The Riverview
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30
Spring Turkey Prep: Getting Your Property Ready
Spring is Here - A Serious Hunter's Guide to Chasing Midwestern Gobblers
There's a moment in early April, somewhere between the last hard freeze and the first green tinge on the hillsides, when a gobble rips through the timber at first light and something primal fires in your chest. It doesn't matter how many springs you've done this. That sound does something to a person that's hard to explain to anyone who hasn't heard it while crouched against a white oak in the dark, shotgun across their knees, palms sweating in forty-degree air.
Eastern wild turkeys are one of the great hunting animals in North America. Not because they're the biggest or the most dangerous, but because they will humble you in ways that deer and ducks simply cannot. A mature gobbler has survived multiple hunting seasons by being suspicious of everything. He's spent his whole life eating and avoiding being eaten, and h...
23
5 Signs a Property Has Trophy Potential
What to Look for When Buying Hunting Land
Not every piece of ground is a "Trophy Property". Some tracts hold deer occasionally. Others produce mature bucks so consistently you start taking it for granted. The difference between the two isn't luck, and it isn't acreage — it's whether a property checks the right boxes. And if you're serious about being set up for this fall — food plots planted, stands hung, TSI and other habitat work done — the window to buy is coming up faster than most people realize. Summer prep starts very soon.
If you're evaluating land and asking yourself whether it has the bones to become a legitimate trophy producer, here's what you need to look for.
1. Diverse, Year-Round Food Sources
Whitetails are calorie-driven animals, and matu...
26
How to Conduct a Prescribed Burn to Improve Your Rural Property
Fire built the Midwest. For thousands of years, periodic wildfire and intentional burns set by Native Americans shaped the prairies, savannas, and open woodlands that defined this landscape. The tallgrass prairies of Missouri, the oak savannas of Illinois, the grasslands of Iowa and Kansas — all of them evolved with fire and depend on it to stay healthy.
Today, less than one percent of the Midwest's original native prairie remains. Without fire, woody invasives creep in, dead thatch smothers new growth, and the diverse plant communities that support whitetail deer, wild turkey, bobwhite quail, and countless other species slowly disappear. Conservationists call this process the "green glacier" — and it's one of the biggest threats to rural land quality in our region.
8
What to Know Before Selling Your Land
Selling land is a fickle thing. You can own a farm for 40 years and never think twice about it, but the minute you start talking about selling, the ground seems to shift a little beneath your boots. Every hill, draw, and fence line carries its own history. Every treestand you hung, every food plot you planted, every season of drought or rain — it all sits there together like rings in a tree, marking time.
Land isn't just an asset on a spreadsheet. It's where your stories live.
And when it's time to pass that land on to someone else, you feel the weight of wanting to get it right.
Over the years, walking properties and talking with landowners, we've learned that selling land isn't about slick numbers or quick deals. It's about understanding what you have, what it's worth, and what you want your next chapter to look like. If you've been wondering where to start, here's the honest, boots-on-the-ground version.