Going home without game is not a failure, just a prelude to future success. Game harvest is a small part of a much larger picture, and the big picture is what it is all about.
Hunting is linked hand in hand with habitat management. Silviculture management can promote habitat improvements for food, shelter, water, breeding areas, and travel corridors for all wildlife, game and non-game. Please see the Silviculture page for more on that.
On the agricultural side, food plots for deer, turkey, and quail have been emphasized. Even though it is rare to hunt quail, I just love seeing them. The backbone of food plot management has been ladino clover, with herbicide treatments to yield as many perennial years as possible. Fall planting of long strips of brassica and wheat are now part of the standard program. Other rotating plantings include field corn, soybeans, sunflowers, and occasionally chicory.
Lespedeza shrubs have been planted throughout, as have Chinese chestnut and sawtooth oak trees. Notable are recent efforts for re-establishing early successional stages of scattered forest areas and edges, as well as fallow field management. We have from time to time used prescribed burns in the various fields.
