What If - Bring My Bird Hunting Back

[Quillback]

That's cool you got some quail going OB, wish we had more of them here in AR. Just need more quail suitable habitat.

[Gilly]

Mic, as several have stated above one way or another, cash is king. The farmer needs the cash flow, retired land not so much as productive. Heck, I remember when you could knock on the farmer's door and get permission to hunt. Now? Well, so many of those farm homes are gone. You're lucky in some cases to even find out who is responsible for the land. Right next to me are 3 sections that have been in the same family since the land was originally deeded. Across the road and back aways 3000+ acres auctioned off to several corporations. Want to hunt the recreational areas on it? Sign a lease. Yup. No more knocks on the door and a handshake......cash is king.

And the 3 sections next to me? He's the last one standing in his lineage.

[Outside Bend]

Mic, as several have stated above one way or another, cash is king. The farmer needs the cash flow, retired land not so much as productive. Heck, I remember when you could knock on the farmer's door and get permission to hunt. Now? Well, so many of those farm homes are gone. You're lucky in some cases to even find out who is responsible for the land. Right next to me are 3 sections that have been in the same family since the land was originally deeded. Across the road and back aways 3000+ acres auctioned of to several corporations. Want to hunt the recreational areas on it? Sign a lease. Yup. No more knocks on the door and a handshake......cash is king.

And the 3 sections next to me? He's the last one standing in his lineage.

I know many western states have private land trusts- I'm not sure the ins and outs of it, but the land is basically cared for by the trust, and either farmed or left fallow for perpetuity- the idea is to maintain the aesthetics of the western landscape.

IMO it'd be great to have that sort of opportunity in the Ozarks (granted there's already a lot of public lands in National Forest and MDC ownership). I know when my grandfather kicked off he wanted to make sure the farm he worked his entire life wanted to stay a farm, and not another St. Louis bedroom community. I'm sure there's a lot of farmers in the state with the same feelings toward their land, and it'd be nice to have some private alternative that doesn't require sodded lawns and asphalt.

[mic]

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.

OB...Here is a good read you and your family might enjoy and/or learn from (sorry don't know your background).

http://www.mo.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/forms/out/wildlife_info/Bobwhite_Quail_Habitat_Information_Sheet10_2006.pdf