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John's Journal... Entry 237, Day 3

THE $30 MANAGEMENT PLAN

Set Up Sanctuaries

Editor's Note: Neil Dougherty, the BioLogic Northeastern Territory Manager and Operations Manager for the NorthCountry Whitetails Habitat Development & BioLogic Research Center in New York, has been involved with habitat development and food plot research for the past 12 years. He's worked closely with whitetail industry leaders such as Dr. Grant Woods, Charles J. Alsheimer, Bob Foulkrod, and others. The 500-acre demo center developed by Dougherty has given him numerous opportunities for magazine and newspaper articles as well as appearing on National Public Radio and TV. When he gets the chance, Dougherty can be found chasing whitetails on the NorthCountry property with his bow.

To grow more big bucks on the property where you hunt, deer need three elements: food, sanctuary and age. Our $30 deer-management program for 1,000 acres primarily has concerned itself with producing more food and reducing the number of deer eating that food. However, if you don't provide sanctuary for your land's bucks as they grow older, they'll leave the property. "Sanctuary is an important component of any deer-management program and doesn't cost money," Dougherty reports. "In many areas, simply providing sanctuary, especially during deer season, will guarantee that you have more big bucks on your property than other hunting clubs do. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that the more sanctuary you provide for deer, the more older-age-class bucks your land will attract. However, a good rule of thumb is to put 10 percent of the land you hunt into sanctuary." For instance, if you have 100 acres of land to hunt, then consider placing 10 acres in sanctuary. "You want your sanctuary to be as close to the center of your property as possible," Dougherty says. "Then there's less of a chance that the deer will migrate off your land onto your neighbor's property during daylight hours."

Dougherty also recommends that you have some type of thick-cover corridor that links one sanctuary to another sanctuary. "Two reasons for thick-cover corridors are that bucks like to move around, especially during the rut, but they don't want to expose themselves to openings. By providing these thick-cover corridors from one sanctuary to another, bucks will use these thick-cover areas to check for estrous does during the rut. You can hunt the bucks in these thick-cover corridors between the sanctuaries and not violate the safe havens that the sanctuaries provide." Planning where your club won't allow anyone to hunt deer also enables the members of your hunting lease to identify the areas where they can hunt and to drastically increase their odds for taking older-age class bucks every season.

To learn more about Mossy Oak BioLogic or the NorthCountry Whitetails Habitat Development Center, contact Neil Dougherty at (866) 677-9625 or visit www.mossyoakbiologic.com or www.northcountrywhitetails.com.

TOMORROW: LET THEM GROW

 

 

Check back each day this week for more about THE $30 MANAGEMENT PLAN ...

Day 1 - Purchase Gas
Day 2 - Fertilize Next, Then Buy Bullets
Day 3 - Set Up Sanctuaries
Day 4 - Let Them Grow
Day 5 - Get Your Neighbor's Buck


John's Journal