Next, it was time to labor on improving the plight of the hardwoods that he most wanted to flourish: white and red oaks, mockernut, shagbark, pignut, and shellbark hickories, black walnuts and butternuts.

“Some of my best finds were some stands of mostly white oaks, which are very precious from a deer hunter’s point of view,” Hinlicky said.

Indeed, on one of my visits to the Catawba Valley highland property, Hinlicky proudly showed me his stands of white oaks. To encourage an expansion of the oak’s crowns, the Roanoke College professor has removed competing trees, such as red maples and yellow poplars, from around them. The result is that the trees are gradually experiencing widening crowns with a resultant increase in acorn production, since they now have less competition for water and nutrients. In poor mast years, this could make a real difference in nut production and, consequently, draw and keep more deer on the land.

Although Hinlicky removed poplars and maples from his “mostly pure” white oak stands, he still realizes the benefit of these trees. For example, he is allowing some stands of poplars to grow, planning to harvest them for timber, five acres at a time over the course of the next 15 to 20 years. The money he earns from these timber sales, he can use to make more habitat improvements. The professor is also not cutting his stands of sugar maples, which thrive on the north side of his property. Sugar maples are a very valuable timber tree.

Unfortunately, not every tree that Hinlicky would like to see flourish is doing so. Like landowners across the Old Dominion, Paul is watching his hemlocks die as the woolly adelgid continues its relentless march across the region.

The major stream in the Catawba Valley is obviously Catawba Creek, an important tributary of the upper James River. Since Hinlicky lives on steep, highly erodible land, he is very concerned about runoff, especially since several drainages from his land enter into the stream. He thus contacted the James River Association, asking for help with erosion.

“Karrie Hagin of the James River Association came out to my place and helped plant some 700 trees and shrubs,” Hinlicky said. “She and the association were just great. The buttonbush and spicebush that were planted have really helped prevent erosion.”

With his forest and stream projects underway, Paul now also began to concentrate more on his upper field, beginning in 2003. He found the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) WHIP to be very much what he needed. WHIP (Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program) is one of many programs that the game department offers that help improve, create or protect wildlife habitat. DGIF biologist Jay Jeffries came to the property and offered advice on making the opening attract wildlife.

“Jeffries showed me how to clean out undesirable species, create brushpiles, make cuts into the forest to create more edge habitat, and told me how to eliminate stickweed, which is really noxious stuff and worthless to wildlife,” continued Hinlicky. “The first two years I worked on the upper field, I really concentrated on eliminating stickweed.”

Another activity that Hinlicky undertook for the field was to create a narrow, 200-meter-long hedgerow down its middle. Within the budding row, the Roanoke County resident planted indigo bush, lespedeza and a mix of apples, crab apples, persimmons and hazelnuts. He also sprayed fescue, a cool-season grass that many biologists feel offers little for wildlife.

Next on the game plan was to begin to establish native warm-season grasses, such as switchgrass, big bluestem and indiangrass. Indeed, the first words Hinlicky spoke to me when I met him were, “Let’s talk switchgrass.”

Indeed, his enthusiasm for this indigenous variety is understandable. Because it can reach heights of 4 to 5 feet, switchgrass is an important source of winter cover for many species of wildlife, such as quail and songbirds. He has also sown crimson clover in the field.