Good Hunting Never Happens By Chance – It Requires Good Planning

By Author: Westervelt Wildlife Services
Total Articles: 43
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Throughout the Southeast there are various opportunities for the experienced – and new – hunter to enjoy that age-old tradition which is dear to many Americans: hunting. Throughout many states such as Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina and Virginia hunters are offered great opportunities to hunt quality deer and one or more birds whose habitat these parts naturally are.
There are different options and choices, also in terms of the facilities, and deer and bird populations, on offer; therefore hunters will look around at the best value for their money in terms of quality and choice – and also the availability and quality of hunting lodges, or tracts of hunting land as offered by owners.
Given the choice, of course one visits those lodges and facilities known for offering better value than others, and very often the hunter returns to the same facility year after year if they feel they have found the ideal destination. What makes a lodge or facility better than others in the region? There are different factors to consider, but in the end it boils down to good planning in all respects.
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... Without planning there is no guarantee that a lodge- or landowner will be able to draw hunters and therefore the business they hope to benefit from. Planning addresses different areas, right from putting in place good management plans to ensure the habitat is conducive to raising quality buck and birds, plans to ensure that herds and flocks are controlled and never unnecessarily culled and shot out, and plans to ensure you offer your lodge or facility as a preferred destination for visitors.
Without proper plans in place, the landowner or lodge that want to compete for hunters in their region may come up short. If the habitat is sub-standard, deer and birds will leave as, by their very nature, they are migratory – unless, of course, they have found the ideal habitat with good access to forage and water and cover and protection where they can raise their young. A good habitat is the first step towards success.
But, it is not as straight forward as it may seem. To create and maintain an ideal habitat takes knowledge and experience, programs and management plans expertly initiated and introduced, and often years of patience. This is one of the reasons so many land- and lodge owners turn to professional help to give them advice – or to take over these important duties. Without the knowledge and input of wildlife services and biologists it is not always that easy to keep track of important information such as animal movement, sex ratio: buck and doe, or the size of flocks, and what condition they are in.
No wingshooter that looks forward to, for example, a trip to the Southeast for an opportunity to enjoy pheasant shooting, or dove, or wild turkey, will return or have positive comments about a lodge with inferior birds. Those facilities with good, healthy flocks are surely the ones that will attract business all the time. Owners that employ the services of a wildlife management service or consultancy stand to gain for such a service’s knowledge, experience and input.
These services offer landowners their assistance to help them maximize the value of their land in terms of which hunters and wingshooters are offered good choices and selections. Such services include various aspects related to the ideal habitat for deer and for different bird species, it includes different plans to be put in place for the herds and flocks to develop and produce offspring, it includes great administrative services to make sure recordkeeping contributes to the success of the lodge’s – or landowner’s – efforts to attract hunters to their facility. A good place to start, is to plan ahead, and most often to talk to the professionals, those services that work in wildlife conservation and related fields every day.

About Us

At Westervelt Wildlife we manage more than 600, 000 acres of hunting leases across a few states in the southeast of the United States in conjunction with our main activity, which is timber production. Our expertise allows us to manage our activities to incorporate good management capabilities with high quality wildlife practices and excellent hunting opportunities for the enthusiast. We have been known for many years for the hunting leases we offer and the wildlife services that we believe form the backbone of proper, responsible hunting activities. We are proud of our history and the ethical behavior we are known for in terms of the land and wildlife that we are responsible for. For more about us, please visit https://westerveltwildlife.com/