Increasing the Wildlife on Our Land
What’s the best way to increase the wildlife on a piece of property? Well, in our case the answer is to clear out some of the land and create some open areas. Our property is a clear-cut pine farm which was logged out several years ago. It has grown back, but extremely crowded. We will eventually need to clear out some of the overgrown logged areas. Increasing the wildlife on our land is one priority we have established early on. So far, we first moved an old mobile home on the property and added a workshop building. We will build our future house on the 3-acre area we cleared last year. And finally, we cleared out a firebreak around most of the property, and created some paths. The deer and other wildlife paths use these paths and cleared areas.
Overall, we are clearing selected portions of the land with an eye for preserving and improving wildlife habitat. We plan to increase the portion of the land that consists of edge habitats. Edge habitats occur where two differing ecosystems meet. In our case it is the spaces where overgrown logged land meets cleared land. These habitats encourage small mammals and birds. We are seeing the increase with the small amounts of trails and small clearings done. In turn this will bring a few hawks, crows, owls, coyotes and a bobcat. Edge habitats add food and shelter options for more wildlife.
On the south side of our property, we have wild muscadine vines growing where the firebreak was cleared out on the fenceline that we share with our neighbor. Blackberries are also growing at the edge of the overgrown areas. These are examples of the increase in plant types growing on the property. We also have lots of wildflowers growing in these areas.
We are now getting some more wildlife on the land. Our cleared yard is attracting doves and songbirds. The small herd of deer have increased their numbers to about 6 deer, 2 bucks and 3 does, with a fawn. We are now seeing rabbits, turkeys, raccoons, possums, coyotes, and even a bobcat. Last year we saw a feral hog a couple of times and will keep an eye on it to make sure there aren’t any large numbers that show up. Our neighbor had hog traps set up earlier in the year. I don’t know if the neighbors trapped any feral hogs. Currently, we only see one or two feral pigs at a time. They aren’t doing any damage as of yet.
Future plans for increasing the wildlife on our land include adding a few more trails, especially a central trail to get to the back of the property. Additionally, we plan to remove invasive plants as we encounter them. We also plan to clear out the woods in front of where the house will go. We will be clearing out about a 20-acre meadow that can be used as a small pasture if we get any grazing animals in the future. Then we will plant an orchard and start a garden.
The trees on the property may meet the criteria for thinning out by the local logging company for paper and wood chips in the future. We may also use goats to clear out some of the overcrowded underbrush in more areas. There is much to do in the coming years.