Top 3 Deer Habitat Screenings



Looking for the best deer habitat screening? Here are 3 very important deer screening varieties that you need to consider for your deer hunting property, this growing season.

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30 thoughts on “Top 3 Deer Habitat Screenings”

  1. This is EXACTLY what i hope to do someday. This video will be watched a dozen times by me alone. Thanks for your dedication and devotion to helping all us habitat-ers’ !!

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  2. Thank you for the video Jeff! We just recently planted some white spruces, Colorados, and some black spruces for screening. Next year, we'll try some silky willows in some areas as well. We're going on year #2 with our switchgrass and hoping that it starts to take off. We appreciate all your knowledge!

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  3. Jeff, solid advice on selection of conifer species, and a great example of deer preference browsing. While Northern Maine's deer are by no means overpressuring winter browse availability, white cedar is a whitetail winter favorite and trying to make a screen from it is an almost comically bad idea, and you highlight that well. White spruce, on the other hand, is very tolerant of poor and acidic soil and drought, grows very thick and full, and will accept grass and perennial growth competition. While close plantings will work for a quickie screen, long-term individual tree health can suffer; if you have the space, I recommend a two or three staggered rows of white spruce, with more space between the plantings in the rows. Mimicking the natural conditions that create the healthiest individual trees makes a lot of sense and provides a better screen that will last for generations.

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  4. Thanks, Jeff! I always enjoy all your content. You put me on Big Rock Trees this year with your video, "Top Five Shrubs For Deer" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfoigBhT0hE
    I ordered twenty-five of the Red Osier Dogwood cuttings and stuck 'em in the ground. All but three or four have leafed out and are doing great! I enjoy birding as well as watching other wildlife, so thanks so much for all your help!

    By the way, I heard another great shrub/tree (when planted close together) for a privacy screening (Spring, Summer and Fall) are the Washington Hawthorns. The thorns serve as Mother Nature's "barbed wire". They are deciduous; therefore, the leaves will drop off in the winter. The birds love the cluster of berries produced from this small tree.

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  5. Great video! Last week with the help of some Amish kids I paid we planted 5,000 miscanthus bulbs. It’s is really easy if you can rent a small ditch witch . It’s like a little tractor with a dozer blade on the front and the trencher in the rear. You can dig the trench and at the same time fill in the old trench with the dozer blade. Makes miscanthus quick and easy .

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  6. Jeff do you do anything for mice control under those weed mats. I have problems with mice gurdling my younger willows. It looks like a great way to put bushes in otherwise

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  7. I love conifers but a decade to get a screen. At year 3 my Norway seedlings are still only a foot if they survived. Moisture and soil sucks. Red pines have done better in sand and drought. I’ve researched the silky willows and that looks very interesting. Price of seed and chemicals this year means I have to be very selective with improvements. Great content. Another good annual screen is Sudan Grass.

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  8. Good morning from the Thumb Jeff!, near you old stomping ground! What can I use for screening to divide a property line in open hard woods until until it gets regenerated. Have a fence sitter

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  9. Ive messed with hybrid poplars for a long time.. I would only use those as a screen in a layered screening with multi species. They, Specifically the OP-367, have the terrible notion to put roots above the ground line. that was my only issue with them. Beautiful fast growing trees though. I have several things started in pots this year and cant wait to get them installed on my property later this fall.

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  10. Jeff, do you think your findings with food plots and big buck and doe movement patterns translates fully to the south? Particularly the southern piedmont of North Carolina?

    I know many of your ideas and findings are great, but it seem like our deer down here and especially our rut differs from your upper midwest deer in some ways.

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