Power line easment

[Robert Rowland]

 Any other power line easment hunters? 
I know from my dad being a beekeeper that if you put a hive of bees under the large lines, it will drive them mad and they will swarm. I cant say that it has any effect on deer though.
On my hunting ground there are three sets of LARGE transmission lines. The easments are about 100ft wide. Deer use the easments for travel corridors and cover. This past summer the power company had all the easments cleared of all brush. Two major ice storms in one year and they get all uppity over access. I understand that they need access to the poles but it really stinks for me when they do this. I changes how deer move and eliminates some safe haven for them.

[passin through]

We have one major power line with towers that is about 60 yds wide going through about 3/4 to a mile of our lease's eastern side.  We also have a smaller one that feeds a small group of houses in the core.  its only about 300 yds long and maybe 10 wide.  It is of the wood pole type.  For a long time the club mandated no hunting from them and planted club plots up and down the length of each.  However as money got tight we relented and now have stands every 250-300 yards along both of those lines and the same on the two pipe lines we have running through our western section.  Everybody that has a stand there is encouraged to plant at least a quarter acre.  There arn't very many big bucks taken on any of these easements but in my opinion they are easement for hunters too.  I talked to a guy just today who wanted permission to place on one of the pipelines.  He said he mainly wanted the spot for the ease of entry so he could take his little boy hunting easily.  We see them as more crossing areas than travel corridors and although they do provide good cover...as ours will this year unfortunately.....our land owners have most of the areas around the lines in cutovers and 5-10 year old pine thicket....which means you cant discern much when the brush is high.

[EatDeer]

I'd frostseed the easements with some WI clover after the power company brush hogs the area. Then the power company will be mowing your clover plot every few years for free!  From what I've seen deer really love the clearcuts when they are in the low growth stages. Also the deer will use the heavy brush for protective cover and browse in the winter.         I think around most places the tree crews wait about 3-4 years before they return to the same easement to trim the trees again.   I'd contact the power company to request a no spray policy on your land, and to see if the company has any programs for planting low growing shrubs or food plots. They might pay for some of your plot seed if you plan to maintain the easement yourself, or even spray the area in preperations for your plotting ideas.   You might as well make the best of the situation when it conserns power line right-of-ways.  

[ranwin33]

The neighbor across the road from us has a powerline easement which he allows us to hunt.  It's between two wood lots and deer seem to travel it fairly regularly.  Great place to go and sit with a rifle when we don't feel like hunting real hard.
 
We also have a powerline easement on our property but it's through our hayfields so electric company leaves it alone. 
 
Fortunately Missouri has now enacted a law making it more difficult for utilities to gain easements on private property.  When the water company wanted to lay pipe on our place but didn't want to pay for the privelage we told them no.  They eventually went to the other side of the road.

[jacannon63]

Some of our best hunting is a power line easment that goes all the way across our lease. It is 50yds. wide and has pine plantation on both sides,about 1200 acres of bedding area. We plant 4 1/2 acres on the only part that is flat. This 4 1/2 acres gives us about 1400 yds. of edge that is all bedding area. This is a bucks only plot,so the does feel comfortable coming out anytime of day as do young bucks. The most deer I've seen on this plot is 52. That is bucks,does,yearlings and fawns. This plot has a shooting house at the North end and the South end, so as to take advantage of the wind. When the rut is in full swing in late Jan. this is a good place to spend the day.

[shaman]

They cleared one of the power line easements across some property during my tenure on it many years ago.  What I saw was that the first few years were great. Deer came out to browse and used the clear cut frequently for bedding and eating.  However, by the fourth season it had grown to the point where it was getting to be more of a hassle for both hunter and hunted. The cover was thick and travel along the length of the lines had become nearly impossible.  However, there were distinct trails across the clear cut and watching those funnels became fruitful.

The land that I was on was an old strip mine, and I saw a lot of evidence of where this process had been repeated many times over.  The roads that had been cut were all overgrown with 30 years worth of saplings.  However, there were distinct trails parallel to and across these thickets. Most of my hunting on this property revolved around finding and exploiting these funnels.

[JOEL]

i have a few in the areas i hunt powerlines and buried gas lines.both provide the deer with bedding areas ,the does love em. i hunt inside the woods on the edges of these rights of way and always see deer