Cutting Rides For Habitat Management / Deer

Lloyd90

Well-Known Member
Right guy's have been given the all clear to clear some spaces, cut some rides as required and put in any feeder's and high seats I want :D

If you see this short clip it show's the type of terrain I am dealing with



just looking for ways to improve the place :)
 
Lloyd - you're clearly getting some light to the ground, so thats a good start.


I'd be tempted to go in and open up some small coppice coupes - maybe 10m square, and get the old coppice stools back to production/growth

then clear out a stalking path between them that takes you close enough to see and fire into the coupe without walking into it, thin the trees to give you a clean firing line.

read this:

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/fcpn6.pdf/$file/fcpn6.pdf
 
As above, chainsaw, brushcutter, strimmer, don't forget to strim a path to the high seats, saves a lot of accidental noise. Where are you located, I might be able to do you a deal on the forestry work;)
 
Lloyd - you're clearly getting some light to the ground, so thats a good start.


I'd be tempted to go in and open up some small coppice coupes - maybe 10m square, and get the old coppice stools back to production/growth

then clear out a stalking path between them that takes you close enough to see and fire into the coupe without walking into it, thin the trees to give you a clean firing line.

read this:

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/fcpn6.pdf/$file/fcpn6.pdf


After googling coppicing, I have a better idea now :) Cheers pal will have a good read :)
 
Try and cut rides along existing deer tracks. Don't expect deer to use nice paths that you have cut especially for them to walk along - they won't!
Try and find points were existing tracks cross which then effectively doubles your chances.
Make sure seats are sited so that they are easy to get to quietly and suit the prevailing wind.
Try to make the seat a bit like the hub of a wheel and have the shoot lanes extending away (like spokes).
Have a couple of wider areas or glades which let loads of light in to encourage grass growth. These areas can also be used to site feeders or mineral lick posts.
Look for natural 'choke points' which guide the deer into certain areas such as game pens, fences, ditches, gateways. You can always construct dead hedges to assist with this from areas cleared.
Don't get too carried away either! The deer like thick areas as they give them shelter, protection and food. If you move the cover too much, you may also move the deer!
It can help to put the seat up before cutting back too much. Then get up the seat and guide a friend to cut back bits which obstruct. It's often uneccessary to cut close to the seat as you will be looking over it anyway. Visual shoot lanes looking down into the cover are very effective whilst not creating too much disturbance.
It's difficult to advise too much without seeing the problem, but that should give you a few basic ideas to be getting on with!
Have fun!
MS
 
In South Wales Akeld, but if you make the trip down and bring all the chainsaws and tool's I'll let you kip on my sofa and cook you 3 meals a day till the jobs done ?? :thumb:

Was worth a try :rofl:
 
what size chainsaw would be recommended ? can get all other things off my cousin's landscaping company
 
Constructive comment: If you're asking what size chainsaw, then you probably shouldn't be using one :)

You can fell stuff up to 3 or 4" diameter with a brush cutter, much safer, and easier on your back too.

might be worth seeing what your local wildlife trust is doing, go along and give them a hand - its a great way of learning the basics of coppicing etc for the sake of a mornings work.
 
You shouldn't need a chainsaw mate really. A decent pull saw and extending pole saw should do. Anything over I think 7cm thick requires a felling licence ?
Bloody dangerous things too! You'd be a potential candidate for my worst stalking injury thread!;)
MS
 
It depends how much time you've got and how far you want to go

doesn't take long to turn

p1160240.jpg


into

bluebells_coppice_full.jpg


without having to cut down any big trees at all.
 
It depends how much time you've got and how far you want to go

doesn't take long to turn

p1160240.jpg


into

bluebells_coppice_full.jpg


without having to cut down any big trees at all.

Some nice work mate :) Do you just coppice them at the bottom ?
I have taken no holiday this year so might take a 2 week stint and go up there quite a bit and get some good work done :)
 
It might be worth your while to get in touch with a local firewood merchant, they might do some of the felling for you in exchange for the timber. Even if you had to spend your chainsaw budget on someone to come in. You can't climb up to a high seat with one leg!

By the way, you can cut up to 5 cubic meters per calendar quarter without a felling license. If you had already felled five cube last week, you could fell another five this week.
 
ahah, sorry, no, thats not me, just some photos I grabbed.

Just cut them low down, they'll come back up. but its best done in the winter when the sap is down (I don't think it would be a disaster to go ahead though)
 
You should maybe consider what you are trying to achieve as well? The idea of deer management is to create a healthy population of deer which is in balance with its environment. This means that you are trying to protect the trees. By cutting loads down you may be defeating the object to some extent? I also get the impression that you don't really know the first thing about woodland management. You may be better to get someone that knows what they are doing to have a look and advise you rather than risk doing some long term damage to the wood? Local wildlife trusts or conservation groups may be keen to advise or even assist. A sensible management plan with thought and reason presented to the owner is far more likely to secure your future in the wood than cutting huge swathes of it down and trashing the place. The deer will be doing enough of that without your assistance! The wood is full of nesting birds right now. Take your time and get it right. The wood is not just there so that you can shoot deer! It deserves respect and proper management.
MS
 
Some very good suggestions already posted here.

Something that I have found time and again is that a area that is not overlooked by passers by or disturbed by human activity, that is on the lea-side of the prevailing weather and catches that rare beast 'the sun' seems to hold deer time and time again. This is probably stating the obvious to 99% of readers of this thread but often seems to be overlooked as a starting point for some reason.

In areas that contain the criteria that I have listed above, I find that the herb layer is diverse and abundant and the (sometimes) almost 'micro-climate' nature of these areas seem to be alluring to all species, especially roe.

Not trying to teach anyone to suck eggs here but have been guilty of not gently enhancing already favorable spots my self and have watched others go to great lengths to create glades when a small amount of work in existing places would have been time far better spent.

Hope this minor point is of some small help and good luck.

Andrew
 
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Lloyd pity you are so far away as I could have shown what iv achieved, I have been involved in a project of felling and creating rides and glades over the last three years, monkey spanker is on the money with his advice about going steady with the saw and only cut to minimum and prepared for change in deer habits if you have created a disturbance over a short period ,
In my wood which was very very dense (you could hardly walk through it) I firstly cut an access track not particularly on deer tracks but which I could get round the whole wood with a quad or fergy tractor for extraction of wood or deer.
Now a few years later there are a number of well used deer rides and more recently a sunny glade has been opend up on a junction of two deers rides and a tower that looks from the wood over the agri land (now another woodland/wetland project)
All these areas have seats that can be the accessed from the access track without too much disturbance there are also undisturbed areas which are very dense and have never been touched which I think is important too .
All the best with your project it can be very rewarding if your ideas work out . df
 
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Im just over the bridge in Gloucestershire. I have a chainsaw and all the protective gear, as well as my CS 30/31 (that's felling small trees and logging stuff already felled). I'm not exactly time rich at the moment, but if you drop me a PM I am sure we could sort something out...
 
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