Planting trees for rabbit cover

[Jay Schrader]

I am planning on buying some trees to plant on my property to improve the cottontail rabbit cover.

My first question is: Of these trees which is the best for rabbit cover? I'm thinking Norway Spruce.
Austrian Pine
White Pine
Blue Spruce
Norway Spruce
White Spruce
Black Hills Spruce
White Cedar

My second question is how far apart should I space the trees? I'm thinking 20 feet apart.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

[BriarCreekBeagles]

I don't really know about trees but from what I've been told to improve rabbit cover is multiflora rose, they get thick and nasty and the rabbits love the cover.
Good luck

[awful bawlin]

Jay
Spruce and Cedar are the species to plant . The pines kill the underfloor vegitation over time and become desert like. The multi flora is also a good choice. The spacings we use up here is 6 by 6 foot . Good luck and forget not that the cedar grows much slower than the spruces . L&S monk

[wvduece]

the multi flora makes great cover n its alot quicker than any trees but ya got to be careful with that stuff it will take over your place but rabbits will have plenty of cover it will cut your hounds to shreds that stuff is nasty jb

[TallDog]

Don't know where you live Jay but if you're in or north of VA, TN, AR, roughly speaking, the Norway Spruce would be a good one because when open grown, it will have a wide, low layer of branches which rabbits love for cover. Blue Spruce would be OK but it doesn't spread out at the bottom quite as well and is a bit more prone to go down to insects and other stresses.
This is based purely on personal bias due to many painful experiences..... I wouldn't introduce any multiflora rose onto my property. It spreads as wvdeuce said and it's rough to get rid of after you've had enough of it.
Spacing - At 20 ft spacing, it'll take a while to get any cover from your trees. But if you go to 6 ft spacing, it'll take a little over 4 times as many seedlings to cover the same area. Good luck and have fun. Raising trees isn't quite as much fun as raising pups but it's still fun.

[Beagle Huntsman]

You definitely don't want multiflora rose. It will spread all over your farm in a few years. Perhaps you have it already, depending on where you live. It's everywhere in Ohio. On my farm, it's all over the fields and I have to mow them every 2-3 years to control it. I rotate the mowing around to always have plenty of cover.

Spruce trees are good cover, but grow very slowly. If you are a young man with plenty of time, then go that route. On my farm, I chose the faster growing pines and went with 6-10 foot spacing. They will eventually shade out under brush, but the pines themselves provide plenty of cover. I can cut the tops off to control the upward growth. Deer love to eat White Pines, so avoid those. I like the Virginia Pines best, since they spread well when growing and make nice cover. I have had some trouble finding Virginia Pines to purchase, however.

A pine you can plant cheaply is the Pitch-Lob Hybrid. They look just like White Pines, except the deer won't eat them. (I did have some trouble with mice girdling them under the snow one year). You can usually get Pitch-Lobs from Mead Westvaco for about 10 cents per seedling. Order them in December and plant in January-February. Mine have done well, but not all you plant will live. The Virginia Pines have been more successful, but also cost much more.

Planting pines is hard work, but you can plant 500 or more per day if you have an assistant. One person digs the hole, and the other puts in the seedling and tamps the dirt down.

Good luck with whatever you choose. In a few years, you should have improved rabbit habitat.

[HarleyPA]

I planted about 200 white and mugo pines this past spring.
I ordered them from the PA game comission. If I remember right, they were cheap. Plus they don't really count them. I only ordered 100. I guess they figured some wont make it. GD, fing deer are a problem. Ate some off right after planting. didn't even eat them, just took the top off to taste it, then left it there.

Best place I ever saw for bunnies, was an old Chritmas tree farm, that had been partially abandoned. Some of those trees were so tight, a deer or a human couldn't get through. But them bunnies loved it. Didn't seem to matter about the ground beneath being barren. I think it was more of a variation in habitat that held them. Open fields, where trees had been cut, brush where it hadn't been mowed, and conifers all over. Some tight, some standing alone.

Rose grows here out of control. We get it weather we want it or not. Don't plant it on purpose! IMO, its worse than planting a lot of white pines together. When those bushes get big and old, the inner wood dies off, and falls. Those branches with thorns on them don't seem to be appealing to the bunnies little feet. Plus nothing grows under there anyway.

As someone else mentioned, cut the tops out of some to make them grow wider. Also there's an old trick you can do in the spring when the sap is running. Cut the tree part way through, and bend it over, so the tree stays alive, but grows out along the ground. Haven't seen it done with pines, but I know they used to do it with cedars.

I forgot. You can plant small bare root seedlings with a pick/hoe, maddoks, etc. Thats how I did it. Swing the broad end in. heave up on the handle, and you make a little pocket in the ground. Make sure all the roots are covered then heel it in. You arms will hurt, but you can get a lot planted in a day.

[mc2you]

Scotch pine is a good choice it grows faster than those listed--trim the tops to keep small--every 2-3 yrs. Black spruce also. Probably a combo would be best--with one row or two all the same species than 2 rows of the other choice would make a good ecotone diversity related to age and confirmation differences.

[RiverBottom]

Jay, where you in Wisconsin?

I plant at least 1000 trees every year on my land in Minnesota. I use a dibble bar. In sand I can plant 500 a day pretty easy, heavier ground is a lot more work. I plant them 6 to 8 feet apart. If you want cover fast plant them close (6 x 6), if you want the cover to last longer leave more space. In my running pen I compromised by planting trees 6 feet apart but left about 12 feet between rows.

Norway pines grow pretty fast and can survive on poor soil and drought, but in 20 years or so the cover will shade out under them. Deer will browse them also, you will need to bud cap them the first 5 years or so.

White pines are a lot harder to grow, they don't survive dry weather as well and the deer absolutely love them Bud capping helps but the deer will still get a lot of them and will mow all the lower branches off the ones they don't kill.

Scotch pines grow fast, can grow almost anywhere, and the deer leave them alone. They don't provide much cover unless you prune them like they do for christmas trees.

Spruce are much better cover than the pines, I have white, blue and black hills spruce, they are all about the same. Deer leave them alone, the paper companies are going to all spruce up here for that reason. The down side is they take a long time to get started. 4 or 5 years after you plant them they start to grow pretty fast. Spruce also need more water and better soil than pines.

I'm taking a week off work soon to bud cap trees. Trapping gophers is a constant battle, them dang things can kill a lot of trees. And then deer season is coming up, time for some revenge. Not sure why I do it, except that it's fun to run rabbits on your own land and I kind of like seeing them trees grow. Some day my kids might sell a bunch of timber but I doubt I will ever see it.

[Jay Schrader]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I live in south east Michigan. I live on the farm that my great grandparents bought in 1910. The land that I'm planning to plant the trees in is a creek bottom. It's about 10 acres. It's really not enough land to have very much running but it's right behind the house so it's nice just to drop a dog or two in the evening for a hour or two. It used to be a cattle pasture 30 years ago. Since then the hawthorne trees have taken over. The hawthorns provide good rabbit and deer cover but are really tough on the dogs feet. The hawthorns aren't that great for cover once the leaves fall. It does protect the rabbits some from the hawks and owls but isn't great cover from ground predators. I have a few pallet & brush piles. I have about a half acre of multiflora also. I would like to over time replace the hawthorns with spruce or pines. There is also about an acre of red pines that my great grandpa planted that are getting overgrown.

The ground is good farm land soil. Not too much clay or sand. But a lot of field stones. I'm planning to plant these trees in the higher ground to each side of the creek. The low ground usually floods once or twice in the spring.

I had heard that the deer will eat pines but will leave the spruce alone. So that is the main reason for leaning toward spruce. I'm planning to buy 4 year old bare root seedlings 15-24" high from the local soil conservation district.

I've always wanted to do this but I've never gotten around to it. I plan to stay in this house until I retire (I'm 42) so time isn't too much of an issue. Plus I already have good cover and a good supply of rabbits.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

[PABeagler]

Go with Autumn Olive...NOT Russian Olive...

[Jersey Hunter]

Go with Autumn Olive...NOT Russian Olive...

I don't recommend autumn olive the guy on the next farm to us in PA planted autumn olive ten or fifteen years ago, and now it's taking over every open spot on our place. If you let it grow it shades out everything underneath and the rabbits are gone.