Planting

In terms of overall habitat improvement beyond food plots it is important to consider what shelter your land provides to the deer population.  If it does not hold a lot of cover, creating it can be a longer term project than creating food plots, but the effort yields the obvious result of providing one more component of your deer populations primary needs.

Plantings are an option…switch grass, Russian olive and other plants that establish cover quickly will certainly help any piece of land hold more deer. Other options include plant life that takes longer to establish but will provide better long term results. Evergreens are an excellent example. 

County extensions, your local QDMA, or seed companies like Gurneys are resources for these types of plantings.  Again, this is a longer term project.  Where as food plots provide benefits the first year, these types of plantings make take several years to establish good cover, but provide a good base area for holding deer in the future.

Mixing this type of project with the clear cutting or hinge cutting techniques described in the previous section should provide a mix of cover that will help bridge the gap while your plantings establish themselves.