Sportfish and Pond Management
Each year Alabama anglers spend an estimated $835 million on fishing and fishing-related activities, much of this money going to rural areas. The recreational fishing industry has a dramatic impact on Alabama’s economy. Ponds can provide recreational pleasure for landowners. A farm pond is not a creation of nature with its own set of checks and balances. The pond owner must provide the management to carefully monitor the fish populations for continued successful harvesting.
It is important to understand how ponds work in order to have a productive pond. Good pond management requires enhancing food availability for fish, controlling harvest to maintain a balance of predator-prey populations, weed control, preventing situations that cause fish kills, and maintaining good water quality.
The cornerstones of healthy fish populations are proper location and construction, fish selection and stocking, removal of undesirable or overpopulated fish, liming and fertilization, harvesting and record-keeping, pond balance, and aquatic weed control.
Stocking ponds correctly is important. Experts at The Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries say that the best choices for stocking Alabama farm ponds are bluegill, largemouth bass, and redear sunfish. The protocol for stocking a pond that will be fertilized is 1,000 bream (bluegill and redear) and 100 largemouth bass per surface acre. Ponds that will not be fertilized will receive half of this amount. The beauty of the largemouth bass-bluegill system is its simplicity. In a well fertilized pond, zooplankton and insect larvae will be plentiful enough to supply food for young bass and all sizes of bluegill. Bluegill grows rapidly and reproduces repeatedly throughout the spring and summer. The bluegill provides bass with an abundant food supply. With proper harvest techniques, the bass will grow rapidly and prevent bluegill from overcrowding the pond. Channel catfish can be added to the largemouth bass-bluegill pond. However, catfish compete with bass and bluegill for natural foods and lower the number of bass and bluegill caught. If catfish are added, the recommendation is 50 per acre in a fertilized pond or 25 per acre in a non-fertilized pond. Species that should not be stocked into farm ponds include black and white crappie, gizzard shad, flathead catfish and bullhead catfish, common carp, and shiners. These species may rapidly overcrowd ponds and/or may reduce the populations of desirable fish species. Pond owners need to consult a qualified fisheries biologist if they stock these species.
Ponds should not be fished for at least one year following stocking. As a general rule, fertile ponds can sustain an annual harvest of 25 to 35 pounds of bass per acre. If the pond is infertile, no more than 10 pounds of bass should be removed per year. Bluegill should also be harvested. A general rule is to remove 10-15 bluegill for each bass taken, or 4 pounds of bluegill for each pound of bass. If the bass in the pond look stunted or have a weakened physical condition, the pond may be “bass-crowded” and the solution is heavy harvest of bass. Catfish should be restocked to replace those that have been removed. Catfish fry do not typically survive in ponds with bass and bream. In addition to managing ponds correctly, several other techniques can improve farm pond fishing. Stocking fathead minnows for forage, adding fish shelters, supplemental feeding, checking and adjusting water levels, aeration and mixing of pond temperature layers, and providing preferred spawning substrate are enhancement techniques. For more information, contact the Alabama Cooperative Extension System at www.aces.edu or The Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. (Managing Wildlife, Yarrow and Yarrow, 1999) (Sportfish Management in Alabama Ponds, Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources, 2003)
Monday, April 25, 2011
Timberland Update- April 2011- Housing Market Recovery and Timber Prices
The timberland investment community is watching the economy and the recovery closely. The close ties between new housing starts and the demand for pine sawtimber are obvious. The experts in the field of timberland investment and forecasting had some interesting information regarding the current state of the economic recovery as well as forecasting future growth rates. The recovery has been slow and there is no denying that fact. Experts agree that the future looks promising, which is encouraging. The forecast from Forisk show that the US South will see higher stumpage prices. Both the Forisk data and the data from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies show healthy growth for the housing market which has a direct impact on the timber market. “Increasing demand for wood raw materials indicates higher pine stumpage prices for forest owners and investors. Forisk Consulting forecasts sawtimber prices for the US South strengthening 4.6% into 2012 and 5.5% into 2013 as lumber production increases with housing starts. Alternately, pine pulpwood – the lower valued raw material used for pulp, OSB and bioenergy –gains 1.4% and 2.7% into 2012 and 2013 South-wide, with high variance across the 11 states covered in Forisk’s models.” (Mendell, http://landthink.com, March 10, 2011)
Dr. Kermit Baker of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies described the long term outlook as favorable. Dr. Baker states that the recovery has been very disappointing. He describes the “triple whammy: inventory overhang, weak demand, and low mobility” for homeowners and home buyers. Housing market fundamentals will slowly return to the long term growth trends. The housing market is currently overwhelmed by the “shadow inventory” of unsold homes. This shadow inventory is a result of years of overbuilding which has generated significant oversupply of vacant homes. Dr. Baker does support data that shows after a disappointing 2010, housing is projected to recover very gradually over the next few years. Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies says that new home demand should top 16 million in 2010-2020, even under low immigration assumptions. The market for residential remodeling has been more stable. The remodeling downturn began well after homebuilding and has seen healthy growth recently. The leading indicator of remodeling activity points to early stages of recovery and the growth rates look healthy for the next five years.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Turkey Management
Tips for Producing Top Turkeys
Turkey season is just around the corner, so it is time to talk about the best ways to increase your turkey population and protect the ones you have on your property. Turkeys need food, water, cover, and protection and will travel to find these necessities. During fall and winter, turkeys can be found in the woodlands where acorns and other mast crops are available. When spring arrives, turkeys will feed in open areas where green plants are starting to come up and insects can be found.
Managing your forest is important for your turkey population. Oak trees are vital to the wild turkey and leaving a variety of oaks is good for the turkey population. This variety ensures that turkeys will have an abundance of acorns from both red and white oaks. Other important mast-producing trees include dogwoods, pecan, and black gum and are good winter food supplies and also provide nutrients during years of oak mast failure. River bottoms, creek bottoms, and drains are good places to target mast production species. Landowners may replace less mast producing species like poplar, elm, gum, and cypress to upgrade the turkey habitat. Wild turkeys also need soft mast produced by dogwood, grape, wild cherry, huckleberry, blackberry, dewberry, and wild strawberry. These ensure a well-balanced diet for the wild turkey population. When harvesting is done, care should be taken not to harvest dogwood or wild cherry trees.
Mature pines and pine-hardwood stands are good turkey habitat. Pine plantations that are not too dense are the best choices for turkeys. This allows for ample food supply and cover. Mature pines that have fruit producing shrubs, broken up with small agricultural fields (particularly those with waste grain) or herbaceous fallow fields are also outstanding turkey habitat. If pine plantations are too dense, prescribed burning and thinning can open up dense stands to sunlight that enhances understory growth valuable for turkeys. Prescribed burning helps to increase the quantity and quality of the food supply and should be done every two to three years.
Turkeys require open areas to feed which include pastures, fields, cropland, orchards, logging decks, roadside, powerlines, gaslines, and other areas that provide a break from continuous woodland. These areas have green vegetation, seeds, and insects. Grassy areas have the highest concentration of insects, therefore turkeys prefer open areas. Possible plantings include greenfield combinations such as wheat, clover, vetch, summer grasses, sorghum, corn, millet, or chufa. Turkeys also like corn fields and bean fields. For wild turkeys, having clean borders around the cropland is a wasted space that should be converted into winter grazing or cover. This practice is also beneficial for other wildlife species including quail.
Supplemental plantings can increase quantity and quality of food available for turkeys. The most favored plantings for turkeys is chufa, a nut sedge. Chufa does best on sandy loam soil on new sites or those recently cultivated. In wildlife plots of two acres or larger, chufa should be planted on part of the opening with the remainder planted in other turkey foods such as clover. Experts say that chufa should be planted between May 15 and June 30, when there is enough soil moisture for germination. Clover is another choice for supplemental planting. Ladino clover lasts longer and holds up better than the red or white varieties. Ladino clover performs best on fertile and silty loams, while crimson and white clover is more adaptable. The Tillman clover does best in places where others might fail, especially near the Gulf Coast. Planting a combination of crimson clover, vetch, wheat, or rye will also do well together. Bahia grass and clover can be planted together in early spring and provide a year-round food source for turkeys. Oats, wheat, and rye are good choices for turkey food plots. Grain, sorghum, millet, milo, and Egyptian wheat should be planted in strips because a dense stand may be too difficult for turkeys to traverse. These strips should be 3 to 4 feet wide, leaving 2 feet between rows to allow easy traveling. (Managing Wildlife, Yarrow and Yarrow, 1999)
The National Wild Turkey Federation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the wise conservation and management for the American Wild Turkey. More information regarding NWTF can be found on their website www.nwtf.com. For more information about Alabama turkey season and bag limits, visit www.outdooralabama.com.
Turkey season is just around the corner, so it is time to talk about the best ways to increase your turkey population and protect the ones you have on your property. Turkeys need food, water, cover, and protection and will travel to find these necessities. During fall and winter, turkeys can be found in the woodlands where acorns and other mast crops are available. When spring arrives, turkeys will feed in open areas where green plants are starting to come up and insects can be found.
Managing your forest is important for your turkey population. Oak trees are vital to the wild turkey and leaving a variety of oaks is good for the turkey population. This variety ensures that turkeys will have an abundance of acorns from both red and white oaks. Other important mast-producing trees include dogwoods, pecan, and black gum and are good winter food supplies and also provide nutrients during years of oak mast failure. River bottoms, creek bottoms, and drains are good places to target mast production species. Landowners may replace less mast producing species like poplar, elm, gum, and cypress to upgrade the turkey habitat. Wild turkeys also need soft mast produced by dogwood, grape, wild cherry, huckleberry, blackberry, dewberry, and wild strawberry. These ensure a well-balanced diet for the wild turkey population. When harvesting is done, care should be taken not to harvest dogwood or wild cherry trees.
Mature pines and pine-hardwood stands are good turkey habitat. Pine plantations that are not too dense are the best choices for turkeys. This allows for ample food supply and cover. Mature pines that have fruit producing shrubs, broken up with small agricultural fields (particularly those with waste grain) or herbaceous fallow fields are also outstanding turkey habitat. If pine plantations are too dense, prescribed burning and thinning can open up dense stands to sunlight that enhances understory growth valuable for turkeys. Prescribed burning helps to increase the quantity and quality of the food supply and should be done every two to three years.
Turkeys require open areas to feed which include pastures, fields, cropland, orchards, logging decks, roadside, powerlines, gaslines, and other areas that provide a break from continuous woodland. These areas have green vegetation, seeds, and insects. Grassy areas have the highest concentration of insects, therefore turkeys prefer open areas. Possible plantings include greenfield combinations such as wheat, clover, vetch, summer grasses, sorghum, corn, millet, or chufa. Turkeys also like corn fields and bean fields. For wild turkeys, having clean borders around the cropland is a wasted space that should be converted into winter grazing or cover. This practice is also beneficial for other wildlife species including quail.
Supplemental plantings can increase quantity and quality of food available for turkeys. The most favored plantings for turkeys is chufa, a nut sedge. Chufa does best on sandy loam soil on new sites or those recently cultivated. In wildlife plots of two acres or larger, chufa should be planted on part of the opening with the remainder planted in other turkey foods such as clover. Experts say that chufa should be planted between May 15 and June 30, when there is enough soil moisture for germination. Clover is another choice for supplemental planting. Ladino clover lasts longer and holds up better than the red or white varieties. Ladino clover performs best on fertile and silty loams, while crimson and white clover is more adaptable. The Tillman clover does best in places where others might fail, especially near the Gulf Coast. Planting a combination of crimson clover, vetch, wheat, or rye will also do well together. Bahia grass and clover can be planted together in early spring and provide a year-round food source for turkeys. Oats, wheat, and rye are good choices for turkey food plots. Grain, sorghum, millet, milo, and Egyptian wheat should be planted in strips because a dense stand may be too difficult for turkeys to traverse. These strips should be 3 to 4 feet wide, leaving 2 feet between rows to allow easy traveling. (Managing Wildlife, Yarrow and Yarrow, 1999)
The National Wild Turkey Federation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the wise conservation and management for the American Wild Turkey. More information regarding NWTF can be found on their website www.nwtf.com. For more information about Alabama turkey season and bag limits, visit www.outdooralabama.com.
Timber Market News, March 2011
I would like to share some interesting findings in a recent study by The Forest Research Group. This new study looked at the sharp increase in lumber exports from US markets to China. The study shows a tremendous increase in shipments of logs and lumber from the North American West Coast to China. The study looked at softwood log exports from Washington and Oregon where log volumes have increase from 1.5 MMBF (thousand board feet) in 2005 to 70.8 MMBF in 2009. That is an increase of over 4,300 percent. The numbers for 2010 are said to be higher but figures are not yet available from the source.
Softwood lumber exports to China show similar patterns. In general, logs from public forest in the western US and Canada cannot be exported. Since most timber in British Columbia is in public forest, Canadian exports are therefore mostly in the form of lumber, not logs.
What has caused the surge in exports? There are two contributing factors. The first is the collapse of US housing starts. The second is the log export tariff imposed by Russia which has caused a decrease in logs shipped from Russia to China.
These dramatic increases are impressive. What is even more exciting is that these numbers are not even at all-time highs! The good news is that the demand for lumber is going up and that is great news for timberland owners! China Exports in Perspective and US Lumber Hoisted by China Sales are two articles that give detailed graphs and information regarding the timber exports to China.
(Lutz, Jack. 2011, China Exports in Perspective, Forest Research Notes, Volume 7, Number 3.)
(Carlton, Jim, 2011, US Lumber Hoisted by China Sales, The Wall Street Journal, February 8, 2011)
Softwood lumber exports to China show similar patterns. In general, logs from public forest in the western US and Canada cannot be exported. Since most timber in British Columbia is in public forest, Canadian exports are therefore mostly in the form of lumber, not logs.
What has caused the surge in exports? There are two contributing factors. The first is the collapse of US housing starts. The second is the log export tariff imposed by Russia which has caused a decrease in logs shipped from Russia to China.
These dramatic increases are impressive. What is even more exciting is that these numbers are not even at all-time highs! The good news is that the demand for lumber is going up and that is great news for timberland owners! China Exports in Perspective and US Lumber Hoisted by China Sales are two articles that give detailed graphs and information regarding the timber exports to China.
(Lutz, Jack. 2011, China Exports in Perspective, Forest Research Notes, Volume 7, Number 3.)
(Carlton, Jim, 2011, US Lumber Hoisted by China Sales, The Wall Street Journal, February 8, 2011)
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