WEBVTT - Ep. 38: Ducks - Saving the Legacy of Green Tree (Part 2) 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:07.960 M you're riding a boat together, or you're you're walking 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:10.200 out to a place together, you're sitting in a blind together, 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:13.600 and the conversations can just continue while you're duck hunting. 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:18.279 On this episode of the Beargrease podcast, we're back in 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:22.880 the swamp in pursuit of understanding the cathedral of the 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:28.520 Mallard Duck Green Tree Reservoirs, or GTRs as they're called. 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:31.800 This is part two in the final episode in our 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:36.400 series on Arkansas duck hunting. We've explored the ancient Mississippi 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:40.080 Flyway and the unique culture of the water fowlers who 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:44.720 dedicated their lives to ducks. Get ready for some drama, 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:49.960 because the trees and the GTRs are dying. We'll talk 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:52.879 with Austin Booth, the director of the Arkansas Game and 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:57.520 Fish Commission, and waterfowl biologists Luke Naylor. Will look into 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:02.520 the complexity of conservation issues on public lands, which can 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:05.959 be slow to navigate, but in the end we'll hear 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:10.080 what the plan is to save these critical flooded bottom 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:14.520 land hardwoods. I really doubt you're gonna want to miss 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.200 this one. Do we want to to tell our green 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:19.200 kids what it was like to hunt by me to 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:21.959 or do we want to listen to them? Tell us 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:32.000 what it's like. My name is Clay Nukelem and this 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:36.119 is the Bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.560 but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, and where 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:44.399 we'll tell the story of Americans who lived their lives 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:49.760 close to the land. Presented by f HF gear, American 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:54.000 made purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed to 0:01:54.080 --> 0:02:11.240 be as rugged as the places we explore. Started when 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:13.640 I was nine and so this will be my sixth 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.320 or is my sixty four duck season. When I say 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:18.240 that to people, they just sort of look back at me, like, 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:20.600 wait a minute, what does that really mean? And he realized, 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:26.640 sixty four times you've done this. This is Mr Bobby Martin. 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.040 So you started hunting public land in Arkansas when you 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:33.880 were just a kid? Yeah, literally nine years old. First 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:36.320 time was you know, like a lot of kids. My 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:38.960 dad took me on the first trip and put me 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:41.200 on his back and hauled me across the rice field 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:45.200 and win Arkansas, and so all of my life I've hunted. Uh, well, 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:47.440 if there was a puddle of water in Arkansas with 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.280 a duck on it. I probably have hunted it. You 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.639 said your dad used to take you and leave you 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:56.160 over at BioMedia for a couple of days when you 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:58.480 were just a kid. Yeah. Actually, uh, you know, by 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.880 the time I was thirteen, myself in another hunting buddy, 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:04.040 and you know, we were just really kind of eating 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:06.960 up with it. After Christmas week, we're out of school. 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:09.240 So my dad would take us down and we'd hunt 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:11.120 on a Sunday morning and that he'd leave in the 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.240 afternoon and leave us there. We camped in a pup 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:17.440 tent and walked in hunting uh into an area that's 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:21.639 called Government Cyprus. Principally anybody around Arkansas by media, they 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:24.359 know exactly where I'm talking about. So we would be there, 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.040 and then about on Wednesday each during that week, he 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:30.359 would come in check on us and take us into Wabasek, 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.280 Arkansas to the laundromat so we could dry out whatever 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:37.200 was wet, and there was always something wet. But literally, 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.720 of course, that was the time when the things were 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:42.160 a little bit different. But you know, my parents had 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.560 a lot of trust and responsibility to have us out 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.440 there with twelve gay shotguns and theres a lot of 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.160 wilderness during that time. I can't tell you that we 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.920 didn't get lost. I know my parents loved me, but 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.840 I look back on and I'm thinking, wow, okay, but 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:58.200 a lot of trust they were, but they loved me 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.560 enough to know how good it was for me. And yeah, 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:03.680 that's where it really got my love and my passion going. 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.720 Mr Bobby is seventy three years old and is currently 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:12.480 a commissioner of the body which governs Arkansas Wildlife and 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.799 state owned lands, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Stories 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:20.000 like Mr. Bobby's are common in this part of the world, 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:24.000 and when it's this personal understanding, the passion is easier. 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:26.839 When a father carries his son on his back into 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:32.080 a wild place. Perhaps that ancient transportation method switches on 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:36.599 a gene for excessive focus on the travel to activity, 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.800 or perhaps the ability to mine out the nuance of 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:46.160 wild places unperceived by others. I'm in pursuit of understanding 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:49.799 the sector of American culture that has a cult like devotion, 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.920 fist pounding fervor in a hundred years of conservation replete 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:58.520 with some failures but also massive victories. The score keeping 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:02.760 isn't done by man end but by the ducks. We're 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:09.599 peering into the world of water fowlers. By Man's calculation system, 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:13.880 water fowlers have directly protected over fifteen million acres of 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.680 critical wetlands in North America. The waterfowl community has been 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:22.160 highly successful at protecting where ducks live, which has impacted 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:26.240 duck numbers. Since nineteen fifty five, the US Fish and 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.760 Wildlife Service has kept track of duck numbers on the continent. 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.839 In the nineteen seventies, waterfowl numbers were in decline, but 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:38.479 today our numbers are trending towards fifty year highs. There 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:41.960 is no doubt it's a hundred percent attributed to hunting 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:48.000 conservation groups, both state agencies and NGOs. No other group 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.800 on planet Earth does more for wildlife than hunters, and 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:55.240 where an animal has cultural value through sport hunting, it 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:59.840 and its habitat are protected. This isn't a political spin 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:04.600 or contrived through tinted lenses. Though we aren't perfect, our 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.280 message to the wider American community is clear. Give us 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:12.640 the space to manage wildlife and wild places through hunting. 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:17.440 It's working. The science backs us, But perhaps as important 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.839 as the science is that hunting runs thicker than blood 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:24.560 in the river's mountains and hollis of this country. I 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:28.640 continue to be amazed as I look into our American roots, 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.919 from the rich history of the Native Americans, connection to 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:36.160 the land, to the frontiersman. We are a nation of hunters, 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.520 and this is something to be proud of. The story 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:43.600 of Arkansas duck hunters and their desire to protect habitat 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:48.200 is just one small piece of a big story. In 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:51.719 this last episode, we talked about why Arkansas is known 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:54.719 as the duck hunting capital of the world. It was 0:06:54.720 --> 0:07:00.680 a combination of multiple things, but primarily geography. Here's world 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:05.159 champion duck caller jimbo ron Quest recapping a few things 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:11.000 for us. You just look at the land, so you 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:13.680 start way back. Ducks used all the river bottoms, so 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:15.880 used to buy me to basin, the Cash River, basin, 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:17.920 the White River bation. And then when we had the 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:21.280 advent of rice on the ground, which become a surrogate wetland. 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:23.520 Once they started planting rice and there are the nineteen 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.440 hundreds and ducks started finding it. This area started getting 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.200 well known where farmers would say, come go shoot these ducks. 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.600 I'll buy you shells. Just keep ducks out of my rice. 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.360 You know that literally happened for some time. The combination 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:36.720 of all the hardwood bottoms in h and all of 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:39.120 our river systems is that all comes together and flows 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.880 towards the Mississippi. It just kept tightening up, tightened up, 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.800 and we had great habitat and great natural food sources. 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.560 And then we added to that with the advent again 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.720 rice production, now corn milow. Whatever people are playing on 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:55.160 food plug. I love it when natural systems do what 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.960 natural systems do. And just like this morning, you and 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.360 me or sitting in a duck hole over here watching 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:04.559 ducks fly by, and you can't push them too hard 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:07.240 to go somewhere they don't want to go. They're gonna 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:11.160 go where they want to go, and that is Arkansas. 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.200 I may be biased about my home state, but Mallard 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:21.280 ducks have used the Mississippi Flyway, the most used flyway 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:24.440 in North America, to come here by the millions since 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:26.720 the end of the last ice Age. It has to 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.760 do with the geography of rivers and continental drainage, agriculture, 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:35.160 and US having the largest stands of green tree reservoirs 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:38.760 in the United States. From the duck hunting side, Arkansas 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:42.640 is the capital because of what duck hunters call hunting 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:45.600 in the timber. I'm new to duck hunting, but it 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.959 didn't take me long to learn two things. Mallard ducks 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:53.280 are the king, and hunting flooded timber is the rolls Royce, 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:57.880 the flashy mule, the cast iron skillet corn bread of 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:03.800 duck hunting. But we need to establish why. Here's Sean Weaver, 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:08.480 me eaters duck guru, talking about hunting in the timber. 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:13.960 Coming from the outside into duck hunting, you just feel 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:16.679 like the goal of duck hunting is to kill as 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.240 many ducks as you can. Whether you kill those ducks 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:21.199 on the edge of a field, or whether you kill 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:23.640 those ducks on a river, or whether you kill those 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.240 ducks and flooded timber, you would not, intuitively, just from 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.880 the outside be able to say which one is more coveted, 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:35.000 has more value, and it's cooler wise, hunting ducks and 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:39.120 timber so special. Yeah, you raise a interesting point there. 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:41.559 For a lot of people, it's actually not just a 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.520 numbers thing. It's not just how many ducks you can kill. 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:48.000 It's not just shooting your limit. It's how you kill them. 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:50.880 And for example, if you go hunt a pit in 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:53.760 a rice field, those ducks don't always finish right. They 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:57.720 might kind of hang above the decoys at thirty yards 0:09:57.760 --> 0:09:59.880 and give it a real good look, but not be 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.720 back pedaling feet down over the decoys. And yet they're 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:06.880 still in shooting range and you get to shoot those ducks. 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:10.040 But for a lot of guys, especially guys that really 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.560 kind of have the game figured out, they would rather 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:15.920 take just a few ducks a day feet down, hovering 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:19.920 over the decoys and knowing they've got them fooled, really fooled. 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.200 That matters more than just the number. And to shoot 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:25.360 ducks in the timber, it's kind of an all or 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.560 nothing proposition for the ducks. They're either gonna stay up 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:32.640 above the trees and screw around, spinning around, working but 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:37.200 not fully committing. But once they've come down through that canopy, 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:40.960 they're committed. They've made their decision, and you have fooled 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.280 them at that point. And I think that the fact 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:46.319 that when you're shooting ducks in the timber, they're usually 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:50.079 fluttering around feet down is a big value to a 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:52.800 lot of people and why it's so coveted to do it. 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:59.040 Here's jimbo on why the timber is special. I've noticed 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:01.520 lots of these guys just get a little tongue tied 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:06.360 when they talk about it. And it's the it's how 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:09.520 they really explain it. But it's the kind of a 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.000 funky word to use for it. But it's the intimacy 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:15.400 of it. It's it's it's your inclose. You're standing against 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:18.240 a tree. But I've had it for ducks, like you 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.280 can just almost grabble and you're calling and and there, 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:23.120 you know, you know, today, lots of times I'm ducks, 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.120 the ones that we've finished, they'd come right on top 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:28.720 of that because looking for that call, you know, and 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:30.679 then you have to get him a look for the decoys, 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.680 and and just the fact that that's what they're doing. 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:42.840 You know, they're coming looking for you. The last episode, 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:45.520 we introduced the new director of the Arkansas Game and 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:50.360 Fish Commission, Austin Booth, as a lifelong public land duck hunter. 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:54.199 He's just like these other guys, a bit at a 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:59.520 loss for words. It is almost impossible to explain it. 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:02.040 There's no than like it. There's absolutely nothing like it. 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:06.679 I was raised in Lonoke County, went to college out 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.640 of state, and basically left the state four or fifteen years, 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.960 but I always came back during duck season and I 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:16.120 would explain to people that have never hunted timber before 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:18.960 that ducks land in the trees and they look at me, 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.720 and you're just supposed to know that that's really, really special. 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:25.120 And no, they wouldn't believe me that I know. They don't. Yeah, 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.120 they do. They say, you mean you're standing in the 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:29.800 woods and a bunch of water and ducks will land 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:33.080 down into the trees into the water. Said, yes, they 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:35.640 wouldn't believe me. I had the opportunity to bring people 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:40.480 to Arkansas to watch them. Watched timber hunting for the 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:44.440 first time, and there's nothing else like it. When those 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:49.440 ducks can see your decoys from eight hundred a thousand 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:51.920 feet in the air and they come down at a 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:56.280 sixties seventy eight degree angle, wings cup through the limbs, 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.559 and when they're inside the canopy from you, you're you're 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:01.400 just so close to him that you can hear their 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:04.400 feet dragging through the wind, you can hear their feathers 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:07.040 cutting through the wind. To be that close and have 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:09.320 that close of a connection where a cred are so 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.520 hot up in the sky, there's just nothing like it. Inside. 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:19.240 As hunters, we cherish the very fleeting moments before we 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:21.840 take game. If you, if you think about deer hunting 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:25.040 like we think about big white tail bucks, the amount 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:28.240 of time that I have spent in the presence of 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.640 a big wild white tail buck is actually a very 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.840 miniscule amount of time. And that moment is what you 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:38.560 remember for so long, this animal, this majestic animal that 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:41.800 you're after in his natural environment, unaware of your presence, 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:44.960 and you as a as a predator, in all the 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.240 work that's gone into that moment, being ready and knowing 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.720 that the moment of truth is is now. That's what 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:55.280 it feels like. There is something very special about watching 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:59.760 these birds and then convincing them to commit to your decoys. 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:02.280 But what I what I wouldn't have known, is that 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:06.760 these ducks actually coming through the limbs of these trees 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.880 and the way that the aeronautics of what they do. 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:13.520 That's what gets the duck hunter flipping out. That's right, 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:16.719 because they do all kind of wild stuff when they 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:20.520 come in, and it's just it's the culmination of everything 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:25.680 we know. Mallards are the king, but mallards in the 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:29.560 timber is the king on his throne. I want Austin 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:33.440 to define that throne for us. What is a green 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:39.480 tree reservoir? A green tree reservoir is a reservoir of 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:44.480 bottom one hardwoods. So so think a predominance of red 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:48.680 oaks that is naturally at a lower point in elevation 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:52.400 where it's a natural drainage point. The word okay, so 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:54.960 that you've established why it's called green tree because it's 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.320 living trees, primarily oaks, is what we're interested if we're 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:00.880 talking about ducks, but it's a res of ore. It's 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:03.960 it's holding water at different times of the year naturally 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:08.680 in the flood stages of these rivers. Correct green tree 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:13.200 reservoirs GTRs or what makes this place special. It's important 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:16.520 to understand that there are two reasons timbered areas would flood. 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:20.680 The first would be an active nature or just natural flooding, 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:26.000 the second being man induced flooding by the building of levies. So, 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:29.040 after the turn of the twentieth century, rice production in 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:33.640 the Arkansas Delta took off. Farmers cleared large amounts of 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:37.320 bottom land timber and planet agg crops, lots of it 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:41.560 in rice ducks loved the rice, but it also concentrated 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:45.360 ducks into the timber that remained, and duck hunters took 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:49.760 notice of the old Mallard's affinity for acorns in the timber. 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.480 Here's Luke Naylor, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commissions lead 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:57.400 waterfowl biologist. He's gonna tell us about the first intentional 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:00.720 flooding of hardwood timber in Arkansas, which took place in 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:04.960 nineteen They talked about the first one being a guy 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.760 in the name of Tindal in Arkansas County, and he 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:11.200 ring levied a bunch of trees to hold water to 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:14.920 to irrigate rice. We know that irrigation reservoirs are critically 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:17.960 important and being added to the landscape even today to 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.680 to irrigate rice during the summer using surface water, and 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:25.000 so these folks were experimenting with that way back ninety 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.200 years ago. Let's just let's just levy up that chunk 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.880 of woods over there, and the woods historically would have 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:35.520 been temporary, and so you would have had these situations 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:39.880 where you know, ducks use those areas when they flooded, 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:44.920 mostly naturally the period of time, a short period of time, 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.160 maybe not every year, almost certainly not every year, depending 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:52.560 on the elevation, And so then you get people early 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.680 hunters and and see that Okay, wait a minute. With 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.840 these woods flood, the ducks get in it, and that's 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.400 really off them because we get to go we get 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:03.200 to go hunt the ducks in the woods, and that's 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:06.800 really cool. So then they start seeing, Okay, we're gonna 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:10.080 build a reservoir here to flood our rise in the summer. 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.840 And wow. Uh so we've kept this thing flooded for 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:15.720 a couple of years in a row, and the ducks 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.040 are in it all the time now in the winter. 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.720 So okay, let's put two and two together here. Keep 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.399 doing this. Yeah, let's keep doing this, Let's keep providing. 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:26.520 Let's keep flooding these areas on a regular basis, because 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:28.600 when they flood, we shoot ducks. When they're dry, we 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.760 don't shoot ducks. Let's fix that. Just human nature at work. 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:34.399 Then that kind of led us to to where we 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:38.720 are now with this whole notion of consistency in well 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.439 and that and that. Over the course of decades and 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:47.080 generations of people, it builds in a idea of what's 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.440 normal it is in human nature, and we love consistency 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:57.399 but basically, nothing in nature is consistent. Nothing in nature 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:01.480 is consistent, and that's an important phrase to remember. As 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:04.400 is common demand, people began to find ways to get 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:09.479 around nature's inconsistency, and building water holding infrastructure that allows 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:13.040 large tracts of land to be flooded and drained was 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.280 the ticket. It's important to know that both private and 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:21.040 public land have water holding infrastructure, but the Arkansas Game 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:25.040 and Fish Commission manages over fifty thousand acres of it 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:29.879 on forty different GTRs. All this was great, but about 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:36.520 twenty years ago we started to notice a problem. We 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.040 wanted to hold water. We wanted to hold water to 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:43.600 make the sixty days of duck season more predictable. We 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:47.520 wanted to have water on the trees well enough before 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:50.399 the duck season started, when the ducks could enjoy it 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.320 and understand what they could eat there. The problem with 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:55.720 that is when we put the infrastructure in place, we 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.400 just didn't know a whole lot about tree dormancy. When 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:04.040 water or stands on on trees, that's generally a bad thing. 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:06.960 Now they can take it when the trees are dormant. 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:09.360 I tell people treats don't have a calendar. They don't say, 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:12.480 all right, it's November fifteenth, time for us to go dormant. 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:16.200 It's based a lot of soil temperature, air temperature, individual 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.639 climate of that that year. When we put water on 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:22.640 the trees artificially and those trees aren't dormant yet, then 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:25.159 that's putting a lot of stress on the trees. We 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:27.440 kept doing this for for years and years and years 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:30.760 and years, and then about you know, ten twenty years ago, 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:34.600 we started seeing some pretty troubling signs and it was 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:38.280 declining timber el and it happened predominantly trees. Trees were dying, 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:44.240 and it was predominantly for two reasons. One because we 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:48.240 were we were putting water on them artificially too. It 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:51.480 was because of increased rainfall. We had a rain event 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:56.320 this year two one the first week of June and 0:19:56.520 --> 0:20:00.359 uh D Shay County in southeastern Arkansas got nineteen inches 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.960 of rain in thirty six hours. That same rain event, 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.080 when it hit by met a wildlife inchment area, it 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:09.120 took us about six weeks to get the water off. 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.320 Not only is our infrastructure outdated, not only have we 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:17.240 been artificially putting water on, but we've just been getting 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:21.480 more rainfall than our infrastructure was ever intended to handle. 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:26.920 So the issue of standing water on tree roots, which 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:29.640 is natural in this part of the world, is compounded 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:34.280 by artificial flooding and unprecedented rainfall in recent years on 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:36.840 the White River, which is a major river in the 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:42.040 Arkansas Delta. Of its twenty five highest recorded crests, ten 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:45.760 have happened in the last eleven years. Think about that 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:49.720 for a minute. The current trend is massive amounts of 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:53.879 rainfall in short periods of time. This makes things tough. 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:59.640 Here's Luke. Yeah, So we've we've been managing these systems 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:03.760 in a in an artificial way for about fifty years, 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.280 let's say, on average. And what I mean by that 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:08.879 is that these areas when we talked about, you know, 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:11.840 a hundred fifty years ago, would have been periodic flooding, 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:18.640 unpredictable flooding, variable flooding, and we've provided fairly consistent flooding 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:22.040 in these areas, which has led to several different different 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:24.159 issues we have. These forests are made up of a 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:27.399 bunch of different species, which is mainly talking about trees now, 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:31.040 and different species of trees that have different water tolerances. 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:34.000 Even in these swamps. Even in these swamps, trees have 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:37.800 different they're highly adapted to it, but they're adapted to 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:43.240 different hydro periods, different durations and timing of flooding, and 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:47.359 we've altered that by generally flooding earlier than Mother Nature 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:49.359 would have flooded these So they usually would have flooded 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:53.160 in the wintertime and through the spring winter through spring. Yeah, 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:56.920 through March April. We can think about this landscape. The 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:00.399 driest months of the year for us are typically September, October, 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:04.240 and through part of November. Our management has attempted to 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:06.920 flood these areas for opening day a duck season, which 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:10.080 had been the Saturday before Thanksgiving for years and years 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.680 and years, So kind of a mismatch with the normal 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:17.280 rainfall period in this area. Would it be safe to 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:21.800 say from December through April would have been the typical 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:24.840 flooding period for this part of the world. Likely, yes, 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:29.240 December through April, and they would have probably these areas 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:32.680 would have started to drop in in late February after 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:35.960 spring migration to ducks, and then you're gonna get inevitable 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:39.520 big spring thunderstorms right the broad water in the things 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:41.600 that pulse up, but they'd fall out a few days. 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:43.800 And we look at trees and when some of these 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:47.200 bottom and hardwood species break dormancy, a lot of these 0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:51.679 don't break bud until March or April, which long behold. 0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:54.159 That lines up pretty well when these areas would have 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:57.919 been mostly dry, but maybe a few day flood event 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:01.320 that came and went moving while the entire time, we 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:05.119 think that means oxygenated water, so something that these trees 0:23:05.119 --> 0:23:10.400 are highly adapted to. Unlike early fall flooding October November flooding, 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:13.160 trees are not gone dormant. They've still got green leaves 0:23:13.520 --> 0:23:16.080 down here exactly. Temperatures are warm, and we end up 0:23:16.080 --> 0:23:19.680 with stagnant water. So for fifty years we've added at 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:23.280 least an extra month or month and a half about 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:26.880 that of water on these trees. It's and it's killing them, 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:30.040 and it really it just all boils down to variability 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:32.879 and the lack of it. We we managed for a 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:37.679 lack of hydrologic variability for a lot of years. So 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:40.480 what what I heard to say earlier is that natural systems, 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:44.320 they all seem to be very unpredictable, and so that 0:23:44.440 --> 0:23:47.480 is their system. The system is designed to be unpredictable. 0:23:47.560 --> 0:23:50.360 So this thing floods this year but not next year. 0:23:50.560 --> 0:23:52.879 This year it flooded in the winter but not in 0:23:52.920 --> 0:23:55.680 the spring. And that pattern, even though it doesn't it's 0:23:55.680 --> 0:24:00.520 not really a pattern, produces what those trees be his need. 0:24:01.280 --> 0:24:04.000 So the consistency that man came in and put on 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:06.600 it is what's hurting them. Yeah, variability is the pattern. 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:13.199 Natural systems have mastered the art of finding equilibrium in 0:24:13.280 --> 0:24:16.840 ways that are impossible for the human mind to comprehend. 0:24:17.600 --> 0:24:22.640