What has THE D-7 Crew done lately (July-Sept. 2009)

July 2009

-Conducted bear bait station surveys in district seven (34 stations, 13 bear visits)

-Performed routine depot, yard mowing, and site maintenance tasks.
Disposed of ½ ton of trash and recyclables.

-Mowed vegetation in 12 acres of openings on Thurmond Chatham GL.

-Routine office work, purchasing, and reporting.
Crew attended regulation proposals review meeting in Yadkinville.

-Trapped 121 wood ducks and banded 115 with new bands.

-Trapped 15 doves and banded 14 with new bands.

-Scheduled maintenance of highway vehicles.

August 2009

-Performed routine depot, yard mowing, and site maintenance tasks.
Accompanied State Property Engineers during inspection of buildings.

-Cleared debris from 17 miles of public access roads on TCGL.
Opened and closed gates to allow sportsmen access onto TCGL.
Opened and closed gates to allow sportsmen access onto MRGL.
Opened and closed gates to allow sportsmen access onto BCGL.
Put up signs and improved barriers to block ATV traffic on Saddle Mtn Tract.
Met with Supervising Biologist to plan for parking area on Three-top Mtn GL.

-Mowed vegetation in 17 acres of openings on TCGL.
Mowed 14 acres of dove fields on Perkins Game Lands.
Burned 1.5 acres of field crops on Perkins GL Dove fields.
Spot sprayed invasive plants on 22 acres of openings on TCGL.

-Routine office work, purchasing, and reporting.

-Trapped 207 wood ducks and banded 180 with new bands.

-Trapped and banded 18 doves.

-Scheduled maintenance of highway vehicles.

September 2009

-Installed access barrier around public parking area on Three-top Mtn. GL.

-Performed routine depot, yard mowing, and site maintenance tasks.

-Mowed 1.5 miles of access roads and parking areas on BCGL.

-Retrieved tractor from vendor in Wilkesboro after repair was completed.

-Mowed one acre opening on Thurmond Chatham GL.
Mowed nine acres of openings on Perkins Game Lands.
Burned one acre of field crops on Perkins GL Dove fields.
Sprayed and planted eight acres of openings on Buffalo Cove GL.
Mowed fifteen acres of openings on Buffalo Cove GL.

(photo above is of a strip of sunflowers and cowpeas we planted on Thurmond Chatham Game Lands, in early September, bears discovered the sunflowers and soon thereafter it looked like the area had been bombed as the bears visited the 2 acre patch and devoured the sunflowers, once the bears had eaten all the sunflowers, they left and the deer moved back in to feast on the cowpeas)
-Routine office work, purchasing, and reporting.
Crew attended Regional meeting in Marion.

-Trapped 38 wood ducks and banded 32 with new bands.
Prepared and submitted banding records to waterfowl Biologist.

-Performed scheduled maintenance of three highway vehicles.
Obtained spare tires and parts for 3 western Region Huntmaster trailers.

-Transported vehicle and two truck loads of NCWRC property from former employee’s residence to depot for storage.

What has The D-7 crew done lately? (April-June 2009)

April

Development of Clearings:
Cleared debris and expanded existing openings by one acre on Perkins GL.

Building Maintenance:
Performed routine depot and site maintenance tasks.
Worked on improvements to depot storage facilities.
Disposed of ½ ton of trash and recyclables.

Boundary Maintenance:
Unposted 1.1, and posted .6 miles of boundary on Three-Top GL.
Posted 2.6 miles of boundary on ALCOA GL in Davie County.

Maintenance of Public Use Facilities:
Mowed and cleaned up around monument site on Hunting Creek Waterfowl refuge.

Road and Trail Maintenance:
Cleared trees and debris from seven miles of administrative roads on TCGL.
Delivered 30 tons of aggregates for road drainage repair project on MRGL.
Cleaned 20 culverts on road system on TCGL.

Maintenance, Repair & Purchase of Non-Highway Equipment:
Performed repairs and maintenance on tractors and other motorized equipment.
Repaired seed drill, disc harrow, sprayer, planter, and other tractor implements.

Firebreaks:
Installed .4 miles of firebreaks on burn areas on Perkins GL.

Herbaceous Planting:
Planted 4.5 acres of firebreaks and other openings on BCGL.
Planted two acres of openings on TCGL.
Sprayed various herbicides on 14 acres of openings on TCGL.
Disked six acres on TCGL.

Tree and Shrub Planting:
Pruned eight apple trees on TCGL.

Vegetation Control:
Bladed and disked ½ acre of early successional openings on Perkins GL.

Planning, Coordination, Evaluation & Reporting:
Routine office work, purchasing, reporting and review of budget.

Miscellaneous State Funded Activities:
Crewmember attended medical appointment relative to workman's comp. injury.


May

Building Maintenance:
Performed routine depot and site maintenance tasks.
Disposed of ½ ton of trash and recyclables.
Completed project to waterproof depot storage facilities.

Maintenance of Public Use Facilities:
Cleared vegetation in campground and parking area at Basin Creek on TCGL.

Road and Trail Maintenance:
Spread 30 tons of gravel on MRGL access roads.
Delivered 45 tons of aggregates for road drainage repair project on MRGL.
Closed access road gates on MRGL and TCGL.

Maintenance, Repair & Purchase of Non-Highway Equipment:
Performed repairs and maintenance on tractors and other motorized equipment.
Repaired sprayers, Brillion planter, ATV disk, debris loader, and Huntmaster lift.

Herbaceous Planting:
Spread two tons of fertilizer on dove fields at Perkins GL.
Disked six acres in preparation for planting on TCGL.
Sprayed 7 acres of openings on TCGL.
Planted four acres on TCGL.
Planted ½ acre of field crops on Wilkes Depot property.

Tree and Shrub Planting:
Removed 35 tree shelters from trees and shrubs planted on TCGL.
Released eight mast producing trees from entanglement with kudzu on Perkins GL.

Vegetation Control:
Spot-sprayed for kudzu control in and around 8 acres of openings on Perkins GL.

Planning, Coordination, Evaluation & Reporting:
Routine office work, purchasing, reporting and review of budget.

Waterfowl Banding:
Investigated several wood duck trapping sites, began preparing trapping equipment.

Miscellaneous State Funded Activities:
Assisted herpetologists with survey for bog turtles in Wilkes Depot Bog area.


June

Building Maintenance:
Performed routine depot, yard mowing, and site maintenance tasks.
Disposed of ½ ton of trash and recyclables.

Maintenance of Public Use Facilities:
Mowed 1/2 acre in campground and parking area at Basin Creek, TCGL.
Mowed monument area at Hunting Creek Waterfowl Refuge.

Road and Trail Maintenance:
Spread 45 tons of aggregates for road repair on TCGL.
Blocked illegal ATV access onto TCGL.

Maintenance, Repair & Purchase of Non-Highway Equipment:
Performed repairs and maintenance on tractors, implements, and other equipment.
Prepared Huntmaster lift for use, instructed user, and inspected upon return.

Herbaceous Planting:
Spread 4500 lbs of fertilizer on openings on TCGL.
Spread 7 tons of pulverized limestone on openings on TCGL.
Sprayed 8 acres while planting openings on TCGL.
Planted 11.5 acres on TCGL.
Sprayed and planted one acre on Wilkes Depot property.
Mowed vegetation in 7 acres of openings on TCGL.

Vegetation Control:
Spot-sprayed invasive plants in and around 2 acre Mulberry Mill Bog site.

Planning, Coordination, Evaluation & Reporting:
Routine office work, purchasing, and reporting.
Crew attended regional meeting in Marion.

Waterfowl Banding:
Investigated and prepared several wood duck trapping sites and equipment.

Maintenance, Repair, and Purchase of Highway Vehicles:
Scheduled maintenance of highway vehicles.

productive forage plot on very dry ridge site

The game lands that we manage tend to have very little potential for "normal" agricultural management. Lets face it, if the land was suitable for farming or development, it would not be game lands. As a result, we are left to do what little agriculture we can on marginal sites that are scattered across the landscape. Here in D-7, almost all of our state-owned game lands are in mountainous and steep terrain, and as a result, some of the only opportunities we have for creating an opening are on ridgetops which are most often very rocky and dry with poor soils.

Here is an opening that we created a couple years ago on dry rocky ridge. Our first planting on this site was a fall planting of wheat and ladino clover which did OK through the fall, but mostly died out through the winter and never recovered as the site dried out the following spring. So we opted to replant to a mixture of sweetclover, timothy, and chickory on this site because these plants were the most likely to survive and produce forage for wildlife. This planting grew and established a fair stand despite extreme drought conditions during the 2008 growing season. Now in it's second season, this planting has received some good rains and is producing well.


The sweetclover is the taller plant with yellow flowers, chickory is the lower growing forb that looks kind of like a dandelion, and timothy is the grass with a compact, fine seedhead. All three can be seen in the photo above.

Look closely at the photo above and you can see that this sweetclover plant has been heavily browsed by deer, and judging from the trails and tracks, this plot has become a favored feeding area for many deer. I munched on a bit of the sweetclover myself and found it to be more palatable than most field forage crops, a bit of leaves in your salad would probably give it a slightly bitter, lemon-peppery taste. The field is also abuzz with thousands of bees and other insects attracted to the blossoms of the sweetclover, which in turn brings turkeys and grouse whose young depend on insects for a large part of their diet. Here is another view of this opening with plenty of blueberries and chinkapins in the foreground, the presence of these valuable mast producing shrubs is a direct result of our very effective prescribed burning program. You can also see some dead trees in the background resulting from a burn we conducted here two years ago.

Check out the bumper crop of blueberries (or huckleberries? can anybody tell me the difference?) we have on this site.

The soil on this site is quite acidic, as they are in almost all of our work area, blueberries love it, but sweetclover does not do well in acidic soils. We applied a good dose of pulverized limestone when we planted and after testing the soil, decided to apply another dose of lime recently(see below.)

THE D-7 crew wins MAJOR award!

THE D-7 Crew was recently presented the highly coveted first annual "GOLDEN ROCKET AWARD." This award was created by the waterfowl research folks to recognize the Wildlife Management Crew that captured and banded the most number of wood ducks during preseason banding efforts. Seventeen Wildlife Management Crews across the State competed hotly for this prestigious award. Through hard work, innovative techniques, superior "woodsmanship", and dedication to a military campaign style of operation, THE D-7 crew managed to emerge champions despite not being located in North Carolina's best wood duck habitat. Along with the trophy, THE Wilkes crew also received a .5% pay cut, higher insurance premiums, and loss of use of Work vehicles to travel from home office to depot to reward them for their initiative and inflexible fidelity to the Wildlife Commission.

Wes, Jim, Doug Howell (waterfowl biologist), and Mike.

The Wilkes County based crew captured and banded 226 ducks and 28 recaptures in July and August of 2008. On 21 summer mornings, crew members were up hours before dawn traveling to one or more of 22 remote sites located in six different counties in Northwest NC in order to band wood ducks. The crew employed a variety of electrically initiated rocket deployed and mechanically initiated entanglement and containment devices, and other traps in order to accomplish this important mission. Crew leader Jim Keepfer was quick to give credit to Mike Greene and Wes Duncan for their outstanding work, and to former temporary employee Tim Nixon, D-7 biologist Chris Kreh and CURE guru Johnny Riley for their help. Recognition is also extended to the many cooperating landowners who allowed the crew to hang out in their riparian areas.

The Wildlife Management Division presents other prestigious awards such as the Golden Dove, the Disdainful Turkeyfoot, the dumberer award, The bloody arm award, and others, but, among these, only the GOLDEN ROCKET has been officially declared a MAJOR award. Pictured below, among some of our trapping hardware and accouterments, is The GOLDEN ROCKET which, beside being the first MAJOR award is also the heaviest award ever presented in the history of the Wildlife Management Division. The award will reside in the well-stocked trophy display area in THE D-7 Wildlife Management Crew Depot until some other Wildlife Management crew manages to demonstrate the dedication, skill, fortitude, and luck needed to out-compete the incredibly talented Wilkes Crew (or until some major road construction, new gamelands boundary, or other project keeps them away from the creeks and rivers all summer.)

Propane tank songbird habitat

While checking the amount of propane we have left in our storage tanks here at our office after this past winter, I happened to find a bird nest under the cover of one of the tanks.
With camera in hand, I went back out to the tank for a few pictures. I first wanted to try to get a shot through the small opening in the cover of the bird nest inside. After positioning myself in front of the opening and framing the shot through the viewfinder on the camera, imagine my surprise when one of the parent birds flew out of the opening and all but hit me in the face! :) I did at least get a fairly decent look at the bird and comparing that with the nest structure and markings on the eggs I'm pretty sure that what we have here is the nest of a "Carolina wren" (Thryothorus ludovicianus).
A couple of intriguing facts about Carolina wrens:
* A pair bond may form between a male and a female at any time of the year, and the pair will stay together for life. Members of a pair stay together on their territory year-round, and forage and move around the territory together.
* The Carolina Wren is sensitive to cold weather, with the northern populations decreasing markedly after severe winters.

Carolina wrens are found in a wide range of habitats, from swamps to forests to residential areas and they generally require moderately dense shrub or brushy cover. They typically utilize cavity nests and the nest is a domed cup with a side entrance. The nest is usually bulky and made of bark strips, dried grasses, dead leaves, hair, feathers, paper, plastic, or string. They can be placed in tree cavities, vine tangles, dense branches, or other artificial sites such as a mailboxes (or in our case, a propane tank).


A link to a "Wikipedia" article on the Carolina Wren can be found HERE.