Deer population recovery after clear cutting

So the property(135 acres) I lease was clear cut two yrs ago, since then the deer population has decreased significantly; to make things worse, the neighboring property(300 acres) was just clear cut as well, now throw in the drought and the landowner having the lease sprayed there is very little natural browse and the plots look pathetic. Prior to all of this it was not uncommon to have 3-6 decent bucks on trail camera, the last two years it’s been1-2 at best. How long does it take for the clear cut to grow enough that the deer start returning?

When it gets hard to walk through.

Years 2-5 will be awesome then good years 5-10

Plant something for cover

If they sprayed it basically nothing will grow but pine trees and sage grass. A mouse can't make a living in it. you won' be able to grow much of a food plot either in my experience for about 5 years.

Our lease was clear cut 4 years ago. The first year was decent, second year absolutely sucked. They sprayed a herbicide to kill everything in preparation of planting. They planted later in year 2, since then is fantastic. 2 years after they planted, the trees have taken off. They are 2 years old and around 8’ tall now. The best part is they wont be back until the timber is 15-17 years old to thin. It really hasn’t been bad except for year 2.

Alot depends on what they sprayed it with. Some stuff they spray with prevents anything from competing with the pines until they are big enough to shade everything out.

It’s not mine to plant outside of food plots.

Thanks for the information, I was about to give up hope at least I now know in another year or so it will improve, this sucks.

One growing season after herbicide the plants will start coming back. It’s not doom and gloom. Deer will be in it just fine.

I’m kind of in the same boat. Neighbor behind me clear cut late last season. Neighbor to the east clear cut this year. My home property is only 15 acres so deer were just traveling through from one to the other. This season has been the worst in 4 years, and I know it’s because the bedding areas are bare ground right now. Still seeing deer but just not like it was the past 3 years. Anticipating some really good seasons coming up once the cover gets back on those places and the deer get back to their normal travel patterns. Just gotta tough it out until things get thick enough for the deer to get comfortable again.

2-5 is great for hunting. After 5 it is great for holding deer but hard to hunt due to vision restrictions and density of vegetation.

if it has a branch or stream running though it and they left a buffer around it , thats where you wanna be . be close up hunting though

Just put all your stands on the adjoining property lines that still have timber. Problem solved.

Pro Tip:
Face them towards your property so that the neighbors think you’re not hunting their side off the line.

id build me a platform and put a popup on it . brush in the bottom of it

Well I knew this was going to be a tough season but good grief, this my worst in the past 7 yrs. Between habitat destruction , gun happy neighbors and dogs; almost be glad when the season is over.

This. I wish I could find out what this miracle herbicide is with a 5 year residual.

I don’t consider clear cutting habitat destruction. It’s actually highly desirable if you’re a deer. It’s one of the best habitat management practices to add food and cover. I can’t explain your lack of deer sightings but I’ll take a cutover from a hunting stand point over everything else in the southern states. They’re deer factories. This is just odd to me for your deer to respond differently than everywhere else.

A clear cut with green stuff is great. But when it is spayed with herbicide there is no green stuff

So when it’s sprayed and kills 99% of everything there what’s that called? No forage, no cover, just very small pine trees, it will be what 2 yrs before anything comes back? When it grows back it will be good but it’s not at this time.

Use feeders to keep them in the area. I’m on my 3rd year out of a clearcut and I’m rebounding. Once the poison does its thing just get your fields going again. That will help tremendously.

Are any of y’all herbicide applicators? Just curious. The residual on Imazapyr is 6-9 months. Vegetation returns the following growing season. Herbicides are used often to control and manipulate vegetation. It don’t last long.

The only year it’s dead is the fall it was sprayed. There should be very little to no hardwood competition the following spring, but the herbaceous vegetation returns.

Natural regen clear cuts are great. But when they come in and spray it sucks for a couple years. Hunt the corners if there is any timber around, deer will cut those corners

I had a three year old 38 acre clear cut sprayed in Sept. Burned it early Dec, and we are averaging between seeing between 5-15 deer per sit in it currently... Haven't blanked a sit yet morning or afternoon. There's about 4 acres that we didn't' burn and I have jumped deer out of it the two times I went to try to access building a bridge to get to it to access it. Intend on planting it as soon as the planters can with pine and will plant food plots by next fall. I know the mix the guy sprayed with and I'm fairly confident the ground aint sterile.

It looks like the surface of the moon with dead blackberry briars all over it, but the deer that live around my place don't seem to mind it. Now there is some pretty good habitat around it, but they haven't just avoided it after the disturbance. And the firelane around it is tore up with sign.

I wish I could get a quart of the multi year soil sterilizer some of yall have experienced. I have a few spots I hate to weedeat at my house...

The right clearcut (location) and it really doesn’t matter. I have 4 dif stages of clearcut right now and I’ve seen more this year on what was sprayed in august. They’ll plant it next month.

Clearcuts n right location = awesome

Every clearcut I’ve sprayed or had sprayed was loaded with deer browse the following year. 🤷🏼‍♂️

I don’t think the clearcut is the reason for your lack of sightings in this case. Actually know it’s not. I’ve been burning the world up here recently in sprayed clearcuts for site prep jobs and they’ve all been slap eat up with deer sign, even with dead vegetation.

I hope it does grow back next season, would be nice. So of my 135 acre lease 75% is the 2 yr old clear cut, 25% is about a 15 yr old clear cut that was replanted to a degree but otherwise has grown up and is pretty much impossible to go into without alarming every animal in the area. The other 25% is a clear cut that was replanted maybe 4-5 yrs ago. On the other side of the lease is 300 acres that was just cut this August and now has “if it’s brown it’s down” hunters on it. When they sprayed it killed everything except for the pines and the holly trees. The deer population has significantly dropped since the first yr of being cut, so all I can do is wait and see what happens. I bought a saddle and and got into a few trees in between the clear cuts and saw a few deer but things just seem out of the ordinary.

sbo


some of the best hunting i ever done was on clear cuts. no green fields or corn . the does and big bucks are going to use it as bedding . cold sunny morning is your best time stay as long as you can .

Cutting timber does not affect the deer population.

135 acres isn’t much property, the deer just moved over a couple hundred yards so they would have food and cover.

Your property is probably only 440 yards wide, a 40 acre block is 440 yards wide by 440 yards tall.

I’ve killed 4 deer this season in a clearcut that was sprayed this summer and looks like it was nuked. One was a 5yr old year old that I watched bedded down right at daylight. There were much better (thicker) places he could have bedded nearby but he chose the sprayed clearcut.

Deer will still use a sprayed clearcut.

I don’t think some of you are reading the entire post. Not only was my lease cut and sprayed, the adjoining 300 acres was cut and then leased to people who have been shooting everything that walks. I would imagine that with all of the natural forage in a large portion of my lease being killed and then the adjoining 300 acres cut will have some effect on the deer. Based on my observations over the past 13 yrs something has caused the number of deer to decrease significantly in the past 2 yrs. I’m assuming that they are on the adjacent property that has not been cut or receiving any pressure.

Any way thanks to those of you who actually answered the original question.

Your question was “How long does it take for deer to return to a clearcut after spraying?” We’ve answered by saying that’s not the reason for your lack of deer on camera or while hunting. Your neighbors shooting everything could easily contribute though.

“ How long does it take for the clear cut to grow enough that the deer start returning?”.
I’ve heard 2-3 yrs after cutting it begins to attract deer, but spraying? Deer will move through it to get from point A to B but it’s not holding deer. This area used to be a bedding area for does before being cut. I agree that the gun happy neighbors could be contributing to deer not using the cutover since there is no cover so it’s just a matter of waiting* to see.

I will agree there’s no food in a sprayed clearcut. About the only thing living in mine is Holly’s and a few briars.

The answer would be the same if it were any other place ,,,,,,,,when people stop killing ever thing they see.

I hunted a 1100 ac clear cut in Tallapoosa county for years seeing deer was no problem. It was dog hunted and the land around it was too. No green fields or corn back then