Brad Thompson bought his 800-plus-acre property in two different tracts—one in 1999 and the other in 2004. He faced the same challenges on both. In addition to the overgrown brush, pine trees were planted fencerow to fencerow—not ideal wildlife habitat.
The Greenwood, S.C., property owner started by thinning the 15-year-old trees to around 100 trees an acre and selling the harvested trees for pulpwood. Then he hired a hand crew with backpack sprayers to attack the sweet gum and hardwood brush.
"For trees, clearing the understory is just like weeding a garden," says Thompson. "It improves the tree growth and wildlife habitat. When you clear the brush out from under the trees, it lets the sunlight reach the forest floor. Then you get a lot of herbaceous growth. The wildlife can eat the wildflowers and legumes."
Thompson also hired a hand crew for herbicide application. "I had them leave the dogwoods both for the aesthetics and because the berries are food for wildlife," he says.
He continues to keep the brush under control with hand spraying, usually in the late summer and early fall. And unless there is a drought, he tries to spray one-third of his property a year.
Thompson generally has the crew use a solution of 4% glyphosate (Roundup is an example) and 1½% amazapyr (Chopper). "The combination gives good control on a broad selection of hardwoods."
After thinning, Thompson hired a helicopter to fertilize over the top of the trees with 200 pounds of nitrogen and 25 pounds of phosphorus an acre. He says the fertilizer helps
the growth of both the trees and the tender vegetation under the trees.
Controlled burns are another tool he uses to keep down brush and to promote the growth of young, green plants under the trees.
However, he does not burn after he has fertilized. "We didn't want to scorch the trees," he explains. "The nitrogen is stored in the needles."
Thompson tries to burn about half his property a year—in a checkerboard pattern of 20 to 50 acres each—to encourage the quail population.
"Burning encourages more pioneer species of weeds and legumes, and keeps the brush from getting too thick to hunt. Quail eat insects on the young vegetation. Legumes also produce seed that the quail eat in the winter. They provide really good brood habitat."
Brad Thompson's dual strategy of timber and quail management with both herbicides and controlled burns appears to be working.
The thinned and fertilized pines are growing toward the more lucrative sawtimber market. As for the quail, he says, "when we bought the place we probably had four coveys. Now, there are probably 16 over the whole place. You can hear birds all over the property now."
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Thompson's tool kit
When Brad Thompson bought land in 2004, it included 130 acres of former cow pasture. First, he sprayed with glyphosate and imazapyr to get rid of the fescue, bermudagrass and bahiagrass. On 100 acres, he planted 50 acres of loblolly and 50 acres of longleaf. Then he sprayed with Oust Extra to control the herbaceous undergrowth.
On the remaining 30 acres, he planted clover, partridge peas, Korean lespedeza, thunbergii lespedeza and milo. To control weeds, he uses 2,4-D on the broadleaf weeds and controlled burns. He says the 2,4-D will stunt the clover but not kill it, if used at the proper rate. He also uses Post herbicide on grass and practices rotational disking on a three-year cycle to encourage native grasses and legumes.
Thompson uses the same tools in areas he daylights. That's where he clears 25 to 50 feet on either side of his field roads to create wildlife openings.
Thompson also participates in the Power for Wildlife program, where landowners are paid to maintain power line right-of-ways in wildlife habitat.