select cut pines

[deersled]

My property was select cut (thinned) last year. The area is mostly pines. We have had a decent amount of rain and with the warm weather the underbrush is getting fairly thick. I was wanting to know what is too "thick" for turkeys to use. The growth is mostly briars (blackberry), honeysuckle and saplings. Will turkeys simply pick their way through areas like this, or avoid them? The gobbling has been way off this year. 

[Skeeterbait]

If it is timber company land or under timber company management, they usually come in within three years after select cutting and 5th rowing with a helicopter and spray a long acting herbacide that turns the place into a park with little to no undergrowth.

If private land, I would talk to the owner about the benefits of a scheduled burn program.  THAT would be the best thing for the turkeys on the property as well as the landowner's timber.

[deersled]

Its a private timber company and from what I have seen, the guy doesn't do burns. I don't know why. He does spray and I suspect he will do it right before deer season, as he has done in the past.

My main question is "how thick is too thick for turkeys to feel comfortable"?

[Skeeterbait]

No, timber companies don't burn anymore.  It is a shame.  Too easy to run that little helicopter.

Turkeys don't like thich stuff much.  They will pass through it but they don't live in it and will seek other more open areas.  How thick it too think?  I think if you can't walk through it easily they are going to avoid it.  If you sit down and lean back so your eyes are level with a turkeys eyes and can't spot a predator well before it is on you then they will avoid it.  I find that thick pine plantation they will use any wildlife openings available and walk the roads, but if there is neighboring land with open hardwoods, pastures, agricultural fields, etc, it will pull the turkeys off the pine plantation.

[deersled]

I'm afraid that is exactly whats happening. Very little gobbling and limited sign (scratching, tracks, etc) is making me believe the birds may be leaving. I have seen some gobblers (even killed one) and occassionally hear a few gobbles. Nothing like in the past. Its a shame.

[drenalinld]

I suspect it is due to lower turkey population rather than habitat. I hunt pine plantations and have called in a ton of turkeys inside 20 yards that I did not get a shot at because the underbrush was so thick after thinning.