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Photo by P.J. Perea |
NWTF biologist learns lessons from the 100-Acre Project
If you've followed the NWTF's "Get in the Game" TV show on the Pursuit Channel, you should be familiar with the 100-Acre Project — roughly 100 acres in Edgefield County, S.C. The challenge for the NWTF's conservation staff was to turn the industrial pine plantation into a wildlife paradise, document it for the show and do it all in a little more than a year.
The property is composed mostly of 14-year-old planted loblolly pines. There are a few small creek bottoms, but the hardwoods along those intermittent creeks total less than 10 acres. There were no significant openings, little sunlight reached the ground through the thick timber, and wildlife was scarce.
We started the 100-Acre Project two years ago, ready to give this wildlife wasteland a makeover. And even with more than 100 years of wildlife management experience between the team members, we still learned valuable lessons in the process.
Build it and they will come
We began by creating significant permanent openings on the property, which is arguably the most important thing we did.
In late summer, we made wide roads with water bars to stop erosion. We also allowed for plenty of room for daylight to reach each side. We cleared areas for large food plots and planted millet to stabilize the soil and provide seeds for doves, quail and turkeys.
In early fall, we planted the roadsides and food plots using a mixture of wheat and clover. They were ready to deer hunt over within a month. The deer bedded in the neighbor's thick pines, but they fed on our planted roads and plots. The turkeys soon discovered the plantings too and spent a lot more time on the property.
The second summer we planted several chufa food plots as well as corn and soybean plots. The turkeys took to the chufa that fall like they had been waiting their whole life for it. Soon we had craters where it used to be. We noticed turkeys roosting near the chufa plots, instead of on the neighbor's property.
Secure the area
We had unexpected vehicle activity from adjoining properties soon after we widened the roads. Fresh tire tracks crisscrossed over our newly planted fields. So we installed gates at every access point and repainted the boundary line trees, and in the process learned hard clay soil presented a real challenge to post hole diggers. Next time we would use a tractor-mounted auger.
Choose a gate wide enough for any vehicle expected on the property, especially important if you plan a timber harvest. Big log trucks need a lot of room. We used 16-foot gates, however double gates may be necessary if the gate is on a curve or if you use large farm equipment. Be sure the gate is far enough from the main road so a large vehicle is completely off the road when stopped.
We also secured the area by installing firebreaks along the boundary lines surrounding the property. They protect the neighbors from our prescribed fire and also protected our property from wildfire coming from adjacent lands.
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Thin the trees
We knew the young pines on the property weren't of high value, but we wanted the landowner to earn income from thinning. We lined up a tree chipper operation, where nearly the whole tree is hauled off with minimal leftover debris. It turned out the hauling distance was just too great, and the logger would not earn enough on the chipped wood to make it worthwhile. Fortunately, we found a local logger who agreed to cut the pines as long wood, hauling out the tree trunks for pulp at a nearby mill. We negotiated the sale to suit both parties and thinned the pines late in the second summer.
Our goal was to reduce the density of the pine stands from about 120 to 140 square feet per acre to around 60 to 70 square feet per acre. This stand density allows light to reach the forest floor and reduces competition among the remaining trees, allowing them to grow faster.
The landowner made enough from the timber thinning and sale to cover the costs of the roads, food plots and firebreaks. And we took another big step towards creating a wildlife paradise.
Use prescribed fire
The finishing touch to our 100-Acre Project was to use a relatively cool fire to release the nutrients bound in the logging debris and pine needles, and to promote the growth of beneficial understory plants. We also wanted to reduce the fuel load in potential hot spots, which would greatly reduce tree damage in case of wildfire.
We burned most of the thinned pine plantations in February with fair results. In retrospect, we should have waited a year, after another needle fall, to have a continuous fuel layer and likely a better burn. There were areas without enough fuel to carry the fire, yet we accomplished most of our goals, and the property developed good understory plant growth for turkey season.
We reached our goals with good planning and a lot of sweat equity. What we did can be duplicated on similar properties just about anywhere. Our former industrial forest pine plantation is now supporting far more deer and turkeys than two years ago.
The landowner's wife killed the first turkey taken on the property, also her first turkey, this spring. And we saw several hens and poults throughout the summer, promising another successful season next year. — Tom Hughes, NWTF assistant vice president of education and outreach