Also, if some of that early successional habitat goes undisturbed for 3 or 4 years, where the stems can stand up to snow or even provide cover if they get bent or knocked over, it turns into great winter habitat and you don’t even need specialty plantings.” That open quality at ground level provides mobility for chicks to follow hens during brood-rearing season, which is really important for survival. “You want to aim for diversity, with lots of wildflowers, some native grasses and plenty of bare dirt. “I’d keep as much of it looking like a pollinator plot as I could, because that type of habitat really provides the best bang for your buck,” he says. Once quality early successional habitat is established on as much of the property as possible, Lyons said implementing a rotation with swaths of habitat that are 1, 2, 3 and 4 years post-disturbance is what he would do if he owned a back 40. What might be good for winter cover, like trees or cattails for example, might have a bigger negative impact on nesting or brood-rearing success.”
“Certain habitats can have negative tradeoffs, though, that only become magnified on smaller areas. “How we manage for pheasants has changed over time, because we used to manage for one stage or season without thinking about the next,” Lyons says. When space is at a premium, it’s important to focus on habitat elements that are multi-dimensional, and research has established that pheasants use early successional habitat all year long, even during harsh stretches of winter, says Tim Lyons, upland game project leader and research scientist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Don’t get me wrong, because switchgrass can be great for pheasants, but a stand of 40 acres on its own won’t do much for pheasants or other wildlife.” Species diversity is critical, especially in smaller areas, and you want to avoid monoculture environments of brome, cattails or even switchgrass. “In those cases, I recommend eradicating the cool-season and invasive species and starting from scratch. “A lot of times when recreational landowners buy or lease a new property or decide to make some family ground better, they think the existing habitat is good enough, when really it’s just pasture, fescue or straight brome,” he explains. Quite simply, all you need is the ability to tell whether your property is home to 20 or 30 different types of plant species, or if only one or two have taken over. You don’t need a biology degree to recognize what early successional habitat is.
.22 FOR PHEASANT HUNTR FULL
More specifically, he believes early successional habitat full of wildflowers is a core element on smaller acreages.Įarly successional habitat, Bleich explains, is a rather nebulous yet inclusive term that simply refers to a highly diverse blend of native grasses, weeds and forbs that “succeed” one another as a result of some kind of disturbance, be it mowing, fire, herbicide, or tilling and planting. The most important step on any small acreage is converting as much land as possible to native habitat, says Jason Bleich, a Pheasants Forever conservation specialist who hails from east-central Illinois. We'll begin with our ULTIMATE BACK 40 starter diagram, then dive into the elements one by one. Here’s a crash course on 4 core habitat elements that will help you get it done. But with a lot of strategic planning and plenty of hard work, it’s still possible to create an ultimate “Back 40” honeyhole. This presents new challenges for today’s landowners and land managers looking for the right habitat recipe that will attract and sustain huntable pheasant populations. Smaller tracts in the neighborhood of 40 to 80 acres are now more of a reality, further breaking up an already fragmented landscape. Gone are the days of locking down full or even half sections to call your own. There are still a few places, mainly out west, where a pheasant hunter can walk for hours without running into a fence or other property boundary.īut the sweeping, contiguous sections of idle acres or grassland found during the Soil Bank Era of the 1950s and 1960s through the height of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in the 1980s and 1990s have largely given way to fragments of habitat scattered between row crops and ranch land.Īt the same time, the continually rising cost of buying or leasing land has outpaced the ability of many hunters to afford it. The landscape across a majority of pheasant country has changed. USE THESE 4 HABITAT BUILDING BLOCKS TO MAXIMIZE THE POTENTIAL OF YOUR BACK 40, THEN REAP THE REWARDS. IT’S CHALLENGING TO FORMULATE A HABITAT RECIPE THAT WILL ATTRACT AND SUSTAIN PHEASANTS ON A SMALL ACREAGE.
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