Having a spot within your property that gives your whitetail herd a place where they are left totally undisturbed is very important. This is especially true if you wish to “house” mature bucks on your property. Here, the author poses with a whopper buck taken with archery gear.

Our first item on the list was to develop a management plan using the expertise of our local DNR and a private forester. We had no intentions of building a retirement home on the property rather we wanted to use it strictly for bowhunting. To begin, the DNR recommended that we participate in Wisconsin's Managed Forest Land program. This program limited the amount of property tax we would pay during the 25 years of the contract, which we liked.  It also incorporated timber harvesting and building guidelines to help us maintain a healthy forest and better habitat for wildlife.    

Whitetails prefer diversity and edge cover. Here, the new growth aspen combined with the hardwoods and conifers provides exactly what whitetails are looking for.

The cutting was done during December and it definitely changed how the deer utilized the area. Some of the established trails we’d been hunting for years had either moved or were gone, new trails started to pop up and bedding areas changed.
January and February of that first year were spent relearning their movement patterns through our land.  This is the time of the year we usually begin scouting for the following season. The snow helped us determine which established trails were still being used and where new trails were being blazed. We found several new bedding areas and each time we walked the property we would revisit these areas to see if the deer were still using those same spots. When scouting at this time of the year there’s no question that snow is the magic ingredient to make the less obvious much more obvious.  If nothing more changed we knew that these were the trails they would be traveling and the bedding areas they would be using next December.   

That initial summer really gave us a chance to assess the property further and learn how to use the new growth to our advantage as it matured. After we adjusted old tree stands and considered where to put new ones, we began to deliberate setting aside a sanctuary for our resident herd.

Locating your sanctuary in an area where the whitetail already like to bed will save you a lot of time and work. Read the sign and keep track of what you find. Here, the author examines a couple of fresh beds.

Our biggest concern was deciding how much of the property we were willing to give up.  We felt even with being limited to only 80 acres we should be able to find a few acres we could designate as a sanctuary and still have enough spots for each of us to hunt. As we walked the land between February and March we earmarked several spots and then chose the ones with the most appeal. The snow showed us how the deer moved during the winter. However, now after the spring thaw, trails and scrapes made during the rut last fall were revealed in perfect condition.  My husband, Jerry, and I have always felt that when considering areas in the north if we had only one opportunity to scout, spring, immediately after the snow melted would be that time. It seems that with all of the foliage off of the trees and the snow just having disappeared, all of the sign that was made last fall has been preserved perfectly for you to discover.

Having the sanctuary right in the middle of the property would allow us to surround that chunk of land with a food plot.  Already the new growth of aspen was making that portion of the property very thick. Where it met the old growth we could see how the deer were already establishing trails along that transition line. However, each time we scouted we spooked deer out of their beds even as we tried to skirt this area.  Because of this we felt there had to be a better spot that was more secluded.  

To you this may not appear to be much more than some blow-downs and tall grass. To a whitetail this is a “king-sized bed with a pillow-top mattress in a posh hotel.” In fact, if you look closely you can see the large deer bed crooked under the cover of the blow-down.

We started to focus on the back edge of our property, part of which ends at the banks of a small river.  A large portion of this area is low and swampy making access to our parcel difficult for trespassers or for curious neighbors who might wander on the land. This low area meets a fairly steep ridge which levels off and forms sort of an oxbow.  Because of the well used, easily identified deer trails we were able to know where the deer cross the river and access our property. Trails both at the bottom and the top of that ridge were also very visible.  

We decided that this would be the perfect spot for the sanctuary. It offered the security of the swamp for bedding and acorns from the red and white oaks that peppered the Oxbow. As they stepped out of this un-logged area they immediately had the new aspen growth to browse as they headed to and from the food plot and adjoining fields.

Finally, the river provided a clean, reliable water source. What more could a deer ask for.  And it only eliminated less than 10 acres of hunting space for us.  

We finally had a designated spot for the sanctuary and we knew it was now “off limits” in our scouting routine.  Since we’ve set aside this oxbow we’ve noticed an increase in the number of deer we see each hunting season and the quality of bucks seems to get better with time.  

Trails now stream out of the sanctuary like the ribs of a hand held fan.  Some of these trails we created through the new growth using a brush cutter.  When required, we enhance deer trails to our advantage by channeling them towards sections better suited for a tree stand or areas that provide more cover for an effective ambush site.

We are currently working again with our DNR office and local sportsmen’s clubs to see about the availability of special funding to do other improvements.  The next major item on our list is to create a shallow pond and encourage some established native grasses to spread.  These organizations and agencies have been a tremendous help to us in achieving our goals for wildlife management of our dream property.

As our neighbors change their harvest standards for bucks I know all of us will see a change in the quality harvested.  More and more of the landowners around us see the results that we have had and have begun practicing deer management themselves. The results are starting to show.  Even a small sanctuary can contribute to increasing the quality of a herd and the hunting opportunities surrounding it.