In the Weeds: April 2010

Habitat Top Ten Tips for Landowners

By Jeff Lampe
Photos by: Roger Hill

So you've got your own small piece of grassland paradise. You see birds now and then, but you'd like to see more. What can you do? Here are 10 tips to improve your back 40.

In the Weeds: April 2010
  1. Set a Plan with Goals
    Do you want pheasants? Bobwhite quail? Woodpeckers? Focusing on a goal helps you stick to your plan. Maybe you cringe at the thought of burning your acreage. But if that's the most cost-effective way to attract more birds, fire may become more palatable. Planning also helps determine needs, which is critical since many small landowners lack equipment that may be available from government agencies and PF/QF chapters.
  2. Provide the Most Needed Habitat
    "Most people lack undisturbed nesting cover or high quality winter cover," said Chad Switzer, pheasant biologist for South Dakota's Game, Fish and Parks. So while planting a food plot is tempting, that's not always your best bet. "If you have 20 acres and the property is surrounded by 320 acres of corn stubble, a food plot is not the first priority," said Pete Berthelsen, a Pheasants Forever field coordinator in Nebraska. "Nesting and brood-rearing cover is the number one limiting factor throughout the country."
  3. Plant Winter Cover
    Provide dense cover and you can attract birds from your neighbors. Research shows pheasants will move two miles to find winter cover. "If there's a cattail slough already there, awesome. If not, try to create heavy cover with switchgrass plantings or evergreens or shrubs," says Todd Bogenschutz, upland biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. "We did studies in the early 1990s and winter survival came out as the most sensitive parameter to the population. If pheasants don't survive winter, it doesn't matter what's around for nest cover come spring."
  4. Maintain Your Grasslands
    Don't plant prairie and walk away. Native plantings require maintenance every three to five years to maximize bird production. "You can have more birds if you burn, strip disk, spray or inter-seed things on a regular basis," Berthelsen says. "But most people don't do that." Studies in Nebraska show nest densities three times greater in fields that were disturbed versus those left alone. Prescribed burns are considered the most cost-effective form of management.
    5. In the Weeds: April 2010
  5. Be Slow to Plant Trees, Be Fast to Manage Trees
    "To me tall trees and pheasants just don't go together," Bogenschutz says. Trees provide perches for raptors and dens for mammalian predators like raccoons and opossums. "You'll never be able to trap every predator on your site, but you can remove habitats that draw them," said Joe Stangel, a private lands specialist with the Minnesota DNR. "And if you can control trees (in grassland plantings) while they are small, you're way ahead. I've done cost-shares on tree-removal projects that were $20 an acre up to $1,000 an acre if the trees got out of hand."
  6. Maximize Your Dollars
    "There's all kinds of state, federal and non-profit organizations out there that will match your dollars," Berthelsen says. Programs like State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement will provide regular checks in the mail if you plant native grasses and forbs. SAFE is a new offshoot of the Conservation Reserve Program that has a continuous sign-up, caters to smaller parcels, offers cost-share dollars for work and does not require that land be highly erodible.
  7. Learn to Live with Weeds
    Better yet, start calling them forbs or wildflowers. No, you don't have to tolerate thistle. But broad-leaved plants are important because they attract insects that make up 95 percent of the diet of a pheasant or quail chick. That's why weedy early years of a new planting produce more birds. So leave your mower in the shed and save money on gasoline.
  8. Plant Cover in Blocks
    Blocks of grass are better for birds than long, narrow strips of cover. "Our research shows pheasants die along edges," Bogenschutz says. "Predators use edges in the same way you and I do. For pheasants, we've found nest success is much better in grasslands 40 acres or larger." In an effort to reduce edges, you also want to limit mowing of trails that make hunting easier for humans...as well as four-legged predators.
  9. Plant Numerous Species
    When picking seed mixtures, aim for a higher percentage of insect-attracting wildflowers and legumes. "In a grass planting, if you plant 50 things instead of five things, whether you have a wet year or a dry year or a cold year or a hot year, something in that mixture will do well," Berthelsen says. "The more diverse, the healthier the ecosystem will be." Check out our Signature Series Seed Mixes
  10. Enjoy Subtle Changes
    Have patience. "When you're working with population changes, things don't happen in days or months, they happen in seasons," Berthelsen says. "Some of these wildlflowers take three to five years to show up and start blooming."

    11. Have a habitat story you'd like to plant "In The Weeds"? Email your idea to press@pheasantsforever.org.

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