Wildlife Plots, Lots of Dry Weather

Abby, my farmer daughter, and I have worked hard this past week on game food plots.  We planted in the dust and hope for rain off of Hurricane Mathew.  Our summer food plots of sunnhep really did well even though we have been in a drought this summer.  This is our largest planting and it is about three acres.

This stuff is as tall as ten foot in some places and it has been eaten all over the field.

Many plants have been top three times but it puts back out and continues to grow.  Some of the tall plants have no leaves as high as the deer can reach.  I am posting an article to privateforestlandowner.com more in detail on why we plant sunnhemp.

One of our friendly snakes soaking up the sun on a road bank on a cool morning when we started working.  He was the largest black racer I have ever seen. It was six feet more or less in size. 

Busy, Hot Time of The Year

Just because the weather has been very hot and humid, this doesn't mean nothing has been taking place on Dewberry Lands. 

We have just sprayed herbicides on the tract we are going to convert back to native longleaf pines.

We will be doing a prescribed burn here as soon as the foliage dies back to make it easier to plant and it will help control weed competition for the survival of the seedlings. 

Roads are checked and we have started putting out game cameras to see how many fawns we have on our property.  In the very near future we are going to be starting a thinning operation to improve the timber stand on another tract.

There's been quarterly meetings with the Alabama Treasure Forest Association and the State Tree Farm Committee in Montgomery, the annual meeting and tour with the Alabama Farmers Federation in Mobile and our monthly Forestry Planning Committee meetings locally.

This is just some of the things that have been going on with Dewberry Lands.

This Just Released

What we knew all along is now recognized "Good Forest Management " keeps our water clean. 

Click on this link to read more about EPA's decision.

US Forest Service- Thirteen States Meet

 The USFS recently met in Atlanta, Georgia, and came over to East Alabama for part of the day back on June the 7th.  The group toured Munford Elementary and met at the high school for discussion about partners with the USFS.  The USFS partnered with Munford to develop the schools with a forestry them throughout the schools.  If you ever get the opportunity to visit the schools I recommend you go and see how interesting the schools were designed.

I was invited to speak to the group about landowner/USFS relations and how we work together in the Talladega District of the forest.  Originally they were to visit our property but travel restraints kept us from having them on our property so my son helped me develop a virtual tour of some of the work we have done in our forest.  Below is the video I showed to the group as I talked about our forest management. It was an interesting day talking with state foresters from Texas to Virginia and answering questions they had about our management plan. 

Earth Day 2016

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

Everyday is "Earth Day" on Dewberry Lands.  This morning I made two pictures while we were eating breakfast.  This Rose-Breasted Grosbeak ran the other birds off as he came to eat.  As soon as he left the Gold Finches returned.

 

Gold Finch

Also this week I got a picture of an Eagle this week in the Barfield Community.  He was flying up out of the road as we approached an landed in this sweetgum tree.  Such a beautiful bird!

Bald Eagle

Great News For American Tree Farms

This link contains information about this great announcement.  American Family Tree Farms win with this.
https://www.forestfoundation.org/stuff/contentmgr/files/1/cbe96fbfc85e469f43a48381db1818cc/misc/usgbc_one_pager_040516.compressed.pdf

Why We Spend So Much On Wildlife Habitat

This is one of the reasons why we spend what we spend on wildlife management on our property.  Last week after we did the prescribed burn on Tuesday, on Friday my dad harvested a nice gobbler.  It was where we burned but we had also planted chufa seed in the field where the turkey was.  My dad is about to be 79 years old and nothing does him better than getting a nice gobbler.  

We continue to manage the property investing a considerable amount each year in wildlife habitat.  I enjoy seeing the wildlife on our property and my desire is that some day my grandchildren will be able to go onto the property and see deer, turkey,and other wildlife that they may or may not hunt but just enjoy the natural resources that we are managing for.  

Some ask why do you do so much work and invest so much into this?  The answer is: to provide my grandchildren a place of their own to enjoy some day.