Disappearing Hedgerows
Wisconsin
Are hedgerows disappearing near you? What impact if any have you seen on the hunting?
I was in Rock county this past weekend and many hedgerows we're being burned. It's always been a pretty open in this area but it seems like each year it's getting more and more open.
The last few years in Columbia County a lot of fence rows were being cleared & big trees on the field edges cut down because they suck too much water.
I live in Rock County, and yes, it's growing in popularity. Those same trees that suck water, shade crops causing lower yield, and the overhanging box elder fall into the fields causing extra work, lower yield, and the branches overhanging, hit tractors, or combines. I see it everywhere in farm country.
If you look at progression of agriculture, after the "big cut" 1870-1910, every farm field today is a likely result of what used to be forest. Some areas were prairie conversions. In mostly Ag areas, the wooded areas are fallow or failed agriculture, or areas not suitable for farming (swamp, hillsides).
That said, property boundaries and shelter belts cover areas that can be productive Ag. We may want it for wildlife corridor/habitat, but, money and profits talk.
Look at the wooded areas in Ag areas sometime. Generally they are not managed for timber and grew back in "crap" species like box elder and invasives. Oak was taken to build barns and heat energy inefficient homes. These wooded areas located in Ag areas are the ones holding deer, but deer survive on Ag products. Deer never used to be in downstate WI. Very poor deer habitat unless managed regularly.
If wooded areas were all managed well, deer would thrive, and without food plots. There is no shortcut to having a healthy woods, but once the mast trees are established, management gets easier.
Farmers should be encouraged to plant land in trees, that land that is low Ag potential or has erosion potential. But again, even with CRP and others, corn brings more profit.
Removal of shelterbelts is too bad as it has helped slow wind erosion too. Loss of critical wildlife habitat is just another loss. We need elected officials who believe in environmental protection and not removal of them. Agriculture needs to be a land steward. Many farmers are, but removal of hedgerows is just another indication that farming is getting very efficient.
Do your part, invest in open property and plant trees. Build your own forest. I will give anybody step by step ways to start with and open field and get harvests of trees within 25 years. Start a legacy for you grandchildren.
I know a few big farms that do it for above stated reasons. But they also love to play with their subsidized heavy equipment.
Heavy equipment is fun but what I was seeing looked a lot more fun. Huge, long bonfires. The horizon looked something like a war zone with all the smoke.
I have some buckthorn in my little patch of woods & I am afraid to clear it because The deer love it & if I do clear it the woods would be wide open with just the huge oaks left. What is the proper thing to do? I am used to having lots of cedar trees & there is none in this area. I don't know what the deer eat in the off season as every thing is tilled under.
Albino, clear the BT. It's the best thing for your land. Once the BT is gone, more desirable species can actually have a chance.
Albino. You need to think future for most part. The oak won't regenerate because it needs full sunlight. Don't be afraid to thin to open canopy to get shade tolerant species like sugar maple started. Is there mature white cedar in area? White cedar will only regenerate in an exclosure. White cedar started before we had deer on landscape in current level. Most is left from circa 1910.
By all means, get rid of Buckthorn. Native species need to replace it. That is where future thinking comes in. Key is, you need to open canopy, those mature oaks won't last forever and the time lost in regeneration is something you can never get back. Talk to a consultant forester or DNR forester for small acreage. Depend where you are located, I could help if available.
I am now near Whitewater. I have seen no Cedars at all here. The Oaks are huge & very old. Can I spray the Buckthorn without hurting the Oaks? The only maples I see are in my yard. The County sells trees pretty cheap. I have some Serviceberry coming but I may have to go back to Columbia County for Maples.
They are clearing them out everywhere. The true shelterbelts were my favorite to hunt...2 rows of trees with a lane down the middle. There were scrapes every 10 feet.
What I see mostly are new homes going up in former farmlands and woodlots. I think too many people living in former wooded habitat and ag production land creates the need for more intense farming and woods destruction. I think there is more to blame than simply calling ranchers and farmers rapists. Human progress and population increase have it's downfalls, we are all to blame and it cannot be stopped.
More laws in the US simply leads to more destruction elsewhere such as in the rain forest and other potential wildlife habitats in developing nations. The huge and growing human population is the overall driving force, not simply farmer greed. I agree habitat destruction is a problem, but it begins by having children and medical practices which extend our time on earth and the need for food. We can shift the problem elsewhere where we cannot so easily see it, but it will not go away and in fact will only get worse.
Here in America, rather than simply complain and call farmers rapists, ALL hunters should be buying up habitat and making it better on their dime rather than expecting others to do it for them. If you buy even five acres, pay taxes on it and protect habitat than you are doing a good thing. To expect others to manage their private land at their expense to benefit your desires, is a sense of entitlement. Think about the whole picture including private property rights, not just what you see out your window.
I also think farmers and ranchers protect a lot of wildlife and feed the herds. We all know that in general game is more plentiful on private lands, especially here in the west. With the winter we just had in Montana, it was the ranchers and farmers sharing hay with deer and elk that saved thousands of animals. Where were the hunters with their wallet's while the rapists were saving wildlife?
All very good points Missouri. Not to mention, with the current price of corn, the farmers aren't exactly getting rich at the moment... They need to get maximum yield in order to make money.
Camp, I'm not disagreeing with everything you say, but rising land prices is just part of capitalism. I'm not sure how the farmers are at fault for that. Corn price goes up, (farm) land price goes up. Corn price goes down (farm) land price goes down. Although, it seems like it takes longer for land prices to fall after corn goes down than it does for them to go up. Same thing happens when the housing market is booming. That's just how capitalism works.
I am very familiar with farming practices, in fact I own several. I do believe in stewardship and some of that was addressed long ago by visionaries such as Hugh Hammond Bennett. Many laws are already in place to govern some of these aspects. This thread was about fence rows for wildlife habitat. I would not call a farmer or rancher a rapist just because he legally took out a fence row to increase his productivity and efficiency.
