It is good to look at what you've gotten done on the habitat front from time-to-time. I thought the discussion started on the Thinking of November thread could be expanded and possibly get some of you to give your slice of heaven a look, before and after. I can't claim to have gotten to where I want to be on any acre I manage, but it's not too hard to see progress.
In these two photos, it is easy to see several major differences. No, there are no hidden combs, umbrellas, or other search to find prizes, but changes there are. If you count the number of cedar rows and compare, the 2016 photo has significantly fewer. Also, several of the remaining woody motts are showing their age, expansion, and closing canopies. Others are showing thinning or have disappeared all together. Also, easily visible, is the disappearance of several food plots. My philosophies have evolved and, with limited budgets and manpower, providing wildlife food is often more a function of management than a planting activity.
Another obvious (to me) change is the addition of patch burn/patch graze fire breaks. The latest photo shows that the east pasture is divided into units that are my burn rotation plots. No longer am I burning this 400 acre pasture all at once. Just out of sight at the bottom of the photo is a 4 lane highway that has some of the highest truck traffic in Kansas. Smaller fires allow me to burn with a smaller crew and a lower exposure to liability along this highly travelled corridor. If you look more closely, you can see the SW patch burn mott is gaining shrub cover. That tract was burned a month or two after this photo was taken, so I'm hoping that we have either stabilized that trend or set it back some. For me, it is pretty easy to see slivers of habitat that have not been burned as frequently. I'll shut up now and let you enter some observations as well.