Wildlife Habitat

Mike Hradel – Cold Stream Farm2030 Freesoil Rd.Freesoil, MI 49411(231) 464-5809
Current fashion is to focus wildlife habitat in blocks or rows. It is easy to plant and maintain and provides a quick visual impact of an apparent increase in wildlife populations. We take exception to this. Keep in mind that the predators will also note this concentration of wildlife. If you want to truly maximize wildlife populations you should disperse your wild life plantings as much as possible. Wildlife tends to be territorial so dispersed plantings will accommodate these territories. To draw wildlife out of natural dispersal invites stress, disease, warfare and predation. Research done in Minnesota on ruffed grouse indicated that overall populations could be increased as much as 20X by proper dispersal of habitat!
Another fact to keep in mind is that diversity of feed is important to wildlife. For reasons not fully understood, wildlife doesn’t always show preference for the same food from year to year or site to site in spite of availability. Also, winter fruit isn’t born by the same species every winter. To maximize fruit, seed and nut crops, do not crowd your plantings.
The importance of habitat quality to wildlife is brought home by the late Gordon Gullion’s research for the University of Minnesota. Although his study focused on ruffed grouse population response to habitat quality, to some degree it applies to other species. To summarize his work, optimum habitat provides maximum bird population. No amount of available food or predator suppression will increase grouse population if the cover is inadequate. Feed availability could even have a negative effect of it draws wildlife out of favorable cover.
When I worked in the paper industry I used to commute by motorbike through 12 miles of Manistee National Forest along two tracks for eight years. Along the way was a wide variety of cover. If you are not already aware grouse typically have ten chicks to a hatch and 3-4 of them will survive the summer. During my commutes I would sometimes flush broods. In areas with sparse cover there would be typically 3 or fewer chicks when they were still smaller than sparrows so I would guess there were few or none left by the end of the summer. In areas with dense cover there would still be 8-10 chicks, likely assuring a fresh generation of young adults at the end of the summer. If you are a hunter or just like to see wildlife, you already know, or you will learn that walking poor cover is a waste of time.
In forested areas timber harvest or preferably clear cuts are the fastest method to regenerate optimum cover. Care should be taken to refrain from cutting winter bearing shrubs. Their exposure to light will greatly increase their fruit crops. In the case of grouse, the cuts are best kept to a few acres and made every few years so that there is a succession of tree ages and stem densities in close proximity that grouse need during their life cycle. It is helpful to plant up natural openings with a variety of winter bearing trees and shrubs to supplement the winter, feed sources that are already in place. Supplemental plantings should be avoided along high traffic roads, where motor vehicles are an important predator. In some years wild life will reject even their favorite food sources for no apparent reason so it is desirable to have a variety of food sources available for them to choose from. Also fruit crop failures can be counted on. We see feed rejection happen on the winter-bearing fruit in our yard and in feedback from our customers. Gordon Gullion observed this one winter during his study, when grouse abandoned male aspen buds that are their customary primary winter feed source. In a purely aspen forest this could severely stress the grouse population.
Another incident that may be of interest was an encounter a friend in Maine had with a young male partridge. When cutting firewood and raking leaves around his yard the bird would show up and tag along with him like they were old pals, while he was working. However whenever he would move toward more open areas the bird would become nervous and desert him, unwilling to abandon overhead cover that is important to them. The bird had another curious behavior. When Warren would dump leaves on his mulch pile it inspired the bird to attack the leaves. You’d think a pat would find better things to do than hang out with a bird hunter so close to bird season.
Supplemental plantings of winter-bearing shrubs in high snow regions can be particularly beneficial when snow depths exceed what the wildlife can dig through for long periods of time. Wild turkey have been introduced in many areas outside their normal winter tolerance but they have been able to prosper anyway due to handouts. The trouble with handouts of course comes if they stop happening. Doug Whitcomb a DNR biologist in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan, (typically a high snow fall area) observed a large flock of turkeys that sustained itself largely on a grove of crabapple.