Just looked and Lamar co is one county that's not on the crp longleaf program.
I could plant it anyway, but leaning more towards crp grasses or just burning a clearcut every 3 years or so.

I've hunted in Marion! On the Roper Farm

I was speaking more in terms of CRP that you often see in Kansas, that's been fallow for 5-10years, and is anywhere from 4-8' tall. It's a mix of briars, grasses, cattails, and everything in between. Great bedding, great browse. And when the trees start to get too big in it, you just mow it down and start over.

My pine woods and mixed woods would look like this:







Hardwoods would look like this:



Fields would look like this:



And regeneration/clearcuts would look like this:

Gobbler can i come hunt with you man that is pretty

Gobbler

Serious question. How do you hunt that? What I'm referring to is patterns. Can you pattern deer in that the same as your typical AL woods. It looks like the entire acreage is perfect so I'm just curious if there are prevalent trails, bedding areas etc.

To bad timber companies don't manage there timber like that.

Pretty easy with terrain since they use terrain instead of cover. Beds all over as well as trails so they do stick to patternable movements. winter food sources are huntable as are the thicker patches, and especially hardwood drains - they become MORE attractive! Biggest difference is in the ability to see many of your deer - the ability to see deer is why there is an illusion that the midwest has more deer than us - they don't. Just that they name theirs since they see every deer they have due to open habitat.

I'm not Gobbler (beautiful pictures by the way) but I'll answer that question with my experience of hunting thousands of acres of monotonous, flat (think pancake flat), no change understory. Short answer, no.

Sure you can set up on a trail leading to a green field but there will be 10 other trails leading to the same field. Hunting the wind...forget about it. Just as likely to have a deer behind you as in front. No true "feed tree." They're all feed trees and the deer walk through there like a maze and bed down anywhere. With all that said, I very much enjoy hunting it, but patterning a deer from where he is going and coming from is not easy. The best time to do so is just like anywhere else, early bow season.

Edit to add: he had a better and different answer than I did and posted at the same time.

If it maximized their management objectives, they would.

How many pines per acre are left in that first pic? Looks awesome to hunt, but too thin to maximize timber production. I'd love to have a good balance of wildlife, but not hurt timber production. My dad and I lock horns on this all the time. Every old loading area we have I try to plant with sawtooth or fruit trees, but that means a new loading area will have to be created. Know what I mean? I have some hardwoods that I want burned NOW.

That is the stuff I am talking about Ted

Haven't seen much of that since I left GA. It is amazing how "easy" it really is with some time, work and money...

Looks awesome!

They see their deer alright, they walk around in the wide open. Love your pictures.

Maybe 15 - 20 or so. Mostly managed for quail but exceptional deer are killed there.



One of the first lessons we deal with on new clients is realistic goals. If they don't understand the trade-offs between timber and wildlife, then we will be in trouble when things don't line up. While there is some overlap in objectives, maximizing timber production takes away wildlife management opportunities. Maximizing wildlife production minimizes timber production. No way around it. You can have both but you CANNOT optimize both.

Also bear in mind that the top picture is what 70-80% of the coastal plain and Piedmont in the southease used to look like when Desoto came to Alabama!



Thanks

That's what I figured. Awesome pics for sure!