Thursday, June 26, 2014

Bob White Quail


It was so good to hear two bobwhite quail whistling yesterday as we planted brown-top millet and chufa.  It is a sound many young people have never heard in the wild because of the loss of habitat for quail.  When I was growing up we had quail to eat about once a week for supper because my dad was a big quail hunter and the birds were easy to find, then a few years later that became a thing of the past.  
When quail were abundant the area was scattered with many small farms and nearly every farm had a small garden with small grains and legumes that provided for quail.  The farms were open and young birds were protected by the grasses in these fields.  I can actually remember my dad hunting here but later this farm was planted in loblolly pines.  I was blessed to buy this farm a few years ago and we cut most of the timber and planted it back in longleaf pines.  They are now eight years old and have been burned four times.  Each year we plant cool and warm season grasses to provide seed for wildlife.
If you want quail on your property, change the habitat.  I know I will not see quail back like they were as I was growing up but we are seeing them come back where we are not managing for longleaf pines.  
It was good to hear those two whistling yesterday!

Wild Power


Curse or blessing, it's what you make it.  Have you heard that before?  This can be true if you have a transmission power line that goes through your property.  You loose acreage on you property so you try to make it to your advantage.  We use the area as a wildlife opening to plant cool and warm season crops for wildlife.  Alabama Power has a program called "Wild Power" that helps off-set some of the cost for establishing these areas.  It is a winning situation for both parties because they help with funding which helps the landowner and you help them by keeping the right-of-way accessible to the power company by plowing and bush hogging the right-of-way each year.  This helps them by their not having to pay to keep the area open for access.
This plowed area has been planted in brown-top millet and chufa for wild turkeys.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Friday, June 20, 2014

Forest Roads, A Hot Topic


Go to the "Water" tab and click for more information about Forest Roads and what we are doing on our property.

Monday, June 2, 2014

Forest Management, Does It Pay?


The answer is... in more ways than one.  Below are two pictures made on the same day.

Can you guess which stand is seven years older than the other?  The answer is: the top picture.
This stand has never had any management practices carried out on the property.  The picture at the bottom has had prescribed fire run through it, at ten this stand was thinned with all wood being chipped on site, and now at fifteen it has been thinned again.  Most of the wood was sold as pulpwood but there was some sold as chip-n-saw.
The stand can be walked through.  The aesthetics is more pleasing.  Wildlife love this stand because more sunlight can get to the forest floor.  The more sunlight, the more food for wildlife.
Cutting timber in a managed way is nothing but profitable: financially, to wildlife and aesthetically. 
Here you can see why we manage.