So I bought some land...

[SupressYourself]

Curious supress,is your quarter near "Roy lake?",Roy lake has been on my bucket list to fish for a long time.great area.

Not really. It's a lot closer to Waubay lake. Roy lake is nice. I've camped there many times. If I'm fishing there, it's usually for bass, so not sure if it's a "bucket list" destination or not.

 

[snow1]

I've had walleye and jumbo perch on my mind iffin I head to Roy,I've chatted with the lady that owns the resort on the lake,seen pics of some darn nice smallies out of Roy,got plenty of big smallies here in minnesota,a good day here fishing smallies will produce a couple 6lb'ers and a raw thumb lipping these rascals in the boat.

With that said,bitter lake has been my go to walleye lake for years,enemy swim for panfish,good sized gills.

 

[Kurtr]

It's actually not too far from Webster. I grew up near Sisseton, so I'm familiar with the area. Logged many, many hours picking rocks with a 5 gallon bucket, so I know what to expect there as well

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Thank you. That's very helpful. I'll reach out to the habitat advisor.

well if it’s mine by Webster I’m putting some dikes up planting corn and flooding it in the fall and pounding on the mallards. I would also dig a tech pond for dog training. Pretty much no help to what you want to do haha . Contacting local nrcs and gfp is the way to go.

 

[3Roosters]

If that were my recent SD land purchase, I would personally invite the SD Governor over for a private tour of the land.

 

[Zogman]

Congratulations! All the best. You will enjoy the project.

 

[Allen]

Damn Lycan, I haven't been out that way in a while, it's starting to come together for you! In another 10 years people won't even recognize it.

 

[BrokenBackJack]

If that were my recent SD land purchase, I would personally invite the SD Governor over for a private tour of the land.

Are you thinking of trying a "John Dutton'' on her??? :;:huh

 

[KDM]

The fastest way to see real results in your deer populations in my opinion would be to plant your tree rows about 50 yards north and west of the existing tree rows instead of the long narrow shelter belt you have planned for. The reason for this is snow. A 6 row shelter belt will fill completely with snow being blown in, however if you have two shelterbelts one will catch the snow and the other will provide the cover and bedding. The other option is to plant a solid block of trees say 15 acres. It will do the same thing. Pines are your most important winter cover for deer so plant those heavy and then make provisions to protect them from the deer. Bucks love to thrash small junipers and pines with their horns. I have a solid block of 15 acres of thick trees and the entire north 40 yards gets 10 plus ft of snow in it every year and the 3 row shelter belt I planted gets totally covered with drifts 15 ft high from blowing snow. I wouldn't provide any cover close to the roads at all. The more cover you have there, the better the chances of shinanigans. Then I'd plant the food plot between the tree blocks to keep the deer more secure when they visit. Just some thoughts.

 

[Allen]

Kind of along KDM's thought, when the Bureau of Reclamation was planting/designing Lonetree WMA, some of the comments from the public were complaints about tree rows that blocked views of the habitat away from the road.

I guess road hunters don't like tree rows that run parallel along gravel roads.

 

[SDMF]

Line the "Road-side" (looks like W and N if the top of the map is N) of that snaking low spot with at least 3 rows of offset evergreens. They'll be downwind of the rows that area already there and allow the deer to move freely about the low-spot CRP stuff without being seen and or shot-at from the road.

Edges, lots of edges, all game animals LOVE edges.

 

[db-2]

its a dream that many do not have and some have no idea. Best of luck. db

 

[SupressYourself]

Line the "Road-side" (looks like W and N if the top of the map is N) of that snaking low spot with at least 3 rows of offset evergreens. They'll be downwind of the rows that area already there and allow the deer to move freely about the low-spot CRP stuff without being seen and or shot-at from the road.
Edges, lots of edges, all game animals LOVE edges.

It's hard to tell from an arial shot, but that "snaking low spot" is pretty deep, and the hilliness conceals most of pasture area. The only place you can really see in there from the road is on the south side, looking north toward the existing stock dam. That's why I want to plant some stuff between that stock dam and the road -- so deer can get a drink without being seen from the road.

 

[camoman]

For your pasture property you might consider a burn to help encourage the growth of plants you want...in the prairies the soil bank often has lots of native plants just waiting for a chance to grow. I would recommend meeting with biologists from both SDGFP and Pheasants Forever to get their thoughts. Depending on the area and opportunity for CRP you could turn a big chunk of your at fields into CRP and benefit from those payments along with renting the remaining acreage to a local farmer - part of your deal could be them leaving so many acres of whatever is planted - corn, sunflowers, beans, etc.

 

[Allen]

Edges, lots of edges, all game animals LOVE edges.

Truer words have never been typed on this webpage

 

[Bubba]

CRP is good immediate habitat. In my opinion the most important thing is to create habitat edges. I know it isn't the ND way but I just wanna go on record and say that trees and shrubs can be planted in non-quadrilateral shapes. The more sides the more edge. Also, don't just plant trees. Shrubs are very important escape and bedding cover for pheasants and deer.

 

[CatDaddy]

Any update on the land you bought?

 

[SupressYourself]

Since this "spring" has been complete dogshit, I've only been out there a few times. The northern shelterbelt is about 14 years old and looks good. The west shelterbelt is only a few years old and was not taken care of as well. There is weed barrier fabric, but a lot of them still got choked out. Between the rows never got mowed last year, so the weeds are taller than most of the trees. I counted 170 missing trees. So I got a bunch of seedlings, and I'm going to replace them by hand, hopefully this weekend. I've got a lot more ideas for the place, but I need an excavator and a payloader. I may spend all of this years rent money just dicking off
When I was on my walkabout, I was excited to see my very own pheasants and ducks. Only a couple, but it's a start.

 

[Lycanthrope]

Since this "spring" has been complete dogshit, I've only been out there a few times. The northern shelterbelt is about 14 years old and looks good. The west shelterbelt is only a few years old and was not taken care of as well. There is weed barrier fabric, but a lot of them still got choked out. Between the rows never got mowed last year, so the weeds are taller than most of the trees. I counted 170 missing trees. So I got a bunch of seedlings, and I'm going to replace them by hand, hopefully this weekend. I've got a lot more ideas for the place, but I need an excavator and a payloader. I may spend all of this years rent money just dicking off
When I was on my walkabout, I was excited to see my very own pheasants and ducks. Only a couple, but it's a start.

Instead of digging them in, you can use an auger to save your back some strain, its hard enough planting trees, no reason to make it worse. They make a 4" earth auger bit that is compatible with most ice auger powerheads that is wide enough to plant most bare root trees but significantly lighter than the 6" and 8" augers.

 

[LBrandt]

Since this "spring" has been complete dogshit, I've only been out there a few times. The northern shelterbelt is about 14 years old and looks good. The west shelterbelt is only a few years old and was not taken care of as well. There is weed barrier fabric, but a lot of them still got choked out. Between the rows never got mowed last year, so the weeds are taller than most of the trees. I counted 170 missing trees. So I got a bunch of seedlings, and I'm going to replace them by hand, hopefully this weekend. I've got a lot more ideas for the place, but I need an excavator and a payloader. I may spend all of this years rent money just dicking off
When I was on my walkabout, I was excited to see my very own pheasants and ducks. Only a couple, but it's a start.

This morning I saw that my resident rooster has finally found himself a fat chick for making babies. Hooay Hooay. LB

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Maybe if your soil is not too "rootie" you could use one of those "bulb" digger for a electric drill to plant your tree's. Just add an Extension so the bare root will hang straight down for better moisture getter. LB

 

[BrokenBackJack]

The last few times that we had to replant 1' seedlings I used our skidsteer and took one fork off the set of forks and used that to make the hole to set the tree roots in. Stuck the fork in the ground about a foot or so. Then we stomped in closed. Worked slicker than snot and we planted 2-300 trees in a very short time. Those trees grew way better than the ones the County Conservation planted.