Work This Past Year

We are managing more for bobwhite quail on our property and now we are seeing more.

We had  some precommercial thinning done on about 30 acres where the young loblolly pines were too thick.  This opened up the stand for more sunlight and reduced competition for the trees.  This work was done with a mulching machine.

We held a landowner event on our property demonstrating how to release white oak trees for more seedlings and reduce competition for mature trees.  The study is still on going.

In December, we donated Christmas Trees to families that had no tree thru the Church of Highlands, Oxford campus. Two of our granddaughters helped harvest these trees. 

We helped apply for a grant to get a burn trailer in our county to be used to conduct prescribed burns by landowners.  We had a burn demonstration to show how the trailer could be used.

 

We burned 55 acres in February and have 30 more to do a prescribed burn on soon.  Firebreaks are being installed to complete the burn.

This past year we have had a very bad outbreak of pine beetles. Here is a picture of 55 year old trees with the bark falling off and the crown of the trees still green.  We have lost over 15 acres to beetles and they are dispersed throught our 30+ year old pine stands so we are about to harvest 160 acres where this damage has occured.  Management plan changed due to insect danage. 

A new Native American site found after a burn.  We protect these sites on our property and keep records on their location.

We are having new visitors to our property.  This was the second sighting on game camers of two different bears.  The population in our area is growing.

We helped with a Learn and Burn sponsored by Alabama Tree Farm in Calhoun County at a camp for the public.  We burned a stand of longleaf pines helping other landowners gain skills using fire.

On March 23rd, we had a flood that washed out a walking bridge and did lots of damage to the roads on our property.  It washed away tables and benches at our family campsite. This was the worst flooding on our property since we have owned it.      

This Spring we held a small group from church on our property based on the book Reforesting Faith by Matthew Sleeth.  We had several to attend where we discussed trees in the scripture and modern forest manaagement.

 

Spring Management

 2024 has been a busy time.  We have used prescribed fire on 153 acres, started a precommercial thin, had 41 acres released, and are working with Quail Unlimited on a quail program on our property.  We attended the kickoff for the 100th anniversery of the Alabama Forestry Commission at the Governor's Mansion.  This spring we assisted in planting white oak seedlings at Auburn University Reasearch Station for a project selecting the best trees for acorn production and quality.

Management of Longleaf Stands

Late winter has been a busy time.

 

Great Honor for My Wife

Back in the fall at the Alabama Natural Resource and Forestry Awards Banquet my wife Felicia received the top award one can receive from the State Tree Farm Committee.  The award is named for a great Tree Farm Person, Doug Link.  When we first got started on the State Committee Mr. Link was a great encourager and visited our property more than once. 

To receive this award was a great honor for her and me too!

She definitely was well deserving of this award.  She has spoken at the National Leadership Conference about encouraging more women to get involved in forestry through "Women's Walk in the Forest".  She always helps with "Classroom in The Forest" for fifth graders on our property.  Planting trees, cutting wood, prescribed burning and other management practices are some of her forestry experiences.

So glad I get to share live with her!

 

Prescribed Fire

 

My wife and I did a prescribed burn on 40 acres of longleaf pines.  We got a great burn and this made these ten year old trees happy!

These five year old longleaf pines to the right will be burned later this week.

Simply Southern TV

We were recently featured in a TV show promoting Treasure Forest.  Below is the link if you want to see more.  https://simplysoutherntv.net/2021/09/04/show-723-treasure-forest/

American Bald Eagle

 

We were our with our youngest grandson a few weeks ago exploring our property and we found the feather of a Bald Eagle.  This was such a special find, and we had to explaining to him why we had to leave it on the ground.  He had questions but understood what this bird meant to us as Americans.  We had seen an eagle near this area before but never dreamed of seeing a feather shed by the eagle.

A feather from a beautiful, majestic, free flying bird! 

This was the tree we found the feather under.  We knew the eagle had been up in this tree after he had been hunting fish near the watershed lake near by.  The eagle probably enjoyed his meal in this tree.

We left the feather under the tree.  You might ask "why"?  It is illegal to have in your possession any part of eagle.  Only Native Americans can have in their possession a feather and they are required to get a special permit from the US Government. $100,000 and a year in jail is the penalty for having an eagle feather.