By: Craig Harper

Dr. Craig Harper is a Professor of Wildlife Management and the Extension Wildlife Specialist at the University of Tennessee. Craig is a regular contributor to the NDA website and a Life Member of the NDA. Dr. Harper and his graduate students concentrate their work on applied management issues, including forest management, early succession management, food plot applications, and the effects of quality deer management.

30 Years of Deer Habitat Management, Part 3: What Will the Future Bring?

Jan 17, 2024 Craig Harper

The last 30 years brought rapid change to deer habitat management techniques and knowledge. It all began with food plots, and then science led us into fields and forests. Now let’s finish the history and…

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30 Years of Deer Habitat Management, Part 2: Into Fields and Forests

Jan 8, 2024 Craig Harper

Deer hunters today are more knowledgeable about deer habitat management than ever before. We are driven by a desire to produce better deer and better hunting, and science gives us better information and improved strategies….

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30 Years of Deer Habitat Management, Part 1: It All Began With Food Plots

Jan 3, 2024 Craig Harper

Deer hunting has evolved in a big way in the last 30 years. Most of us don’t hunt in blue jeans or a red-and-black plaid wool coat anymore. We don’t fry bacon in our hunting…

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Fresh Tips on Using Fire for Better Deer Habitat

Jan 12, 2022 Craig Harper

This is not the same old advice you’ve heard before about prescribed fire. These simple tips will increase your hunting and habitat management success. I continue to maintain that fire is the single best management…

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8 Winter Projects for Better Fall Deer Hunting

Jan 25, 2017 Craig Harper

Unless you hunt in portions of the Deep South, deer season is over. And for those who hunt in south Alabama and Mississippi, you have precious few days left. The end of the season can…

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Deer Prefer to Eat Awnless Wheat in Food Plots

Jul 16, 2015 Craig Harper

Winter wheat is an excellent cool-season forage for white-tailed deer. Healthy, green, growing wheat contains more than 20 percent crude protein, and with less than 25 percent acid detergent fiber it is highly digestible. Forage yield is…

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4 Ways to Light a Prescribed Fire

Oct 22, 2014 Craig Harper

Prescribed fire is an excellent and cost-effective technique for setting back existing vegetation and stimulating fresh growth from the seedbank and from sprouting, which increases the quality and quantity of deer forage and cover. To…

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Get Ready to Use Prescribed Fire

Oct 22, 2014 Craig Harper

A deer and habitat management program can gain considerable benefits from the use of prescribed fire. Here’s my advice on how to prepare for a burn. Before implementing any prescribed fire, it is critical to…

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Try These Warm-Season Food Plot Mixes

Feb 20, 2013 Craig Harper

In my past article “Weed Control Primer” in Quality Whitetails magazine, I shared strategies for effective weed control in cool- and warm-season food plots. I also included several food plot mixtures and matching weed-control methods…

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Try These Cool-Season Food Plot Mixes

Aug 6, 2012 Craig Harper

There are a myriad of combinations that can be used with cool-season food plots. Many contain grasses, leguminous forbs (such as clovers and alfalfa), and non-leguminous forbs (such as chicory and brassicas). This can be…

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