Ulster County Hunting Property Journal- Food plotting on rocky soil, Habitat improvements, and Deer hunting in bear country

Putnamcounty Bowhunter · July 14, 2019

This will be the journal in which Ill document my experiences with scouting, food plotting, making habitat improvements, and hunting a newly acquired lease in Ulster county NY. I hope to update the thread regularly with photos from the cellular trail cams and visits to the property.

The lease: 120 acres on the Ulster/Sullivan border. Mostly mountainous mature forest with a mix of white pine, hemlock, cedars, yellow birch, sugar and swamp maples, ash, and a few clusters of red and white oaks. Property is bordered by an abandoned Christmas tree farm (110 acres with no hunting, about 40% of the bordering land) and to the southwest there is a large swamp complex with beaver ponds, marshes, and a shallow lake.

Wildlife: During the initial walkthrough we saw lots of sign of deer, turkey, bear, and coyote. Property is loaded with song birds, reptiles & amphibians, small game, and appears to be a very healthy ecosystem.

Predator control will need to be a big part of the management plan for this lease- the large number of bears and coyotes will need to be addressed to improve fawn survival and all around deer density.

Plan for year one: given the relatively poor soil and difficulty accessing the property with farm equipment, we’ve chosen to focus our first year efforts on timber management. Eventually I hope to hit or exceed 10% of the acreage in food plots, but this year we will only be planting about 3 acres. However, with the increases sunlight on the forest floor, freshly sprouting tree stumps, tree tops on ground level, clearing around large oaks, and the native production along trails and logging decks, we expect to produce significantly more forage on the parcel this year than was previously there.

Food plots: the three acres planted this year will consist of a “main plot” shaped like a stretched out and lopsided dumbbell. It’s basically a 1 acre plot and a 1/2 acre plot connect by about 120 yard long 15 yard wide food plot.

This plot complex is currently planted in summer legumes (beans, lablab, peas, annual clovers), spring small grains, chicory, and a small amount of turnips and radish. The connecting strip was just added and will be planted in sucraseed “northern sweet spot” (blend of high sugar grasses, perennial and annual clovers, chicory, and turnips. Next year we’ll frost seed in more clovers and keep it as a perennial plot.

We’re in in the process of adding about a half dozen small kill plots (all under 1/4 acre) that will be connected by the system of logging trails. These will be planted in a mix of clovers, with a nurse crop of small grains and radishes the first year. The spots we’ve identified along the trail system each have a unique secondary feature to the food we’re planting that should improve deer traffic- natural springs which are being excavated to provide consistent water sources, natural funnels that direct deer movement, sites with a stand of large oak trees, and/or easily accessible spots with good proximity to bedding areas were selected for kill/staging plots.

Trail cameras were just mounted so pics of wildlife to come shortly, but for now here are some shots of the food plots (before and after planting), some of the predator and deer sign we’ve observed, and some shots from blinds: