Good Luck

Our temporary worker of the past two seasons finished his time with us today. We all hope that since he finally has his required two years of experience now that he will be able to get on permanent with one of our crews throughout the state. Thanks for your hard work and dedication Shane! And good luck in the future.

Depot pictures

Pictures of the Wilkes Wildlife Management Depot.

Burning on Perkins

Perkins game lands are our eastern most game lands in District 7. It is Duke Power land that is leased for the game lands program. We mainly manage this game land as a place for dove hunting but other game is also abundant there including, but not limited to, deer, turkey, and quail. We maintain 20 some acres of dove fields each year, as well as, patches and other openings of native warm season grasses.

We also occasionally get to do some pine understory burning, which is what we conducted this past week. This burn was done on about 25 acres of a mature loblolly pine stand. Since this was an understory burn, we did not want the fire "hot". This meant that the firing technique we used was a backing fire. Backing fires are lit on the upwind side of the burn and the wind is used to force the fire to slowly "back" thru the burning block. Occasionally, some "stripping" is/was needed to help the fire along. On this particular burn, we dropped some "spot fires".

Also, since we did not want the fire to burn very hot, we began the prescribed burn later in the evening as the humidity was going back up. This helped us to attain the results we were looking for and also meant that the burn would go on into the night.
Here is a video of the fire backing it's way thru the stand.


We would like to thank the Morganton wildlife management crew (pictured here is Chip, Jason, and Brian) for their willingness to assist us with this burn!
The burn did last into the night. Night burning allows us to see exactly how the fire, and more importantly, the ash and embers react to the wind.It is amazing to actually see the "ash" that you can't see in the daytime.Here, Mike and the Mule ATV are illuminated.

Photo Plots
Photo plots are used to help us see the progression of the burning cycles. Photos will be taken over a period of time to see the effects of the fire on the understory in this particular case. Here are a few examples of some photo plots before and two days after the burn.





We will take other photos in the future to see the changes over time. It's only been a couple of weeks since the burn and it already looks differently in the burning block.

This burn concluded our prescribed fire season for this year. Now it's time to begin planting!

Burning on the South Mountain Game Lands

A few weeks ago we went down to Rutherford County and assisted, along with other crews from the region, the Morganton crew with a prescribed burn on the South Montain game lands.
Chip, the Morganton crew leader, stands watch while the fire slowly backs thru this cutover section.

And here, Mark, the crew leader of the Waynesville crew, takes care of some fire that is creeping into the firelane.

Later on, Mark got a torch and was lighting the fire. When he got to this spot we had to watch carefully as it began throwing alot of heat and smoke over the firelane.


Meanwhile, the guys watching the other side of the fire on the upper firelane had their hands full with multiple spotovers. Two dozers were running constantly trying to get other firelanes installed to stop the fire that had gotten "out". Luckily they were able to do so and the spotovers were contained.

From where we were it was easy to see why they were having problems on top. Tis fire was burning hot and it was putting up an amazing amount of smoke, so much so that I couldn't get it all in one picture!

It didn't take long and we hit a spot on our firelane where the wind began throwing embers below the line and we started getting spotovers of our own. You can see the road which served as the firelane at the top of the picture. The burn was above the firelane and as you can obviously see, it got below it. We were able to get it out fairly quickly.

Even with the few spotovers, it was a very successful burn!

Pond Removal Project (2)

The second day of the project began by firing up the pump again to get the water level down even further.
It didn't take long to get the water down as low as we could get it with the pump.


Most of this second day consisted of moving earth. Jay had to dig down and build himself a "pad" so he could maneuver the trackhoe to a lower level to enable him to reach down deeper. Many, many tons of dirt had to be removed, so we began to stockpile the dirt a short distance away from the pond site.
Once Jay completed the pad it was time for him to move down lower to try to reach the existing blocked culvert. This meant the dirt he then dug was placed where he was previously sitting.

After enough dirt was moved, he came back up to the upper level to load the trucks again. After several trips doing this and moving around to try to dig deeper, a small mishap occurred.

The trackhoe was stuck! It wasn't a bad problem however. We simply used the dozer to winch the hoe back out. You can see the dozer's winch cable in the video.


Day 2 was a very productive day and we were able to get alot of dirt moved and were much closer to placing the new culvert, which will be posted in the future.

Pond Removal Project

Due to a dam problem on one of our ponds on the game lands, we were tasked with the duty of removing the pond. Work began about 3 weeks ago.

After meeting with representatives from other "in-agency" divisions, a plan was formulated to address this problem. The water would have to be drained from the pond so we could get equipment in to dig down to the old culvert, it would have to be removed, and a new, larger culvert installed.


As you can see, there is quite alot of water coming down out of this watershed. Not only do we need to drain the pond, but we have to have a pump that is capable of keeping up with this kind of flow. So, Mike and Jim made a trip to the Butner Wildlife Management Depot to pick up one of their pumps.

The pump had to be backed into the pond and it's 12 inch diameter discharge hoses hooked up. With a pump this size, it didn't take long for the water level to start dropping. By the end of day 1, and after moving the pump multiple times, about half of the pond had been drained.
We were assisted in that first week by Jay Glenn(boating tech. II) and John Macemore(boating tech. supervisor) from our Engineering Services division of the Wildlife Resources Commission. Once the pond had been drained to it's current level, Jay was able to "breach" the existing dam down to the water level so it would continue to flow out at the level we had pumped it down to so the pump wouldn't have to run over night.

After a nice long 12 hour first day on the project, we were all more than ready to head home.

This particular project proved to take longer than any of us had expected and there is much more to tell and show you. Check back later for more updates on this project.

Duck boxes

We have finished cleaning/checking/installing new duck boxes at Hunting Creek. The majority of the boxes we cleaned on this particular day were out on open water.
You may be able to see some eggs floating in the water. These indicate an unsuccessful nesting attempt.

A successful nest will have obviously hatched eggs in it but we also look for egg membrane. Shane holds up a membrane from this successful nest.

Some of the boxes were in need of some maintenance. This pair of boxes had an osprey nest on top of them and one of the boxes was upside down.

We also installed some new boxes. A predator guard is installed on the post to keep other animals from being able to get into the nest and eat or destroy the eggs. Mike and Jim install the guard on the new post.

Once the guard is in place it's time to mount the box.
Click the play button to watch the video.

Three brand new boxes were installed including this one that was placed on a cedar tree in the edge of the water.

Once all the new boxes were installed and existing boxes were checked and cleaned for the upcoming nesting season, we loaded up all of our gear and made our way out to the trucks with Shane catching a ride on the canoe caboose!

Burning has begun

Last Thursday officially began our prescribed burning season. We use fire as a management tool to help us attain land management goals. Fire helps to create plant and animal habitat throughout our district, our state, and the United States. Burning helps us to change the makeup of the habitat to achieve varying objectives.

A brief history

Here in western North Carolina, the Cherokees manipulated their environment by using controlled burning to clear farmland and give hunters easier access to game. Some have even theorized that the burning helped create the distinctive, treeless southern Appalachian balds. In any case, the burning did enrich the soil and encourage certain species, such as pines and nut- and acorn-producing trees. Early North American settlers observed these activities and continued the practice of using fire in much the same way.

Our first burn of the year was conducted on the Buffalo Cove Game Lands located mostly in western Caldwell County. Our crew was assisted by the Burnsville and Morganton wildlife management crews as well as our regional forester and assistant forester.



While not a large burn, it was a good "warm up" for refreshing us on procedures and also to make sure all equipment was in proper working order.


Once the line is blacked in, it is patrolled to watch for any spot-overs.


After the burn has been completed we go around to "mop up". We go completely around the burn and extinguish anything still burning or smoking within 50 feet of the fire line. Here Shane puts out a smoldering root ball.

And during a long day, a quick rest is always welcomed!

Hunting Creek Swamp

We've been down to Hunting Creek Swamp to maintain our wood duck boxes. We clean out all the old nesting material from last year, check for the presence of successful nesting, and insert new nesting material (we use cedar shavings). More information can be found on this species by clicking on wood ducks.

We have boxes on open water, boxes bordering the edge of the water, and boxes along Hunting Creek itself. Here Shane gives Mike a ride thru the thick trees that have encroached on some of our border boxes while Jim trims some of the trees and limbs back to discourage use by squirrels and raccoons.


We checked the boxes after a weekend of heavy rain. Consulting websites, we could see that Hunting Creek had a huge influx of water just prior to when we were down there. Once there, we could see for ourselves just how high the water had gotten. The ground was covered with a layer of fresh mud, and as you can see in this picture, the water had gotten up amazingly high.

Notice the "high water" mark on these trees. You can see a thin brown line on the tree in the foreground. I went and stood beside this mark and it measured to about 5 feet! The water had definately gotten WAY UP!