How long does habitat take to grow??

[Mo. Beagler 5000]

Say if a guy had 100 acres of flat cropland and maybe a pond in the center of it and he stopped growing crops and converted to habitat.. How long would it take to start attracting and holding rabbits in it? 1 year 2years 5 years? assume really good soil that has been limed and all the fescue/weeds etc has been removed...

[rabbitearl]

I farm and this year we let 6 ac set out and i went there in sept to cut it up.Rabbits Rabbits everywere so i say 1 year.If you notice in a wheat crop in one year there s lots of rabbits in it.Now a cut over maybe a little different.Maybe 2 to 3 years.

[TOBY]

I know here in southern MD. A years time it will be grown up plenty for rabbits to take cover. In a couple years it will be good and thick. It doesnt take long.

[Newt]

Check with your local Wildlife Agency.
According to wild life biologists, to optimize small game, the fields should be burned every five years. After five years the plants/trees get tall enough to shadeout the under growth making it less attractive for small game. Your best option would be to devide your property into five different tracts. Each year make fire breaks and burn 1/5 of it. Then you would have four areas with varying degrees of cover.

[Mo. Beagler 5000]

I wish I had 100 acres to do that with

We are doing a project in my enviornmental science course and we have a few acres behind the school we are going to turn into crops to feed the community or turn to wildlife habitat this spring. Just seein how long you all thought it would take. We are gonna have the Conservation dept help us and we got some farmers donating time and equipment.

[KILLNTM]

It doesn't take very long for habitat to grow if you have rain, but whether you have rabbits or not will depend a great deal on the surrounding habitat. I rough cleared approx. 5 acres of 11 yr old growth earlier this year and while it's thick enough now to hold some rabbits, you won't find any there. Surrounding this 5 acres is open land and older pine plantations with no undergrowth. There's basically no bridge of cover for the rabbits to travel through to repopulate the 5 acre area. Eventually the rabbits will take hold, but if I bordered decent cover, I would already have some.

BiL

[east80kennels]

you can let it grow up and it should start attracting rabbits in it but it would not hurt to plant some clover in the area so they will have somthing to eat. and you can go as far as to geting you a salt block and bustin it up and throwing it in different areas rabbits do love salt and some minerals wouldn't hurt either. once you have done this they will hang out regularly.