Spring habitat work

[remy3424]

A week ago we burned 50 acres of CRP, this Saturday I fertilized around 1500 trees and shrubs.

Saw one strange thing, while fertilizing a row of wild plums, I noticed a pheasant egg laying in the open. It was fresh. I am thinking that maybe with the wild early temp swings we have had, maybe some of the hens' cycles are off...not sure if that is activated by temps or hours of daylight. Seems just a little early for NW Iowa.

I rarely run across unhatched eggs in nests, but see many "hatched" nests.

 

[Golden Hour]

Hens actually dump an egg a day for a week or two leading up the making their legitimate nest. I'd guess you found one of those.

Kudos on working on your projects. I've got some trees to plant and was just thinking its about that time of year!!

 

[Prairie Drifter]

I've only gotten 2 burns done so far this spring. It's either been high winds or low humidity this spring. I have also missed about 3 good burn days because I could not get help. I got the east end of the lake dam planted to native grass where we took the trees and brush off of it. I still have a marsh dike and 2 stretches of spoils from cleaning out 2 canals that I will need to plant. One of those has Reed Canary on it, so I will spray it first. I still have about 6-8 burns I wanted to do, but may shove more of those into the summer or push them back a year. Had the lake dam inspection Monday. Passed it with flying colors! I've been trying to hire seasonal help for 3 months. No luck there. We will start preparing summer fire breaks soon and we are cutting trees (elms, locust, cedars) when we can work it in. I expect we will start treating multi-flora rose, Johnson grass, and Sericea Lespedeza soon as well. I have the contract tree cutter in trying to eliminate some elm seed sources. I also have the heavy equipment crew working getting some rip rap on marsh dikes and pond dams where Mr. beaver has been naughty! I have about 3 miles of fence to build and a bunch of barricade posts to set to keep folks off of the dam. I'll wait until after July 1 to start upgrading some roads! I have gotten the marshes mostly dewatered as far as we can get them. Could use some rain!!!!

 

[remy3424]

PD, you are a busy beaver yourself!!! I need to replace a few spruce trees that the deer have mistreated, should have done it already, think I will just use ditch cedars as the deer don't seem to mess with them as much.

 

[McFarmer]

I haven’t been able to find anyone to burn our CRP. Seems everyone wants to do nice 80s or quarters surrounded by crop land rather than the hard to burn places.

Cant blame them, the money is the same.

 

[remy3424]

Are you a PF guy? They would likely get a crew out to help. Where are you located?

 

[McFarmer]

Are you a PF guy? They would likely get a crew out to help. Where are you located?

NW Iowa. The first outfit I contacted looked at it and said no thanks. The local fire department does burns but they won’t after May first and they were booked solid up until then.

I‘ll get on their list next year. The big problem is both pieces butt up against state land and are cattails, no way to mow around them. Last time I burned the DNR burned theirs with me.

 

[Prairie Drifter]

PD, you are a busy beaver yourself!!! I need to replace a few spruce trees that the deer have mistreated, should have done it already, think I will just use ditch cedars as the deer don't seem to mess with them as much.

The list never seems to get shorter. You get one thing done and driving home think up 5 more things that need done. Supposed to find out soon if we were accepted for a NAWCA grant. If we get that, I'll get busy in a whole new direction.

 

[Prairie Drifter]

Here are a few thousand words! Seeding the dam, the dike repair, some new members of the goose lodge, a mink I flushed on one of the marsh dikes, and white-faced ibis enjoying the dewatering marsh! There is also one of the respect the area gets from some of the locals!

 

[Prairie Drifter]

And the 2 canals that we cleaned out and used the spoils from one to re-establish a decent height on the dike.

 

[McFarmer]

The local fire department came out and burned the bulk of our CRP, along with a few bonus acres. Pretty tough when it abuts so much slough and marsh.

 

[Ericb]

Good job keeping up on the habitat! I don’t know how hunters can repay good stewardship but we owe you.

 

[Prairie Drifter]

We have been hard at work this week mowing and disking fire breaks for our summer burns. A flat on the 6110 halted mowing Thursday. Got that fixed Friday and got the tractor home. I plan to try to also burn some of the burns that didn't get done this spring to get us back closer to being in rotation. Had .30 rain last night with 65 mph winds. That'll have us cutting up downed trees in the campground Monday. We're still about 3.3 inches short for the month of June.

 

[Prairie Drifter]

Spent some time in June working to upgrade some area ponds that Mr. Beaver has traditionally poked holes in the dams. We pulled off adjacent trees, re-established the slope, layed erosion fabric, and rip rapped them with broken concrete. Nice project to have done.

 

[remy3424]

Nice work! Beautiful, sounds like you did it right! It looks like it fill-up too. That sure didn't happen in a day. Any idea how many equipment hours when into that?

 

[Prairie Drifter]

It was part of a larger project that included cleaning the silt out of 2 canals, repairing and raising a dike, repairing another dike, replacing the water control structure in one of the ponds, and some tree removal. The bill wasn't broken down by project. Just another catch up project that I would have liked to have done 20 years ago.

 

[remy3424]

Well it looks awesome....so jealous here!

 

[Prairie Drifter]

Thank you! Plenty of satisfaction seeing them completed. A lot of folks will benefit from these in the years to come.