I have been wanting to do a few things around the farm to sorta set me up for the last 10-15 years of my hunting (if I am Lucky) and also because I have now firmed up my transition to becoming a full time Bama resident, which is as soon as school gets out down here. Combine that with current timber prices and its time to play. Anyway, I will be clear cutting about 40 acres of Pine Timber and thinning out junk and suppressed hardwood on another 20-30 AC of Hardwood, with no good log trees being touched. So I have an opportunity few will ever have, in that I will have a blank palette, and enough money, to set this place up as good as it possibly can be. And it ain't bad now.

The first thing that I am really excited about is what I can do in my NE corner. I am near town and deer habitat ends completely on my north line and diminishes quickly to the east due to a major highway. For many years habitat has been so so and really not a lot of deer up there. Three years ago I clear cut 8 acres of it because of poor trees and bug damage and things picked up a lot in a year. Saw 7 racked bucks in one morning last year on it. I am going to cut another 20 AC of planted pine and native regen oak/pine and create a 30 Acres of prime bedding in an area I can completely stay out of (yes a sanctuary, and I am not Whild Bill) and hunt, and access, only from the south. Which is something I have nowhere else. Three 40-50 foot wide lanes of 200 yd, 300 yd and 400 yd and I can cut the whole thing off and pretty much shoot anything coming or going to it or in it. Plant the lanes in Perrenial Clover, add a high capacity feeder about 150 yards up the north or NE lane and its gonna be gold in about 3 years. Now I just have to stay alive and functional. And before anyone points it out, with the stand elevation and topography, shooting all of the lanes will be safe.

I like it!

How many acres do you have? Congrats buddy you have a fine place. I have right at 104 acres.

I have 320 ac

Sounds good

What county u N?

Good luck

Dale county

Hey Brad congrats, I'm in east orange county now . gonna be a few more yrs before I make the move myself...I've got 80 in east henry county and been setting mine up for years...thats the fun part. wish I could get another 75 thats beside me....

Congrats on the plans! There is nothing I enjoy more than creating a wonderful hunting environment after a clear cut. That “blank slate” capability is something that few people ever enjoy. Looks like a great plan.

I have a track of land that I have been managing for about 10 years. It has been in my family for generations and the management has now fallen to me. Although we stopped active farming about five years ago, I have left about 20 acres in open fields plus we a number of food plots. Two years ago, I took 100 acres of 40 planted loblolly and clear cut 50 acres and thinned 50 acres in two stands (third time). In the mature pines, I have applied herbicide for hardwoods and have burned once and will do so every two years. In the clear cut areas, I have replanted in Long Leaf and am creating several new greenfields. I am trying to create a patchwork of habitat. 70% is in mature hardwoods or mixed pine/hardwood forest, 10% will be in young long leaf (bedding area), 10% in mature pines maintained with understory burning and 10% in fields/plots. There is a fairly even distribution of habitat type across the farm which keep deer from congregating in one area or another. We lease all of the land that adjoins so I have been able to make sure that our habitat compliments the property around us. Been fun but it is a multi year process.