With deer season keenly on every hunter’s mind, wildlife habitat practices are probably a distant thought. However, you’ll likely spend hours on deer stands watching, waiting, and calling, so why not consider improving the local habitat?

I hunt in Maryland, and the timber near my favorite stand is so browsed that I can shoot more than 200 yards through spaces between trees. Many times I have considered “hinge cutting” the numerous maples and other non-hardwoods near the stand to provide bedding cover. Such practices are best done in mid-winter, yet Michigan’s DNR cautions about safety.

It is early November, so about 1 million Michigan residents are thinking about deer hunting in their favorite spot in the woods on Nov. 15. Whether you are a deer hunter or a bird watcher, many forest landowners work hard all year to manage their forest to provide suitable habitat for the birds and animals that they enjoy watching.

“Hinge cutting” is a habitat management technique that is becoming popular among deer hunters in Michigan. Hinge cutting is a method to cut down a tree using only a back cut that does not fully sever the tree’s trunk from the stump, leaving the fallen tree connected to the stump by a “hinge” of bark. The intent is to keep the fallen tree alive for a while to provide deer with browse for food, bedding habitat, and to direct their traffic flow in the woods.

Many professional foresters and wildlife biologists have questions about hinge cutting as a habitat management technique. Hinge cutting has not been researched in controlled scientific studies, so there are not any data to support the wildlife habitat benefits claimed by its proponents. Hinge cutting might provide good habitat for deer, but landowners have other habitat management options that produce greater long-term habitat benefits for wildlife… [continued]

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