Habitat improvement can be messy and noisy as large machines fell trees, rework roadbeds, and otherwise transform your deer woods into a construction site. Even locals cutting trees with a chainsaw can be a huge concern as you sit quietly on a stand. Will these man-made disturbances push deer away? Or cause them to flee to another property or leave the area for good? A rancher in Texas wondered how his deer would react and conducted a scientific study, with interesting results, as reported by Lindsay Thomas Jr. in this QDMA post.

If you lease hunting land, few sights are more disheartening than the appearance of skidders, log loaders and logging trucks, especially just before or during hunting season. If you own your hunting land, you are the one who calls in the skidders, log loaders and logging trucks when you harvest timber. But many hunting landowners and hunting land leasers share the same concern: Will the equipment, noise, habitat disturbance and human activity of a logging operation have a significant impact on deer activity in the immediate area?

That was a question that Don Draeger, wildlife biologist at the Comanche Ranch in South Texas, wanted to answer through research. In the Brush Country of South Texas, wildlife managers are using mechanical techniques to create more edge habitat. One technique involves “chaining,” in which a heavy-duty chain connected to large bulldozers is dragged through brush to create openings, then the debris is cleared and stacked… [continued]

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