Deer Habitat is a Three-Legged Stool
By Rod Ellwanger

Effective deer habitat is like a three-legged stool; all three basic elements (cover, water, and food) are required legs of the stool. In order to keep deer on your property, you must have all three of these most basic needs covered. If any one element is missing then deer must leave the property and go elsewhere in order to secure it.

Much has been written and discussed about how to achieve successful food plots to help meet the “food leg” of the stool. How to best use perennial crops, how to incorportate a variety of attractant crops, and even the occasional new savior crop that has been overlooked for decades and now promises to revolutionize the food plot industry. While understanding how to best manage and maintain food plots is very important and beneficial, it is only one leg of the stool.

Proper cover provides bedding areas and security for deer. It’s one of the most basic needs and the second leg of our deer habitat stool. Your property must contain areas of thick cover where deer can bed and feel safe from predators. This area can be a thicket, brushy bottom, swamp, tall grassy area, aspen slashings, blowdowns, or an area made of living deadfalls. Aspen slashings are what develops after we conclude a logging practice known as “clear cutting” a mature aspen stand of timber. Although a clear-cut area looks barren and void of life after the logging is completed, almost immediately the aspen sprout new shoots from the remaining roots left in the ground. In 1-2 years the re-growth will have grown sufficiently to serve as bedding cover, and a couple years later a very thick slashing area that deer love to stay in. Logging your property not only creates excellent habitat for many years to come, but can also be healthy for your property. When your trees become mature, they really need to be harvested. Seeking the advice of a professional forester can be money well spent.

If you don’t have any natural thick areas of cover and logging is not advisable at this time, you can create cover with living deadfalls. This is done by cutting trees 2/3 through with a chainsaw then pushing them over with a tractor. The result is a tree laying horizontally on the ground but still connected to its roots allowing it to continue growing. Cutting a number of trees throughout a given area creates a thick jungle-like area that will serve as bedding areas. Once we have designated our bedding areas or “sanctuaries”, we need to stay out of these areas keeping them void of human scent; humans don’t like strangers snooping around in their bedrooms and neither do deer. This is their area – stay out!

The last and often most over-looked leg of our stool is water. Deer can go days without eating, but they must drink water every day. I am often asked how far deer will travel for water, the answer is easy—they’ll travel as far as necessary. Natural water sources can come in many forms: rivers, streams, lakes, swamps, beaver ponds, and potholes Any area that will hold water can serve as a water source. If no natural sources exist on your land, you may want to create a water source by digging a pond or two.

Ponds don’t have to be fancy or large in size. Most any area that is lower with some clay available for lining the pond after it is dug will hold water and work just fine. Your area DNR Soil Specialist regulates such activity so be sure to contact the local DNR office to secure the necessary permits. By providing a water source, not only will you keep deer on your property, but you’ll also attract deer from neighboring properties searching for water. Water can be a more effective attractant than any food plot you plant so keep it in mind as an essential habitat element.

If you have sufficient cover for bedding areas, provide a water source, and plant some effective food plots on your property, you’ll have all three legs of the stool in place meeting the most basic needs of whitetail deer. Staying out of bedding areas will provide a safe sanctuary area and encourage deer to make your property their home. By giving them no reason to venture off your land, you’ll be allowed to enjoy their presence or watch them from your tree stand waiting for that monster buck to walk by.

Above: One leg of the deer habitat’s stool is the water source as shown here.	If you have sufficient cover for bedding areas, provide a water source, and plant some effective food plots on your property, you’ll have all three legs of the stool in place meeting the most basic needs of whitetail deer.