Land Management

[Goose]

Thanks, I might look into that.

[wack]

Someone asked earlier if anyone has compared the nation seed brands to Kester's and I can say I have. My friends and I all received some free samples of Biologic and that other brand that Foxworthy advertises for. The sample plots did not do as well as my Kester plots and the Kester seed was a lot cheaper. In all fairness, all of them grew fairly desent and we did not try every combination from each company. I didn't see any reason not to buy locally based on performance and customer service.

 Since this thread is about land management, what about the management on DNR public hunting grounds? What can we do about cash crops being planted and harvested on public hunting grounds? I can point out at least 2 public hunting grounds in Winnebago County that were planted with soy beans and harvested in October. Both sites were at least 75% planted beans and after the harvest 75% of both grounds are bare dirt with no food left for the deer to survive winter on. To drive the last nail in the coffin, these deer are forced on to private land only to be slaughtered with Ag tags. Many of the other public grounds in Winnebago county are planted with CRP grasses. I think we could do much better for our public lands.
 Now I've only been hunting on public land for the past few years and have been very dissapointed with the grounds in Winnebago County. I wonder how much more of this is going on accross the state? From what I've seen, the poor management of these properties in combination with Ag Tags is one of the major reasons why our deer population is so low and why deer harvest on public land is so pathetic.
 When you start putting the pieces of the puzzle together, the management of public hunting grounds goes right a long with the crazy idea that Fish mentioned about restricting food plots. Who ever is behind this, (I pointing my finger at the Dept. of Agriculture) seems to be wagering biologic war fair on our deer herd. Starve the deer out, get hunters to kill as many deer as possible then kill off the rest by starvation and Ag Tags. Whether it's a conspiracy or just coincidence, then end result is the same and we must correct this problem.
 I'm not a biologist but I'm also not stupid. If these 2 bean fields were left unharvested or planted with a more natural and healthy habitat, the farmers wouldn't have so much wildlife crop damage and would not have to kill off so many deer turkeys, geese and so on. It's a perfect agricultural plan to wipe out the deer and other wildlife and we should do something about it.
  

[Goose]

Wack, I live in Winnebago county, could you give me those locations your referring to? I would like to look into that. I take it you hunt in Winnebago county?

[wack]

Goose,
 both of the bean fields I saw last season in Winnebago County are both west of Omro, north of HWY 21. Both bean fields are in the Deppe Wildlife area. One is on the far east side that's on the corner of Eureka Rd. and Oak Hill Rd.  The other bean field is on the west side of Deppe Wildlife Area on 37th.
 If you look at the map,  http://dnrmaps.wisconsin.gov/imf/imf.jsp?site=mgdlands the entire rectangle off from 37th is one big bean field with a creek running along the south side, private corn field on the north side. About 2/3 to 3/4 of the rectangle off Eureka Rd is also a bean field and the woods starts just past the curve of Eureka Rd on the west end of that rectangle. Almost everything in between these bean fields is wide open tall grasses. The next DNR property south on Eureka Rd. east of the road is planted with grasses also and then the next one on Eureka Rd. closest to HWY 21 is a little better but mostly wide open grass lands with a few area's of woods. The grounds to the east on Oak Hill is more of the same. Abandoned farm land with grasses planted. Better than bare dirt fields for sure but a far cry from great habitat for deer and other wildlife.

[Goose]

Thanks Wack, I didn't know that map existed!

[wack]

I went to the Oshkosh DNR office and got maps for Winnebago county and Washara county. The Washara County map is really nice, looks professional the Winnebago is just black and white printed on plain paper. The lady at the DNR office showed me the website map linked above. If you spend some time with the map, you can get all kinds of info from the different layers. If you go to the bottom of the menue and click on digital air photos-coverage and turn off all the DNR managed land layers you can get a good idea of the layout of the land. You can see tree lines, ditches, the creek, but the details are pretty boring for Deppe, it's flat, wide open with very few trees. The map doesn't show bare dirt as it is now. It says Glacier habitat restoration. Funny, looked just like a soy bean field to me. lol This map is a great scouting tool if you can get the hang of (using) it.  Google Earth also has some good maps also. 

[bowhunter53]

Another good place for areal photos is MSN Live Search Maps. Zoom in and click on aerial in the top left corner and you get some pretty good aerial photos, some parts of the state you can click on bird's eye and it is amazing the photo you get. I can actually pick out the some of the trees I have stands in. http://maps.live.com/

[wack]

bowhunter53 that's cool too. Looks a lot like the same program as the DNR's map. Maybe a little clearer picture but it doesn't have the DNR info layers. It's certainly worth bookmarking. I zoomed in on my own house and can see my garden and faintly even see the rows in my garden. The garden is only 15' X 40' and judging by the garden, the picture was taken mid summer. The detail is a lot better for my house than it is for the hunting grounds. Will be cool to see these maps get better in years to come. 

[Goose]

My brother and I went out today and clearcut a little area in our mature red pines. The pines looked like they got some kind of grub in them and the local forester recommended cutting them down.
There's already small white pines coming up thick so hopefully cutting the diseased trees and some around them will help create a nice bedding thicket.
Snow's above my knees so didn't do much else.
 

[Goose]

Going to go look at a disk tomorrow morning for our tractor, hopefully it's a decent one. It's a Dearborn made by ford and he's asking $350 for it.
I think we also got a cultipacker lined up, it's starting to fall in place......
If the disk and cultipacker work out we should be all set and just have to wait for spring!