What If - Bring My Bird Hunting Back

[mic]

I read these articles and thought I would share. First, I'm not a tree hugging eco nazi, but I do miss the days when there was quality hunting for quail and pheasant in drainage ditches, tree lines, fence rows, and leftover field stubable. It would be nice to imagine a new time when large sections of land were proactively planted with mix grass fields to be used for fuel. I don't think it will happen in my time, but maybe my kids will get to find the same enjoyment in finding birds in almost every track of land like when I was a kid.

http://news.discovery.com/earth/biofuel-grasslands-for-the-birds.html

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/04/16/mu-power-plant-will-install-biomass-boiler-62-million-project/

[Quillback]

It seems it would be a good thing, but unless it can put more money in the pockets of farmers than corn I don't see it happening. Mowed grass doesn't make good gamebird habitat, used to hunt pheasants and quail in Washington state where the farmers grow a lot of hay, you still need good cover to hold birds, if they mow the fields up to the fences, it still won't hold birds even if it's grass.

[Gilly]

That is exactly what I'm doing on my farm. The farmers/neighbors thought I was zingy when I took 30 acres out of production and planted a Pheasants Forever mix. It took 5 years to really see how it would work out. You wouldn't think a 30 acre plot would hold so many birds & deer but with the floods we experienced this year, our land was untouched whereas most everything else was devastated. I had to post it this last weekend to keep the idiot's from trespassing. The birds are thick in there. I'm going to leave them alone for a couple of seasons until the flooded areas re-establish themselves and hopefully the wildlife spreads out again.

Note-your second link didn't make sense relevant to birds??

[Justin Spencer]

Mowed grass doesn't make good gamebird habitat,

Exactly. This would be much better than corn, but for energy production they would need it as dense as possible, and would harvest every year. Managing for birds might use the same grasses, but much different management practices.

[mic]

I would think it isn't if you harvest the grass, it would be when you harvest. I would think in this environment you would rotate harvest so there would always be some cover.

As far as the second link, the new biomass boiler can use this grass mix (and it was kind of cool).

And the price of corn, the grass would be grown in the unproductive areas where the grass would be more cost affective (as I understand it).

[Gilly]

"As far as the second link, the new biomass boiler can use this grass mix (and it was kind of cool). "

Okay. I wasn't considering multiple uses when I developed our spot. Habitat was the singular goal. Sometimes trying to cover too many bases complicates the process.

[Quillback]

Yeah Mic if the farmers left some cover, or only mowed sections at a time so the birds always had some high grass to hang out in it could work. But they're in it for money first, wildlife second (not that I blame them) and they're going to cut that grass when it suits them.

[mic]

Yeah Mic if the farmers left some cover, or only mowed sections at a time so the birds always had some high grass to hang out in it could work. But they're in it for money first, wildlife second (not that I blame them) and they're going to cut that grass when it suits them.

Let me stress...I was a teacher's kid, but grew up in a farm town. I remember the good and bad days my friends went through, the farmers are welcome to whatever they can get, and I don't offer them ill will. If I wanted it bad enough I would buy the hay bails made from the ditches, but tell them to leave it stand. If I was back home in NE Kansas that is probably what I would do. I would like to think that most farmers are stewards of the land, and if someone was willing to meet them half way they would save those key tranisistional spots for wildlife.

I guess I'm not making my point well so let me try again... I hope that one day there is a financial motivation to leave great habitat (outside of CRP which comes and goes with the political environment). I'm looking for the win, win. Just like my title says... "What If?"

[Justin Spencer]

I hope that one day there is a financial motivation to leave great habitat

There are programs to help you convert to native warm season grasses in Missouri, and my father-in-law did it in Arkansas and gets payments from the state in a quail emphasis area.

I took advantage of the one in Missouri and converted about 10 acres of fescue back to native grass. Still cost me some money and a lot of sweat, but probably 90% was paid for. Federal or state programs are unfortunately the primary way to keep land use practices regulated for certain purposes and while they aren't guaranteed year after year at least it is something. The state of Kansas does a walk in hunting program where they pay farmers to allow hunting on their land. In order to get the payment it has to be land that is deemed to be good wildlife habitat, and in Western Kansas that is mainly grasslands.

Years like this when we have a drought CRP lands that are set aside can have a certain portion hayed as an emergency measure. Short of donating land to state agencies or other wildlife groups land uses will change with the times and economic environment.

[Outside Bend]

I was able to get away this morning on a fall turkey hunt on some property my family owns an hour or so south of St. Louis- really more of a long walk in the autumn woods more than an honest-to-goodness hunt. Basically wandered around and reflected.

It's about two hundred acres, and for the past sixty years has been a working cow-calf operation, with occasional plots of corn or winter wheat. The wear was starting to show- erosion in creeks and gullies, overgrazed pasture, lack of oak and walnut generation in the woodlots, and the last commercial logging operation in the early 2000's left lots and lots of hickory and locust standing, but suspiciously few white oak, black cherry, and black walnut to replace what was cut.

Over the past several years we've been working to remit some of the problems on the farm, balancing the ag side with a more general land stewardship ethic. We cut the number of cattle in half, fenced them into the upland areas, and have worked to keep them out of the streams and wet areas. We've let fencerows and field edges grow up with sumac, gray dogwood, blackberry and wild plum, we've let some of the open areas and slash piles left from the last woodcut get wooly with brush, and reduced fertilization of some of the hayfields, giving native warm-season grasses a chance to push through the fescue.

This morning, on my walk, I heard an unfamiliar commotion- a series of whirs and chirps as a handful of birds flew low into some brush. I watched- it was a covey of quail, the first I'd ever seen on the farm since I began hunting and exploring the woods some fifteen years ago. That moment excited me as any turkey I may see that day.

I'd never expect a farmer to convert his best cropland back to something that supports wildlife. But their are places on every farm which just aren't suited for industrial agriculture, and their are benefits to leaving some places on the farm wildlife that can't be quantified as easily as bushels per acre.