Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
If I can get these pictures up, I'd like to expand on the changing habitat discussion that has come up on the Thinking of November thread.
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Changing Habitat
- Thread starter Prairie Drifter
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Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
It is good to look at what you've gotten done on the habitat front from time-to-time. I thought the discussion started on the Thinking of November thread could be expanded and possibly get some of you to give your slice of heaven a look, before and after. I can't claim to have gotten to where I want to be on any acre I manage, but it's not too hard to see progress.
In these two photos, it is easy to see several major differences. No, there are no hidden combs, umbrellas, or other search to find prizes, but changes there are. If you count the number of cedar rows and compare, the 2016 photo has significantly fewer. Also, several of the remaining woody motts are showing their age, expansion, and closing canopies. Others are showing thinning or have disappeared all together. Also, easily visible, is the disappearance of several food plots. My philosophies have evolved and, with limited budgets and manpower, providing wildlife food is often more a function of management than a planting activity.
Another obvious (to me) change is the addition of patch burn/patch graze fire breaks. The latest photo shows that the east pasture is divided into units that are my burn rotation plots. No longer am I burning this 400 acre pasture all at once. Just out of sight at the bottom of the photo is a 4 lane highway that has some of the highest truck traffic in Kansas. Smaller fires allow me to burn with a smaller crew and a lower exposure to liability along this highly travelled corridor. If you look more closely, you can see the SW patch burn mott is gaining shrub cover. That tract was burned a month or two after this photo was taken, so I'm hoping that we have either stabilized that trend or set it back some. For me, it is pretty easy to see slivers of habitat that have not been burned as frequently. I'll shut up now and let you enter some observations as well.
In these two photos, it is easy to see several major differences. No, there are no hidden combs, umbrellas, or other search to find prizes, but changes there are. If you count the number of cedar rows and compare, the 2016 photo has significantly fewer. Also, several of the remaining woody motts are showing their age, expansion, and closing canopies. Others are showing thinning or have disappeared all together. Also, easily visible, is the disappearance of several food plots. My philosophies have evolved and, with limited budgets and manpower, providing wildlife food is often more a function of management than a planting activity.
Another obvious (to me) change is the addition of patch burn/patch graze fire breaks. The latest photo shows that the east pasture is divided into units that are my burn rotation plots. No longer am I burning this 400 acre pasture all at once. Just out of sight at the bottom of the photo is a 4 lane highway that has some of the highest truck traffic in Kansas. Smaller fires allow me to burn with a smaller crew and a lower exposure to liability along this highly travelled corridor. If you look more closely, you can see the SW patch burn mott is gaining shrub cover. That tract was burned a month or two after this photo was taken, so I'm hoping that we have either stabilized that trend or set it back some. For me, it is pretty easy to see slivers of habitat that have not been burned as frequently. I'll shut up now and let you enter some observations as well.
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Miforester
Well-known member
Great use of aerial photos to show what a landowner has or hasn't accomplished during their ownership. Are you protecting some of the woody areas, looks like it with the track around them. Does appear like you recruiting a good shrub layer for your fields. I think another advantage of not burning in such large blocks, it allows you to "control" the burn and the residence time of the fire across the area and this can have great impacts on the effectiveness of managing your vegetation both pos or neg.
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
Many of our constituents believe what they have seen for years is the best habitat. Taking all of those cedar rows out at one time would cause backlash, so I have been working on it since 2000 at a gradual pace and protecting some when I burn. At the same time, we have been trying to educate our users as to what quality habitat looks like and how management can be cheaper and easier without invasive species being protected.
PheasantWhisperer
Member
It looks like the grazing is definitely more regulated. Looks to be less paths cut through the more recent photo. Doesn't look like tree canopy would be much of an issue on this piece?
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
Some of the grazing distribution differences are wet year/dry year and June picture/August picture differences. The black and white pic was the year before I moved here. The 2016 picture was a 6 inch over normal rainfall year. Where we are in a more limited rainfall zone, the difference between a wet year and a dry one is more noticeable.
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
I am struck by the differences between wet and dry years in areas with more limited rainfall. Further east, the differences are less dramatic. In Texas, not only the amount of rain, but it's timing can make all the difference in a "bird" year and a birdless one. I'm talking west Texas for that reference. Some biologists there talk about habitat reduction, but for me driving through, the mile after mile of uninterrupted cover seem to be massive compared to the more ag dominated landscape I'm more used to in Kansas. Much of our cover is either linear, or riparian oriented in many places. Sure, others have larger expanses of cover, but to compare those tracts to west Texas is an apples and oranges thing.