How to Improve Habitat for Hunting Deer

From Chestnut Hill Outdoors

The three essential elements of wildlife habitat are food, water and cover. If you want to be a good steward of the land and attract, sustain and hold more wildlife for a more extended period of time, you need to provide the necessary proportions of all three.

Watch the video above for more on deer-land management

Establishing orchards of mast-producing trees like Dunstan Chestnuts is a great way to naturally enhance available food for current and future generations of game and those who pursue them. In most areas, nature provides sufficient water, but you can always supplement it with man-made ponds where necessary. It is the third element that often gets overlooked.

White-tailed deer offers a prime example. Providing food in the form of soft- and hard mast-producing shrubs and trees is a great way to attract them. But they spend the majority of their time in the security of bedding cover, so if you want them to feel more at home on your land, you need to give them a place to stay.

The folks at Chestnut Hill Outdoors are dedicated to helping good land stewards put down roots, improving their land by cultivating living products, sustaining local wildlife and enriching their home ground. That's why we offer a full range of plants to provide both food and cover.

Evergreens represent one of the best types of cover, and one popular option is eastern juniper or red cedar (Juniperus virginiana). In addition to providing cover for deer and other wildlife, the berries are eaten by several species of birds, and bucks love to rub cedars because of their aromatic bark. Broad-leaved evergreens like Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria), also a native species, will grow into thick groves and provide soft mast for a variety of species.

You can also double up on cover and food by planting soft mast shrubs like blackberries, raspberries and muscadine grapes, of which Chestnut Hill Outdoors offers several varieties. They'll grow quickly into the dense thickets that deer love for bedding cover and provide food for deer, turkeys and a broad range of game and non-game wildlife.

For more on Chestnut Hill Outdoors products and how to care for them, visit ChestnutHillOutdoors.com.