Interesting.......

Exactly. If you're going to shoot on your property, then just do the right thing and build a backstop/berm.

Thanks for the kind comment! I'd love to hear more about those studies, feel free to link to them. What was your PhD work on?

@@LandownerTV I'd have to do some digging to see what was published from them. I just remember talking to a few of the students working on them and their faculty advisors. They had several separate pastures in the study. Some were left completely alone. others they were doing controlled burns to replicate what would have been 100 years ago when grass fire weren't controlled. One of the faculty advisors had told me back then (100+ years ago) the ashe junipers were limited to the small canyons and creek beds and that natural fires would burn them out of everywhere else. The oaks and other trees could survive the grass fires. My PhD work involved using canopy texture patterns as an alternative method of land cover detection.

Good comment on change of use, that's very true!

Glad you enjoyed it!

It's set by the county. No restrictions as far as property size in my county but must be 50 yds from a dwelling or road. I checked on this 25 years ago before building a shooting range on my property.

@@dissy5563 Counties are free to be less restrictive, but not more restrictive. If you have 10+ acres, you can shoot and hunt (subject safety restrictions) and the county can't restrict you from doing so, and the same applies with long guns if you have 50+ acres. Counties (like the one you live in) are free to be less restrictive.

Yes they are, you're correct!

Thanks for the kind comment! Great youtube handle!

Over a mile

you actually can use juniper berries for food in a couple ways that I've found. If making gin isn't your thing (lol), you can wash and dry the berries and grind them up to flavor meats. Smoked or dried meat flavored with juniper is very tasty, I think. It's a potent flavor so it doesn't take much. I've also used the ground berries to flavor game stews. The dusty coating on the outside of the juniper berry is actually yeast bacteria! Which means that you can use them to make sourdough starter! Plop a few berries in a flour/water mixture like usual, feed it for a few days, and you've got yourself a potent sourdough starter.

Thanks for commenting! You are right, cedar has it's place and provides a ton benefits. Including providing shelter for a number of species of wildlife, cover even when areas have been overgrazed, and it's been shown to produce soil at a higher rate than some grasslands. Getting rid of it is not a solution because it's native, has it's place, and has been here for a long long time. Even those anecdotes are scratching the surface of the benefits it can provide, you may have inspired me to make a video specifically outlining it's benefits. The reality though is that it is invasive and it can certainly take over a field in 10 years. This is not the case in every field nor does it happen in every instance, it's just a possibility that in can and does. There is a TON of research to support this, including the research I conducted in my master's thesis that tracked cedar invasion in the Texas Hill Country on the Leon River Restoration Project. There is also research around this topic performed on the Agrilife Research Station in Sonora, TX and even a more recent study I link to below here. This study called "Characterizing the encroachment of juniper forests into sub-humid and semi-arid prairies from 1984 to 2010 using PALSAR and Landsat data" shows that 65% of the Juniper Forests they observed were not present 15 years before.... Check it out. (www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0034425717305680).

@@LandownerTV I suppose that what I meant by "it isn't invasive," is that it is native. Unfortunately, I cannot read most of that study due to not being able to sign in with (I am assuming) a college institution login. But even in the beginning and the conclusion, it is cited that the topic of cedar (or rather juniper, we just call it cedar colloquially) is quite contested. And 40km^2 is not rally that much, based on it's coverage. I already stated that it DOES take over. It is just that people aroynd the Edwards plateau make it out like in 10 years your whole field will be covered. Which is just silly. As I stated prior, the thing that juniper does for us (besides feed and home many many animals) is the same as it's downfall. It drops needles (again, not sure if this is the correct term) and kills off grasses. However, in doing so, it provides soil. But, this is a catch 22 often, as if there is no grass to hold on to that soil, it simply is washed away by rain, and only benefits creeks and lowlying area. My point being, when cultivated in tandem with a selection of native prarie grasses, it can actually help to build soil, along with the grasses. Resulting in a lush prarie, rather than just a rocky hilltop. 🤣 I just think that it's place is misunderstood, and it has been unduely vilified. Especially around here. (centex area) It does plenty of GOOD as well, and I think that our suppression of fires, while good for us and animal populations) have had adverse affect. If grasslands containing juniper were allowed to burn (say, if we didn't live here) I think that the balance would remain far more in order. It is a very ignitable tree. And the fires would cull it and stunt it's growth. Point being, it is only really invasive because we live near it, and try to prevent it burning all our houses down. 🤣 Thusly, we must manage both it and the grass in the grasslands with quite a bit more vigor, same as we cull deer, to keep it's rapid expansion from hurting native species as well as itself. Idk, my 2c. I actually spent off and on a year or two looking into this pseudo-myth. And while I don't have a degree, let alone a masters...I still think that due to my exposure and lots of time dedicated to researching and questioning the "truths" about juniper that I have a "better than average" knowledge and thusly, take. But, I could always be wrong. It happens every day. I just think that the standard teachings both loosely in school, and colloquially, are quite flawed. Please do make a "benefits of juniper," video. I would be quite interested.

If you are protecting your property you can! If I was growing corn and a deer was going after it, I would think that's protecting my property.

@@Epicfunk Depends on where you live.

@@GoonyMclinux I live by a bag of deer feed lol