Land Planning for Wildlife

Successful habitat improvement begins with a thorough evaluation of your farm for its wildlife potential. After you have made this "wildlife habitat inventory," you can draw up a management plan that will not only increase the number and diversity of wildlife on your land, but also increase its overall productivity and value.

• Evaluating Your Land
• Making a Wildlife Management Plan

Evaluating Your Land

Food, water and cover are the three essential ingredients of good wildlife habitat. When evaluating your land, keep them always in mind.

Look first at the plants on your property - the amount and distribution of trees, crops, brush and grass. Vegetation largely determines the types of animals that can live on a plot of land. Plants are the basis of nature's "food web," of which every animal is part. Plant-eating animals - such as deer, rabbits and insects - convert plant energy to protein and fats. Carnivores - hawks, owls, bobcats, predatory insects and insect-eating birds - feed on the plant eaters. This complex food web will collapse without plants.

Also note the sources of water. Wildlife in Missouri has varied water requirements. Salamanders need a fish-free pond for spawning. Bobwhite quail need surface water only during long, extremely dry periods. Water may become the focal point of a wildlife plan because it is a limiting factor for some animals.

Cover is essential and will be discussed throughout this booklet. Both natural and manmade cover provide resting, roosting, nesting, protection and foraging areas. Natural cover is managed by planting, pruning, thinning or clearing. Manmade cover includes brush piles, nesting boxes, rock piles, birdhouses, log piles and similar structures.

Familiarizing yourself with your land will help you know what animals live there and what others you would be able to attract. Walk your land and take notes often and during all seasons. Land and animals change through the year, and you will see new signs during each trip. Look for scratch marks, tracks, burrows, nests and other signs. Note the kinds of animals on your land, the areas they are using and the times you observe them. In your evaluation, it may help to divide your farm into wildlife habitat types. The four main types of farm habitat are cropland, grassland (including pasture), woodland and idle areas. The following questions will help you evaluate your current management of these habitat types in terms of benefits to wildlife. Ideally, you should answer "Yes" to every question.

CROPLAND

• Do you avoid fall plowing?
• The fall plowing of sloping cropland will increase erosion and eliminate crop residues that feed wildlife during the winter.
• At harvest, do you leave a row or two of grain at the field edge? This standing grain provides food and cover for wildlife during winter months.
• Do you avoid heavy herbicide and insecticide applications? When applied in excess of label instructions, herbicides and insecticides eliminate important wildlife food sources by destroying weed seeds and insects in non-crop areas.

GRASSLAND

• Do you graze livestock on a rotation among several pastures? Rotating cattle through different pastures can improve both beef production and wildlife habitat.
• Do you top-dress pastures? Improved soil fertility will contribute to both wildlife and domestic livestock productivity.
• Are warm-season grasses included in your grazing system? Grasses that grow during the hot summer months, such as warm-season grasses, provide summer livestock grazing and wildlife food and cover.
• Are there legumes in your pastures? Legumes add nitrogen to the soil, help improve forage for cattle and attract insects on which wildlife feed.

WOODLOTS

• Do you prevent cattle from grazing your woodlot? Woodlots and woodlot edges are prime wildlife habitat in Missouri. Woodlots should be protected from the competition of grazing cattle.
• When you harvest timber or cut firewood, do you build brush piles from the trimmings rather than burning them? Brush piles around a woodlot leave an uneven, brushy edge that provides food and cover for wildlife.
• Have you maintained a border or edge between the woodlot and other habitat types? Fields that adjoin a wooded area are more attractive to wildlife when a grassy or shrubby border is established and maintained.

FENCEROWS AND OTHER IDLE AREAS

• Have you allowed fencerows to grow up in shrubs, vines and small trees? Fencerows provide travel lanes between different habitat types if woody plants are present.
• Do you avoid applying pesticides to fencerows? Destroying fencerow vegetation reduces both the food supply and the cover that these areas provide.
• Are brushy or grassy strips present between crops, pastures and woodlands? These buffer strips provide necessary cover, nesting and feeding areas for wildlife.

If you answered "No" to one or more of these questions, you might consider adding these practices to your management plan.

Making a Wildlife Management Plan

Begin the farm plan by obtaining a drawing, map or aerial photo of your land. Aerial photographs are available at no charge to the landowner from the Farm Service Agency office in each county. Enlarged copies are available for a small fee.

On the map or photo, mark different habitat types with colored pens. Each type of habitat meets different wildlife needs, so for best results they should be intermixed on your property. Note areas that are isolated from other habitat types. Some animals, such as quail and rabbits, require that the habitat types be close together; others, like deer and turkey, can easily travel several hundred yards to find food, cover or water.

Next, mark areas that might be improved for wildlife. Land can be improved in a general way - for instance, by letting field areas grow up - or it can be improved to attract, maintain or increase certain species of animals. In the latter case, you'll need to learn the animals' habitat requirements: how much territory they need, what they eat and where they find cover. The requirements of some common wildlife species are given in Species Management.

Usually your habitat improvement will involve adding or removing vegetation. In fact, wildlife management is basically plant management. Landowners can change wildlife numbers on their property by changing the supply of plants that attract, feed and shelter them.

You can add plants that provide food for rabbits and other ground feeders, if that's what you are interested in. Or, you may want to cater to deer or other animals that eat higher on brush and trees. Your wildlife plan should ensure an all-season variety of seeds, berries and plants. This sometimes means controlling the growth of some trees and bushes.

A soils map can help you find the best locations for plantings and will indicate the suitability of sites for pond construction. A detailed soils map of your area is available from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. See Natural Resources Conservation Service to find the office near you.

Keep a notebook of your progress, including when, where and how the plantings and other improvements were carried out. This record will help you think ahead and avoid mistakes, such as placing plants in an area where they will become problem weeds. Take photos of habitat changes. Before-and-after pictures of the land show whether or not you are getting results. You also can talk to neighbors and representatives from service agencies who can offer insights on the long-term soundness of your plan.

Often, landowners wrongly assume that large numbers of wildlife will remain permanently on their property if they improve food and cover areas. Usually, the improvements are less dramatic. Your acreage may not gain a permanent flock of turkeys or a herd of deer, but it may become an important part of their range. Your efforts make a difference, even if wildlife use your land only seasonally or temporarily.

The following chapters describe a large number of management practices you can include in your habitat improvement plan. Wildlife responds slowly to changes in habitat, so the main thing is to get started NOW.