My father just bought 150 acres in Wilcox Co. and will be buying 50 more that joins up to this property in short order. He told me his work is done and that it is my responsibility to manage it. We drove the property this weekend and it is a thick mess. The majority of it is 14 year old regen. It was not replanted. It is roughly 30% pine and the rest is oaks/gum and privet. There are several mature white oaks that were left during the last cut. The 50 he is buying next is all 15 year old planted pines. I am going to get a forester involved but want some opinions first. I was thinking about burning in 50 acre parcels and put it on a 3 year burn cycle after we get a dozier in there and make our fire breaks. I just don't know if burning will kill the older gums & privet. In the future I want a balanced ratio of pines and hardwoods. Dad said he would like to replant hardwoods so his grandkids could have a beautiful place 40 years down the road.

It is all good dry ground with a creek/drain running through the center of the property. It has potential, I just don't know how to get it where i want it. I thought about clear cutting it and starting fresh (leaving all mature oaks) but I don't know if it would be worth it to cut and replant. I just need opinions. What should I do?

I'm on my way now, pulling my camper. I assume you will have a place that I can park? We will figure it out and work together. Of course, Along with you, I will have exclusive rights to hunt for the next 30 years.

It looks like your in if for the long term. One thing that needs to be asked is whether you will try to make some $$ down the road harvesting trees on a cycle or is is just a hunting property only, no financial gain needed. IF you will be harvesting trees down the road I would certainly clear cut a good amount of the regen, in stages. Take 40 or so acres out at a time IF you can find someone to come harvest that small of acreage. If not I’d do 60-70 acres 2x’s with 6-8 years between harvest or if you see a jump in timber prices then cut.
I’d then leave plenty of open flat land, if any available, to plant food plots, dove field, etc. On 200 acres I’d like to have 20-25% off that open ground ( thats me) everyone is different. I may even take some of the property your father wants to plant all hardwoods and put some of that in Longleaf if it’s to be left for grandchildren. Think about this for a second, if you do Longleafs then you will have to burn every 3-4 years, which is beneficial but can be costly, if you don’t get assistance( which I’d do a program of some kind) but is GREAT for wildlife of all species.
It sounds like you have a blank canvas to work with and create it how you’d like. Don’t get overly anxious to do everything at once, do it in stages. Also, be thinking about a pond site in your plans. One thing I miss is being able to go fishing with my kids in the summer or anytime I want ( which we had on our old property) and didn’t put $$ back when cutting to do so. It all went to replanting and other property improvements. I wish we’d have done a few things different in some cases but that’s hindsight. Afte 13 years we have finally established a good harvest rotation for some supplemental income.

I would get the local forestry guy involved or a forestry consultant...sounds like a match is in order to help alot of it

2x RareBreed

managed right it can be a honey hole for deer!!!!!

keep big wide roads, lots of open area and some regularly burned crp and it’ll be great for deer and turkey. The openings are key. The more openings the better. The 20/25 percent ration mentioned by rare breed is what I have always read.

Get a dozer in there to clear out some of the sweetgum trash and open up spots for greenfields and to put some wide firelanes in for you. Then burn burn burn. That will improve both the hunting and the timber value. Those firelanes will make for great hunting as well if you get them pushed in a straight line and make them wide enough.

What rarebreed and Swampdrummin said.

And think about funnels and pinch points.
Create as many as possible with the open areas that you will be creating so that
the deer funnel and travel in compressed areas to improve your hunting.

And try to make your roads and open areas in such as way as to make good entry and exit routes for hunting.
Try to avoid making a situation where you have to walk through all the hunting spots to get to all the other ones.

And yes, wide roads, not narrow ones with forest encroaching right up to the edges.

Cut it up in 4-5 sections and start burning a section a year. It is easy to make a fire lane around you mature white oaks. Hardwoods are great to look at but you can manage for deer better with a pines on high ground and hardwood bottoms. With different stages of growth you will have better transition zones that will hold deer and make it a lots easier to hunt. 40 year old pines will make a beautiful place for the grandkids down the road and are much easier to manage.

Thanks for the input guys. Like I said, I will be contacting a forester. I just like to hear input from others who have been through this so I can bounce it off of him when the time comes. We will harvest timber eventually but that is not the goal of this property. Dad just wants a place for his grandsons to hunt when he is long gone. I told him he was crazy. We will definitely be doing some controlled burns. I have seen first hand the benefits of burns from our current lease which is my cousin's property. He used to manage it meticulously and burned every 3 years. He has gotten older and is too scared to burn for liability reasons. Our deer have regressed since he stopped the burns.

The property has 6 food plot areas and the largest is about 1/2 an acre. I plan on having at least 2- 2 acre plots if the terrain will allow it. The others will all be 1 acre or less and we will push for the 20-25% mentioned above. It will just take us time to get there. Thanks again and keep the suggestions coming.

Sounds like a deer heaven with about two days of dozer work.