Our Most Popular Habitat Management Videos

The Habitat Oasis Project is transforming 80 acres of 1970s reclaimed Ohio strip mine land into a native habitat oasis that wildlife will love.  Hardy Brothers Outdoors, Jason and Josh, provide a detailed introduction.

The Habitat Oasis Project is well underway with some progress, setbacks and lessons, and an unexpected conservation award from the local Soil and Water Conservation District.    Learn more about our efforts to return 150 acres of previously strip mined land to native habitat that create an oasis that wildlife love. 

Autumn olive (elaeagnus umbellata) and Russian Olive (elaeagnus angustifolia) are non-native invasive plants (deciduous shrubs or trees) and removal can seem daunting. We demonstrate three habitat management approaches to removing autumn olive on the Habitat Oasis Project, a strip mine rehabilitation effort, in Southeastern Ohio. 

We have partnered with the USDA on an EQIP habitat management and strip mine rehabilitation program to remove and control the invasive sericea lespedeza and autumn olive shrubs while simultaneously building out brush piles to improve rabbit (rabbitat) and wildlife numbers in the area.   

Jason took overgrown fields of sericea lespedeza and turned them into lush clover food plots. The clover plot is frequently visited by whitetail deer, big Ohio bucks, bobcats, coyotes, rabbits and turkey.  These habitat management management efforts have been a key improved to our strip mine rehabilitation project.

Planting pollinator seed mix on the Habitat Oasis Project, a habitat management and strip mine rehabilitation project, with free seed from the Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund and leveraging the USDA EQIP programs.  

We're trying out no till on the Habitat Oasis Project with the Land Pride 606NT compact no till drill that we rented from the local Soil and Water Conservation District office.  Our first planting with the Land Pride no till drill is native warm season grasses (NWSG); big bluestem, little bluestem,  indian grass, and sideoats grama as part of our habitat management and strip mine rehabilitation efforts.

A year in review, March thru December, of the Lone Pine on the Habitat Oasis Project in SE Ohio.  We discuss how we are converted this abandoned pasture, that has been neglected for nearly 15 years, overrun with invasives and cool season grasses and we are transforming into high quality browse, high value clover and we discuss our select timbering, edge feathering, and the return of early successional woody plants.  It wasn't without challenges and pitfalls that we've learned we can avoid in 2021 with a little better planning. 

Frost seeding Cave-in-Rock Switchgrass on the Habitat Oasis Project. I talk about my goals and strategy for the switchgrass, prepping the field, planting the field and how I will maintain it in the coming year.

 Today I'm cutting down Autumn olive (elaeagnus umbellata) and Russian Olive (elaeagnus angustifolia), non-native invasive plants (deciduous shrubs or trees) and removal can seem daunting..  We are using the cut stump method but will require a future cut before applying the herbicide.   While doing so I also found a large patch of invasive #wineberry canes.  It was cold but great to be outdoors.