Project

"Start planning early is the best advice I can give anyone," said Matt O'Connor, Habitat Team Coordinator for Pheasants Forever. Habitat Teams help landowners develop and manage their habitat acreage. "An important phase of any new habitat restoration project is initial site preparation. With the proper equipment, however, prep work is a snap."

An ideal machine for mid-range habitat projects is a 50- to 75-horsepower tractor, for example, New Holland's Boomer™ or TN series (www.newholland.com/na) Mid-range tractors are affordable, comfortable, rugged and provide ample power.

A previously cropped field maintained with weed-killing herbicides makes an ideal project area. Typically, these fields are smoother, their soils cultivated and weed content limited, and will accept direct seeding.

For site preparation in existing grasslands, a rotary or flail mower
effectively cuts down vegetation. (Burning vegetation is a further option, and will be covered in Part 3 of this series.) After mowing, a plow will turn over the vegetation and expose rich soil. Chaff and residual vegetation can be mixed into the soil with a disc, field cultivator and harrow drag. Finishing with a culti-pack creates conditions for optimal seed to soil contact. Of course on erodible land a no-till grass drill can be effectively used instead of tillage.

Planting

With the seedbed prepared, it's time to plant. If your plan calls for
wildlife nesting cover, you will need a specialized native grass drill to sow native prairie grasses or forbs (flowers and legume plants). Grain drills are available through implement dealerships; and state or county government conservation agencies or local conservation organizations, such as Pheasants Forever, often have drills available.

Seed also can be broadcast into frozen ground with a broadcast planter
mounted on the tractor's three-point hitch. The thaw-freeze cycle produces good seed to soil contact.

When planting a wildlife food plot, more than likely a row crop planter will be needed. Most food plots consist of corn, soybeans, sorghum or other energy-rich food sources. Across much of the northern region, corn is the preferred crop. Unlike commercial farming operations, most food plots are small, and require no more than a six-row planter. In fact, two-row planters are popular. Pulled behind a mid-range tractor, a six-row planter can seed five acres in about two hours.

Winter shelterbelts typically call for trees and shrubs. Fortunately, some enterprising conservationist or arborist invented a tree and shrub planter. Mounted on a tractor's three-point hitch, the planter can put hundreds of seedling trees in the ground in a matter of hours. Such a planter may be available for use from local units of government or conservation and sportsman organizations.

"It is critical to the success of shelterbelts and other tree plantings that good management is followed for several years," said O'Connor. "This means weed control in the Midwest, and good moisture management in more arid regions. Adding mulch to tree rows can help with both issues. A flexible (weed barrier) cloth around trees and shrubs is effective at limiting weed growth and retaining soil moisture. This kind of time commitment the first year may double the growth rate of your trees."

Hillsides and Buffer Strips

Some landscapes, such as hillsides and buffer strips, may require adaptive approaches to seedbed preparation. Hillsides may pose erosion problems if the soil is completely exposed. No-till planting methods stabilize hillsides. To no-till a hillside, a flail mower will cut vegetation low enough to allow direct planting while maintaining sufficient vegetative matter to stabilize the soil. Any greening between mowing and planting can be countered with a herbicide applied with a sprayer.

With a mid-range tractor, some equipment and a plan, you can transform any number of acres into vibrant habitat for wildlife, and provide a lifetime of outdoors enjoyment.

More articles

Check out these Living the Country Life articles for more information from the Living With Wildlife series:

Fire: Wildlife Habitat's Best Friend Few experiences stir the heart like a wind-driven wildfire racing across an open prairie. Native Americans and early settlers feared wildfires because nothing but a wide river or soaking rain could stop them. Uncontrolled fires were awesome, yet biologically necessary.

Establishing wildlife habitat in your little slice of heaven Whether you farm, live a country lifestyle or are a landowning outdoor enthusiast, creating and managing wildlife habitat on your acreage can be a labor of love and a year-round source of satisfaction and enjoyment.

Managing Weeds In A Grassland Habitat Project "Weed control the first few years gives the native grasses a competitive advantage, It's important to knock down the weeds until the prairie takes over."

Creating Habitat Making a master plan for your new wildlife habitat is a good investment, but at some point, the real work with shovels and dirt begins.