Reclaiming Your Land After a Timber Harvest

Wildlife adapt daily as a harvest is ongoing, but completion of the cutting marks the point when the most dramatic changes begin appearing. It does not matter if the harvest was a select, patch or clear-cut, it’s likely wildlife bedding and feeding areas, and escape routes, will change.

Stabilizing soil and protecting waterways needs to be the first course of action. Creek banks where temporary log skid crossings were created must be stabilized. Adding large stones or rip rap to the bank can keep loose soil from slipping into the stream. Culvert pipes should be placed at ditches and waterway crossings to protect water quality. Prepare and seed exposed soil, covering it with straw to prevent erosion. Planting tree seedlings helps provide long-term soil stability as their root systems develop.

Roads on your property are a valuable asset. After the harvest, stabilize all roads created to skid logs —the temporary roads used for timber removal — and plan for their indefinite use. They create accessible, easily traversed trails. Sowing perennial grasses on roadways helps stabilize the soil. Create drainage ditches on sloped areas to prevent erosion.

Streams merit special attention. Remove debris to ensure proper flow and to prevent clogging. Ditches emptying into streams should have straw bale silt barriers or a silt fence placed in them to prevent sediment runoff. Place bales of straw across ditches and stake them down to hold them in place. In most cases, the straw will deteriorate; but it can be removed once the soil is stabilized.

Landing areas where timber was taken to be trimmed and loaded often create some of the larger, tillable open spaces following a harvest. The post-cutting soil here is often in poor condition. Take a sample and test it so you can add any necessary elements to return it to productivity.

Remove all debris from the landing area and then plow or heavily disk it to loosen the soil, which has hardened following the repeated ingress and egress of heavy equipment. This soil will need extra work to get it back to where it can produce effective food plots. Base your seed choices on your short- and long-term goals for the property, taking into consideration the soil condition and the planting season.

After the harvest, any forest edges abruptly ending at an opening are candidates for edge feathering. Harsh edges are not attractive to wildlife. The lack of cover increases wariness or avoidance. Edges can be feathered by a gradual removal of trees to enhance plant growth on the forest floor.

Thinning trees near the edges creates thicker cover and safer bedding and nesting areas for wildlife. A feathered edge where forest density gradually decreases over a span of about 150 feet as you approach plots or openings is optimal.

Timber harvest creates openings and future wildlife movement opportunities that can quickly become assets as you improve the habitat. The conclusion of a timber harvest can mark the beginning of a great transformation of your hunting land, given the right plan and course of action.