BROOKHAVEN — There are less than 21 days left in deer season and soon hunters will be looking for projects to kill the time until turkey season unless they hunt rabbits or squirrels. Habitat work can be a little difficult this time of year as the best response to disturbance is in the spring and fall. 

Pierce Young, Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks Private Lands Assistant Coordinator, said January is a good time to plan habitat management work for the coming year. Soil tests, site visits, browse surveys, timber plans and burn plans are examples of how hunters can prepare for the offseason. 

MDWFP offers free private land site visits which offer great insight into your property and biologists draft a plan for you to meet your objectives. All a hunter has to do is visit MDWFP.com and fill out a site visit request form. As previously reported by The Daily Leader, habitat management starts with a simple site visit.

Once you complete your site visit, the MDWFP biologist will send an email recapping the visit and sharing a management plan. From there, it is up to the hunter, habitat manager or landowner to put the plan into practice. 

In Mississippi, habitat tools such as axes, herbicide and fire are often most utilized in these plans and often go hand in hand. Prior to utilizing prescribed fire in February, it is best to plan your burn including the size needed, firelines need to be established, the licensed personnel who will conduct the burn and what weather conditions are most suitable. 

Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) goes hand in hand with prescribed fire in closed canopy stands as reducing stem count allows for more sunlight. The more sunlight you have the better vegetative response you will have in the understory post burn. 

February is when all of the habitat planning really pays off. Young said the month before turkey season is full of habitat work from burning to TSI and anything else people can get done before March 15 arrives. 

A new Habitat and Wildlife management library is available on the MDWFP website and is a great resource.