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.