Would a narrow valley in northeast Arkansas be a good bedding area?
Filed under: Habitat Management
Here in the ridge covered areas of Northeast Arkansas, you’re hard pressed to find any amount of soil that lacks an ample amount of rocks. There is a specific track of land I would like to utilize for bedding area, yet I have no clue what to plant. The ground flash floods occasionally but drains very quickly and is found between two ridges. It’s minimum width is around 12′ and maximum width being around 25′, all of this occurring in a span of around 100′. What should I plant? Would this even be a suitable place to try and create a bedding area?
Thanks! God Bless.
Cade,
Deer bed in different areas to meet their needs. They may bed in valleys to avoid extremely windy conditions, etc. Typically in mountainous terrain deer bed on slide slopes where the wind swirls so they can detect predators from all angles. Deer tend to bed on north or east facing slopes when the temperatures are warmer than normal and south or west facing slopes when the temperatures are colder than normal.
I like bedding areas that are several acres. Smaller areas tend to become predators “food plots” as they can get downwind of small patches of cover and smell all prey species in the area.
Deer will use any vegetation that provides cover 0′ to 3′ tall! Native grasses tend to work best, but deer tend to use the best cover within their home range.
Enjoy creation,
grant
December 30, 2015
