Written by: Kevin Owens

Edits by: Pierce Young

Many landowners feel the urge to “clean up” fields and old openings in spring—a habit often called recreational mowing syndrome. While mowing is one of the most common land management practices, its timing and frequency can significantly shape wildlife habitat outcomes.

Why May Is a Critical Window for Wildlife

May is one of the most important biological windows of the year:

  • Wild turkeys are actively nesting or incubating eggs
  • Early-hatched poults begin emerging in late spring and rely heavily on insect-rich habitat
  • Pollinators are entering peak activity periods tied to flowering plants
  • Ground-nesting birds and other wildlife depend on cover for survival

Tall, undisturbed vegetation during this period provides essential nesting concealment and brood habitat.

The Hidden Costs of Mowing for Wildlife

While mowing is often used as a “maintenance” tool, frequent or poorly timed mowing can have several negative impacts on wildlife habitat:

Direct Nest and Brood Loss

  • Ground nests of wild turkeys and other birds can be destroyed
  • Poults and young birds may be killed or exposed
  • Even when nests survive, repeated disturbance can cause abandonment

Loss of Cover and Structure

  • Short vegetation eliminates nesting and hiding cover
  • Brood-rearing areas become unsafe, exposed, and full of dense thatch

Reduced Insect Populations

  • Many beneficial insects rely on undisturbed vegetation
  • Mowing disrupts food webs that turkey poults and songbirds depend on
  • Less plant diversity means fewer pollinators supported overall

Plant Community Simplification

  • Repeated mowing favors aggressive grasses over native forbs
  • Reduces wildflower diversity over time
  • Can accelerate invasion by non-native species in some systems

In many cases, mowing does not “improve” habitat—it maintains a simplified, low-value plant community.

Pollinators in Mississippi: More Than Just “Let It Grow”

Mississippi’s warmer climate means plant growth starts early, and by May many areas have already passed peak early bloom. This creates an important reality:

  • Simply stopping mowing does not automatically create pollinator habitat
  • Many unmowed areas quickly become dominated by grasses or invasive plants
  • Without native forbs and legumes, nectar and pollen resources remain limited

Pollinators benefit most from diverse, flowering native plant communities, not just tall vegetation alone.

Why Burning and Disking Often Outperform Mowing

One of the most overlooked realities in wildlife habitat management is that disturbance itself is not the main problem—timing and type of disturbance matter.

In many cases, practices like prescribed burning or disking can provide far greater ecological benefits than mowing.

Prescribed Burning

Prescribed fire:

  • Recycles nutrients and stimulates native plant growth
  • Promotes flowering forbs and legumes that support pollinators
  • Improves insect abundance for turkey poults
  • Maintains open, diverse early successional habitat
  • Reduces thatch buildup that mowing often leaves behind

Disking (Timely Soil Disturbance)

Well-timed disking:

  • Encourages germination of native annuals and beneficial weeds
  • Creates bare ground patches important for brood-rearing turkeys
  • Increases plant diversity and structural variation
  • Enhances seed availability for wildlife

Unlike mowing, both fire and disking actively reset plant succession in ways that benefit wildlife instead of simply clipping vegetation back.

A Better Strategy Than “No Mow May”: Delay and Diversify

Rather than strictly following “No Mow May,” Mississippi landowners often see better results with a more intentional approach: Delay and Diversify.

1. Delay Disturbance During Critical Wildlife Periods

  • Avoid mowing in April (turkey nesting) and July (fawning)
  • Protect nesting turkeys and early broods
  • Maintain cover during peak reproductive periods

2. Use the Right Disturbance at the Right Time

  • Favor prescribed fire or disking over mowing when possible
  • Time disturbance to promote native plant response, not suppression
  • Rotate disturbance to create habitat diversity across the property

3. Build Native Plant Communities

  • Encourage native forbs and legumes for pollinators
  • Reduce dominance of non-native grasses
  • Target invasive species like cogongrass or sericea lespedeza early

Final Takeaway

“No Mow May” can be a useful concept, but in Mississippi it is only part of the picture. Simply avoiding mowing does not guarantee quality wildlife habitat—and in many cases, mowing can actually reduce habitat value when used repeatedly or at the wrong time.

For wild turkeys and pollinators, the real goal is not just less disturbance, but better disturbance paired with diverse native plant communities.

In many landscapes, that means:

  • Reducing mowing during critical seasons
  • Replacing routine mowing with prescribed fire or disking where appropriate
  • Actively managing for plant diversity rather than uniform “clean” fields

When done correctly, these practices create the structure, food resources, and insect abundance that truly drive productive wildlife habitat.

 

For more wildlife management information visit:

www.mdwfp.com/wildlife-management-info