I just bought some land with mature merchantable hardwood timber. I am selling the timber and starting from scratch. I plan to solely manage it for deer. Is there any advice anyone can give on what to do after the loggers are done? I plan to clean up as much slash as possible and burn the brush piles. I’m not really interested in planting pines at least not a lot of them. I plan to clear fire breaks and let it naturally regenerate. I also plan to put some of it on a controlled burn rotation or a bushogging every few years. And of course add food plots and maybe plant some fruit trees, sawtooth oaks, etc. my budget is extremely limited so I pretty have to do everything the poor man’s way. Any advice would be most appreciated.

Was also wondering how long it would take to start producing enough cover for the deer. I know the food will be great almost immediately once everything greens up.

I wouldn't clear cut it. Thin it and open up the canopy some and leave some mast bearing trees. You don't say how many acres. But I would put in at least a couple acre or 2 plots

80 acres. Clear cutting was only option to make finances work.

I completely understand but if you can Id leave at least a few oaks that will produce acorns.

3-4 years for brush to grow to a length they will cross on a regular basis. They may use the edges as a means to get from one location to another, the path of least resistance kind of deal.
Planting pines will take about 5-7 years for them to use regularly as bedding areas.

You need to look at one of the state or federal cost-share programs to replant the majority in long leaf. If you do a natural regrow you will have a thick mess of sweet gum with little wildlife value from year 5-25.

Get with your counties farm service agency and see if their are any conservation programs, or initiatives for planting pine , etc.

I'd suggest keeping it as clean as possible till u have the money to replant...it'll grow quickly and then your stuck with crap deer will use it soon as it gets waste high prob this summer

If it’s going to be recreational land, let the hardwood come back by the stump. A nice food plot in the middle of a cutover has lots of potential.

Are there any wet areas on the 80 acres? And you definitely want to leave a few mature trees standing. My good friend just got a 40 acre piece that was basically clear cut a few years ago, but they left a few mature trees, and I’m amazed at how fast the pines have regrown. The big issue was the ruts the loggers left when they were done. It’s gonna take some work when the loggers leave. At least plant some pine in areas again, since they grow up pretty fast. It’s a mess when they leave though.

My advice is simple. You had better do your due dilligence and figure out if you got a bunch of doe blasters around you because if you do.... you are wasting your time and money in epic fashion.

I would only clear cut some areas to create thick bedding and do a select cut on other areas.
And clear cut for food plots.

Print out an aerial first and then take a black ink pen and draw on it how you would imagine your ideal hunting set up and lay out.

You will want two 1-2 acre food plots.

You will want low impact quiet access to your two plots. So focus on a good low impact trail system.

You will want to hopefully cut and plot it in such a way as to create some funnels or compressed travel routes, also some inside corner effect.

Good luck , and make sure you use a forester to get bids for you and who can manage the cut so your place doesn't get wrecked.

First. make sure you get a good logger. Some will cost you more in clean up and road repair than you make off the timber. Make sure the road / field sites etc condition is noted in the contract of how it is to be left. ive heard of landowners asking for a performance payment up front from a logger... Say of $5-10k. if they don't meet the expectation and leave it a mess they forfeit that money to the landowner.

Myself id probably not burn the piles but let them rot for compost.

As mentioned above you want the road/trails laid out well. Lay the field locations/entry out for the prevailing wind direction.

Id ask for mature oaks to be left scattered about. If its just 1 per every 5 acres that's way better than none.

Id be planting chestnuts and Asian pears as quickly as I could get the sites prepped. id plant native plum. They make good thickets.

Checkerboard it with clear cuts in areas that won't grow high grade timber, in good areas do a modified clear cut , meaning leave some midsized white oak species trees . Cut not in square blocks but run them with the topography to create edges running with the topography. Put a large plot near the center and then a couple small satellite plots . Lay them out so you have good entrance and exit. A great way to build plots when loggers are working ( if you can get cooperation), is have them push over the big trees , cut them off at the stump . Then all ya have to do is push the stumps and small stuff out with a dozer. Stumps in food plots suck. Put your clear cuts on a burn rotation. If I planted any pines it would be a couple of small areas for cover, maybe some Virginias or some other kind that offers good cover. Or perhaps plant no pines at all, I'm not a fan of pine in hardwood country.

A 5-6 acre foodplot on the southwest corner three years from now. Nature will handle the rest. Nice shooting house on southwest corner of the foodplot. If youre really feeling froggy, you might do the same thing on the northeast corner fof a diffferent wind. Personally, i would give all the deer living in that 80acre cutover one place to go eat. Thats where i would be every day at daylight and dark

If you think you can have multiple hunters on 80acres, forget about that and just make one really good place to hunt

If you decide to clear cut, consider leaving the hickory trees. At least you will have some pretty trees to look at in the Fall months.

Hickories are great if you're managing for Skwerls.

Hickories are the last thing I’d leave. That’s the definition of “high grading” a place.

Out of the 80 acres there are two creeks that run through that will not be cut 30 feet on each side. Between that and some steep parts there will be an estimated 20 acres left of hardwoods out of 80 plus I’m marking a few white oaks in couple of spots.