If You Build it, They Will Come...

[NE Woodburner]

My home is on a wooded lot of about 24 acres surrounded by hundreds of acres of forest land, including protected state land all along my back border, so lots of open space with very low density of homes.

When I first built my home back in the late 80's we had a lot of wildlife on our property. As the years went on the amount of wildlife we saw declined slowly and I just assumed that was due to wildlife populations changing. I had been harvesting firewood every year from the property, but the amount I harvested did not keep up with what the forest was producing and the woods got thicker every year. A healthy New England forest produces a lot of wood.

Several years ago the state did a harvest on a nearby parcel. A couple of years after that I had my lot logged and the logger talked to my neighbor who had his lot logged at the same time - so probably a total of 40 or so acres.

I was disappointed when the logging was done due to the drastic change in view and the mess left behind. The logger didn't do anything wrong and stuck to our contract, but the change was still a shock. fast forward a couple of years to now and the amount of wildlife we see is incredible. Almost every morning when I have coffee I see deer coming through and a couple of times we have had a bear come through. I see lots of tracks and scat when I'm out in the woods.

I think of Jeff's work on his pond and UP property in general and how his work has attracted wildlife. I didn't set out with that goal but I have indirectly achieved it.

[WhitePineJunky]

Cuts bring the food back to the ground, the stump sprouting is a really good food source for deer. The rabbits move back in because there's thickets again, song birds shelter from predator birds etc 

[barbender]

 I'll say again, the cleaned up "park look" is actually kind of sterile. It's good to have openings and edge cover transition zones, but as fat as actual habitat goes, esthetically pleasing is not really what you're looking for. Messy is good. Wildlife need the young regrowth, and plenty of brush and debris gives them the cover that helps them feel secure in an area.

[thecfarm]

barbender is right on the money. I have a place that is park like. I feed the deer and the deer are in the messy woods waiting for me.