Ed Gaw owns a 200-acre parcel of land in westernPennsylvania. On the surface, it is nothing special;just another patch of wooded ground, a place to

hunt and spend time outdoors. However, it overlies aformation of sedimentary rock known as the MarcellusShale Formation, which spans West Virginia, easternOhio, southern New York and most of western and cen-tral Pennsylvania. Within the impervious limestonebeneath this formation is a reservoir of natural gasonce thought to be marginally worth the investment torecover. During the past decade, however, geologistshave significantly increased their assessments and nowestimate the formation contains enough natural gas tosupport the entire United States consumption for atleast two years, though estimates keep increasing.

That discovery has been something of a windfall for landowners such asGaw, as gas companies are willing to pay more than $2 per acre to leasethe drilling rights. However, everything comes with a price, as Gaw discov-ered soon after signing a lease in 2005.

The process of drilling a well affects at least five acres of land per wellsite, not including construction of access roads. Gas companies arerequired to restore the property when the well is built, but that typicallyamounts to little more than a token effort. Former agricultural land can beput back into production, but forested land, such as Gaw's, won’t berestored to its former state — at least not in his lifetime.

Gaw looked beyond the problem and saw an opportunity to work withthe contractors assigned to restore the site.

“Ordinarily, when they fell trees they just make a big pile and burn them,”Gaw said. “We asked them to create a brush row on the windward side ofthe site.”

Normal procedures called for high-compaction grading. Gaw requestedlow-compaction grading and asked that they not track in the final grade.“We called it the final grade, they called it the ugly grade,” he said.

50 WHITETAIL NEWS / Vol. 21, No. 2 www.whitetailinstitute.com

RECLAMATIONFood Plots

How You Can Turn a Negative into a PositiveBy Bob Humphrey

Photos by the Author

Stock dams are another good locationfor reclamation plots. Just make sure

your planting addresses potential erosionproblems on steep slopes.

www.whitetailinstitute.com Vol. 21, No. 2 / WHITETAIL NEWS 51

Next came the re-seeding. “Gas companies typically contract out the seeding,” he said, “and con-

tractors are ill-equipped for anything more than more than a quick coatingof standard conservation mix.”

Gaw took over and planted Chicory Plus. “We had to out-compete theragweed (which typically takes over such disturbed sites) and stabilize thesloped hillside,” he said. “This gave us a good compromise of stabilizingthe hillside, giving whitetail something to eat and competing with rag-weed.”

The next thing they did was create a gap in the brush line.“We pulled a chunk (of brush) out of the middle and placed it to the side,

giving deer a highway to our new food plot,” Gaw said. It was a good start,but Gaw wasn’t done yet.

On each well site with grade, there must be a drainage pond, which isgraded when the work is done.

“We saved that,” Gaw said, creating a year-round water source. However,he still wasn’t finished.

“We planted 100 seven-foot spruce trees on the hillside,” he said. “Theygrew slowly, but are beginning to provide good bedding cover right abovethat pond.”

And on the highest part of the hillside, they planted an orchard of whatGaw calls Charlie Brown fruit trees.

“We went to all the local nurseries and picked out their poorer quality,misshapen and otherwise undesirable trees,” he said. “Knowing it would bea low-maintenance situation, we didn’t want to invest a lot of money.”-

The result was a wildlife Eden instead of an ugly patch of disturbedground.

OTHER RECLAMATION SITES

Well sites are not the only areas that can be reclaimed as wildlife foodplots. What you do and how you go about it is usually dictated by soils,accessibility and personal goals, according to Whitetail Institute’s SteveScott.

“What you’re capable of doing might depend on what type of equip-ment you can get into the site to prepare and properly maintain it,” he said.“If you can get bigger equipment in, you have more options to plant peren-nials or annuals, or some combination of the two. If limited access preventsyou from preparing the site correctly, you can still go in and plant annualslike Secret Spot or No-Plow using ATV implements or even hand tools.”

Soils also make a big difference when you are planting perennials“On good heavy soil, there is no better choice than Imperial Whitetail

Clover,” Scott said. “On well-drained soils, you’re better off with blends likeChicory Plus, Extreme or Alfa-Rack Plus.”

It also depends on your goals. “If you want to produce a lot of tonnage for antler growing and fawning,”

he said, “use Imperial PowerPlant. “If it’s strictly for hunting — fall and win-ter — there’s a long list of possibilities including No-Plow, Winter-Greens,Pure Attraction, Tall Tine Tubers, Secret Spot and Whitetail Forage OatsPlus.”

Log landings are another example of easily restorable sites. The activityassociated with stacking and loading logs leaves a patch of bare soil. Thebiggest problems, according to Scott, are usually weeds and grasses andcompacted soil.

“Often, all you need to do is spray with a glyphosate and use whateverequipment necessary to loosen up the compacted soil,” he said. If there isa lot of slash and wood litter, you might need to power-rake the site, too.Then, simply amend the soil according to soil test recommendations, plantand pray for rain.

In a similar vein are logging roads. It is probably not news to anyonefamiliar with food plots and habitat improvement, but logging roads makeideal reclamation projects and great places to plant, often with minimaleffort. The act of skidding or hauling logs out does most of the work for

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52 WHITETAIL NEWS / Vol. 21, No. 2 www.whitetailinstitute.com

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With ATVs and smaller implements you canaccess and work harder-to-reach sites.

you. You simply need to soil test, follow the recommendations from the soiltest and spread the seed. Deer are far more likely to use narrow, linear plotsduring the day. And they quickly become travel corridors, too. S t o c kdams are another overlooked reclamation opportunity. The key, accordingto Scott, is to make sure you do not create an erosion problem on some ofthe more severe slopes. If possible, you can try to do more drilling, but thatis most often not realistic. Scott recommends exposing soil lightly andusing products such as Imperial No-Plow or Secret Spot.

“In the Northeast our customers have been planting old strip mineground in recent years.

On sites that are accessible, Imperial Whitetail Extreme has been per-forming extraordinarily well,” Scott said. “It grows great on these marginalsoils and it’s a perennial, extremely high in protein and extremely attractive

Old skid roads make great recla-mation plots, and deer are morelikely to venture into narrow

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www.whitetailinstitute.com Vol. 21, No. 2 / WHITETAIL NEWS 53

to deer. You get many of the same benefits of Imperial Whitetail Clover.One of the biggest differences is Extreme needs a lot of nitrogen addedand Imperial Whitetail Clover does not.”

On less accessible sites, he recommends annuals designed for fall andwinter, like No-Plow, Pure Attraction, Winter-Greens, Tall Tine Tubers orSecret Spot or Whitetail Forage Oats.

Old abandoned orchards can be restored and even enhanced, often withminimal effort, depending on how long they have been abandoned. Thefirst, most important step is removing competition. That means cutting outother trees and shrubs that compete for water, soil nutrients and sunlight.But do not overdo it.

Reclaimed orchards can actually be more productive for hunting. Aworking orchard consists of little more than fruit trees and mowed grass.There is often not a place to hang a stand, and deer seldom venture intothem during daylight hours. With an abandoned orchard, remove justenough cover to improve fruit production, but leave enough so deer willstill use the area during the day. You can even leave some overstory treesfor shade and hanging stands.

CONCLUSION

In the end, you are merely taking advantage of openings that alreadyexist on your property and following many of the same steps you wouldfollow with conventional food plots. The first thing you need to do underany circumstances is a soil test.

“It’s the best money you’ll spend to improve your hunting,” Scott said.You can get soil test kits from a land grant university, the Natural

Resources Conservation Service or the Whitetail Institute for about $10.Then you amend the soil as recommended, and prepare the site and plantthe seeds. Perhaps best, the cost associated with materials, equipment andlabor can often be defrayed or covered entirely by revenues from well leas-es, timber harvest or agency-sponsored incentive programs. W

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