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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast, your guide to

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Speaker 1: the White Tail Woods presented by First Light, creating proven

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Speaker 1: versatile hunting apparel for the stand saddler blind, First Light,

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Speaker 1: Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon, and this week on the show, I'm joined

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Speaker 1: by Kyle Eibarger of the Native Habitat Project to explore

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Speaker 1: the potential for managing our dear properties with a holistic

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Speaker 1: native ecosystem focus. All right, welcome to the Wired to

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Speaker 1: Hunt Podcast, brought to you by First Light. This week,

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Speaker 1: on this show, we are wrapping up Habitat Month with

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Speaker 1: a bang and what I'd say, a bit of a

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Speaker 1: philosophical twist of sorts. Yeah, I'm gonna throw a curveball

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Speaker 1: at you here right at the end of our series,

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Speaker 1: because you know, that's what I'm here to do. I'm

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Speaker 1: here to surprise and delight and educate, and that's what

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Speaker 1: we have in store for you today as we've got

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Speaker 1: one more Habitat discussion for the month with our guest

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Speaker 1: Kyle Liebarger. Now, Kyle is an Alabama resident and hunter,

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Speaker 1: so shout out to tell you folks in the South.

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Speaker 1: He's a graduate from Alabama A and M with a

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Speaker 1: forestry degree. He's a consulting professional Forrester, the founder of

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Speaker 1: the Native Habitat Project, and a bit of a social

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Speaker 1: media video star. They call these kids TikTokers these days.

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Speaker 1: I think who's He's come to widespread notoriety by way

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Speaker 1: of these educational videos that he's sharing all across social

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Speaker 1: media about native plants and wildlife ecosystem management and restoration

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Speaker 1: and conservation. And he's someone who I've actually had a

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Speaker 1: number of different folks reach out to him and say, Hey,

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Speaker 1: you shou really talk to Kyle. You should talk to Kyle.

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Speaker 1: But just recently, somebody I really respect, a Forrester and

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Speaker 1: land manager and conservationist himself. This person reached out to

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Speaker 1: me and said that he sees Kyle, or he sees

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Speaker 1: in Kyle the beginnings of a young Craig Harper. And

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Speaker 1: if you don't know, Craig Harper is one of the

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Speaker 1: absolute foremost i mean, top of the line, top of

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Speaker 1: the top of the top educators and communicators about wildlife

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Speaker 1: habitat management. So that's a high compliment indeed. So that's

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Speaker 1: why I'm excited to have Kyle here, and it's also

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Speaker 1: because I think the topic we're going to discuss here

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Speaker 1: is a needed way to cap this month. You might

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Speaker 1: have noticed the past three weeks of discussion, there's been

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Speaker 1: a lot of chat. There's been a lot of focus

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Speaker 1: on hunting. You know. By that, I mean there's been

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Speaker 1: this very strong focus on how our habitat, projects, improvements, manipulations,

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Speaker 1: how they can make our hunting better, very tactical stuff.

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Speaker 1: You know, plant this plot in this kind of way,

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Speaker 1: it'll help you get a shot out of deer. Put

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Speaker 1: in this betting area in this kind of way and

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Speaker 1: this kind of size, you have a better chance than

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Speaker 1: an archer shot. Whatever it is, something like that, And

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Speaker 1: that's good stuff. It's fun stuff, it's helpful. I enjoy

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Speaker 1: it just as much as the nuts guy. But Kyle,

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Speaker 1: our guest today, wants us to consider more than just

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Speaker 1: hunting when we get to working on our properties. He

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Speaker 1: wants us to zoom out a bit and look at

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Speaker 1: the whole ecosystem, all the animals, all the plants, everything

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Speaker 1: in they're all tied together, and consider if we can

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Speaker 1: do more then just manipulate these places to kill more deer,

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Speaker 1: maybe we can restore and steward and create something that

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Speaker 1: has a far wider positive impact on the land and

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Speaker 1: creatures around us. That's our topic of conversation today. It's

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Speaker 1: why expanding our view of land management to focus not

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Speaker 1: just on deer, but on the goal of restoring the

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Speaker 1: entire native ecosystem is worthwhile and how we can each

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Speaker 1: do it. We talk native grasslands, pollinators, wildflowers, water quality,

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Speaker 1: food plot replaced, creating native food plot screens, timber management,

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Speaker 1: creating wildlife openings, and a whole lot more. Really, so, please,

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Speaker 1: if you listen to the first three episodes in our series,

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Speaker 1: please listen to this one too. I really think it

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Speaker 1: works as a perfect bow to wrap around this whole

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Speaker 1: month long series. You know, the ideas discussed across these

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Speaker 1: four weeks, they don't need to be considered separately or

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Speaker 1: as kind of an either or kind of decision. You

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Speaker 1: don't need to take you know what Bobby and Toby

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Speaker 1: said last week, and then take what Kyle's didn't tell

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Speaker 1: you today and choose between the two. It's my belief

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Speaker 1: that we can actually incorporate all of this different thinking

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Speaker 1: into a new amalgam in our own mold of what

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Speaker 1: we're trying to achieve and the things that matter to us.

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Speaker 1: We can, in my belief, improve our deer hunting and

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Speaker 1: manage for the entirety of the ecosystem. We can steward

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Speaker 1: native grasslands and still create great food plots. We can

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Speaker 1: have better deer hunting and also help birds and bugs

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Speaker 1: and quail and water quality and carbon secrustation and all

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Speaker 1: sorts of stuff like that. That's possible. So I'm very

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Speaker 1: excited about this discussion covering all of that kind of stuff.

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Speaker 1: But this brings me this kind of ties into another

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Speaker 1: topic I wanted to mention here and exciting. I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to stay exciting, but I'm combining within a word announcement

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Speaker 1: and exciting announcement that i want to share with you

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Speaker 1: about something I've been working on here for a while

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Speaker 1: and it's going to be kicking off in about a month.

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Speaker 1: Something I'm calling the Working for Wildlife Tour. You see,

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Speaker 1: there's all sorts of incredible events across the country put

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Speaker 1: on by states and conservation organizations that bring together hunters

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Speaker 1: and anglers to volunteer their time and efforts to improve

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Speaker 1: wildlife habitat restore ecosystems, clean trash, and so much more

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Speaker 1: generally in many different ways giving back to the public

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Speaker 1: lands and waters we love so much. So a lot

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Speaker 1: of what we've talked about over the past three and

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Speaker 1: a half now four weeks has been about how you

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Speaker 1: can do this kind of good stuff on private lands.

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Speaker 1: Well we can also do that kind of stuff even

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Speaker 1: if you don't AI on land. You can do this

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff on public lands and waters. And there's

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Speaker 1: all sorts of these events all over the place that

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Speaker 1: need volunteers, but they're slipping by under the surface without

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Speaker 1: a lot of attention and not as much participation as

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Speaker 1: they need. And I want to help change that. So

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Speaker 1: this year, with the Working for Wildlife Tour, we're going

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Speaker 1: to shine a spotlight on a bunch of these different

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Speaker 1: volunteer habitat days across the country. And as part of that,

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Speaker 1: I'm actually going to go out there and attend and

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Speaker 1: participate in these events myself, hopefully bringing along some of

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Speaker 1: my friends from Meetator and First Light to work on

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Speaker 1: improving our public lands and our waters. And I'm inviting

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Speaker 1: you to join me. You know, I talk to you

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Speaker 1: guys every week here on the show, as do a

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Speaker 1: bunch of other folks at Metator, but we rarely get

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Speaker 1: to connect with you, our community members, in person anymore,

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Speaker 1: and I want to help change that. So I'm excited

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Speaker 1: to meet a bunch of you at these habitat days.

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Speaker 1: I want to answer your questions, I want to hear

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Speaker 1: your stories, sign some books, give away some free stuff,

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Speaker 1: and then get our hands dirty together doing good stuff

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Speaker 1: for wildlife. And I do think from what I understand,

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Speaker 1: each of these volunteer events will be followed by some

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Speaker 1: kind of social shindig afterwards as well, So not only

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Speaker 1: are we going to work for wildlife, but we're gonna

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Speaker 1: have a good time and meet some like minded folks too,

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Speaker 1: So that's, you know, that's a win win as far

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Speaker 1: as I'm concerned. Now, the specific details for these events,

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Speaker 1: for each one of these events that are gonna be

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Speaker 1: part of the tour, that's still getting ironed out. We're

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Speaker 1: just about there, but I want to button up a

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Speaker 1: couple more things. But I can tell you we've got

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Speaker 1: events starting as soon as late March and running all

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Speaker 1: the way into October, and I'm gonna be visiting locations

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Speaker 1: as far east as Massachusetts and as far west as Idaho.

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Speaker 1: We're trying to cover just about each major region of

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Speaker 1: the country, so hopefully there's gonna be something that's within

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Speaker 1: a reasonable drive for all of you. I'll announce the

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Speaker 1: specific details for each of these individual events here on

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Speaker 1: the wire Hunt podcast, on social media, on the Mediator website,

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Speaker 1: and all those places, so stay tuned for the specifics.

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Speaker 1: But this is the basic gist. This is what I

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Speaker 1: want you guys to be getting ready for. I'm excited

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Speaker 1: it's almost time to hit the road do some work

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Speaker 1: for wildlife. And I do really believe this. I really

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Speaker 1: do believe that we each have this ability to give

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Speaker 1: back to these places and critters that we enjoy so much.

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Speaker 1: As hunters and anglers, we can make a difference. And

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Speaker 1: I'm just excited to go out there and do some

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Speaker 1: of that work right there alongside you. So I want

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Speaker 1: to meet you guys. I want to shake your hand.

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Speaker 1: I want to pick up some trash next to you.

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Speaker 1: I want to stack some brush, cut down some vases,

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Speaker 1: plant some trees. Who knows what I am looking forward

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Speaker 1: to it. So keep your eyes and ears peeled for

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Speaker 1: more on the Working for Wildlife Tour very soon, probably

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Speaker 1: as soon as maybe next week I'll have more and

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Speaker 1: I'm just excited, very very excited. So with out of

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Speaker 1: the way, let's get into this week's conversation. Let's wrap

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Speaker 1: up our month long Habitat series with my chat with

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Speaker 1: Kyle Liveburger. Here we go, all right now here with

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Speaker 1: me straight off of the Wild Turkey Convention extravagance that

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Speaker 1: just happened. We've got Kyle Liveburger from the Native Habitat Project.

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Speaker 1: How are you, Kyle? Oh? Doing good other than a

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Speaker 1: little bit horse from two days of talking nonstops. So

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Speaker 1: working working on get my voice back, but hopefully we'll

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Speaker 1: make it there this podcast without any problems. Did you

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Speaker 1: did you enjoy all that turkey talk? Oh? Yeah, no, man,

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Speaker 1: it's uh, that's that's that's my favorite thing to do.

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Speaker 1: And that's uh, that's probably why why they make content,

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Speaker 1: because my wife gets tired of hearing me talk about it,

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Speaker 1: and so it's nice to be around a bunch of

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Speaker 1: people who actually want to listen and uh hear about

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Speaker 1: that kind of stuff and have conversations. So it's a

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Speaker 1: it's a good man. Yeah, yeah, being around like minded

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Speaker 1: folks excite about the same things, that is that's a

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Speaker 1: recipe for a good time. And I guess that's why

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Speaker 1: I'm excited about today too, Kyle, because we're in the

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Speaker 1: midst of this. We're actually wrapping up our Habitat month

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Speaker 1: on the podcast. We've spent you know, all February talking

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Speaker 1: to people about different ways to manage habitat, to improve land,

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Speaker 1: to work the ground in one way or another, to

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Speaker 1: you know, help wildlife populations and deer hunting or any

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Speaker 1: of these other things that a lot of our folks

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Speaker 1: like to do. Um. But I'll be honest, a lot

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Speaker 1: of our focus this year, in this month has been,

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Speaker 1: you know, our guests have been pretty tactical, pretty hunting focused.

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Speaker 1: We've talked to a couple folks recently who take a

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Speaker 1: you know, a very strategic, tactical approach to doing stuff

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Speaker 1: like just to make the deer hunting better and and

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Speaker 1: that's something that you know a lot of people are

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Speaker 1: interested in. I've certainly learned a lot from it. I

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Speaker 1: find a very interest. But there's this other part of

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Speaker 1: the habitat topic that we haven't talked about as much

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Speaker 1: this time. We've talked about in previous podcasts with other people,

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Speaker 1: but this month it just hasn't been kind of the

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Speaker 1: It just hasn't been as prominent as some of our

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Speaker 1: other discussions. And so when I was thinking about who

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Speaker 1: I wanted to bring on to kind of close this

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Speaker 1: thing down and to wrap it up and tie a

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Speaker 1: bow on it, you came to mind, because your work,

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Speaker 1: especially how you've shared some of your philosophies and ideas

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Speaker 1: around managing native ecosystems, has really flourished and gained a

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Speaker 1: really strong following in social media. You've got a massive

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Speaker 1: following across Instagram, a TikTok, and your YouTube channel, all

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Speaker 1: these different places where folks have really found your message

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Speaker 1: to resonate with them, This message that you seem to

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Speaker 1: have around managing for native ecosystems, not just for one critter,

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Speaker 1: but really trying to bring back what was here, what

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Speaker 1: should be here, and what could be here in a

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Speaker 1: way that helps, you know, reach all sorts of different goals.

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Speaker 1: So that is a long winded way of saying, Kyle,

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Speaker 1: I'm curious to you or for you, why does this matter?

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Speaker 1: Why do native ecosystems matter to you? Why has this

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Speaker 1: become your life's work? And um, well I got a

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Speaker 1: short little story um back in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen,

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Speaker 1: I was I was in school for forestry with a

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Speaker 1: concentration of wild life. I was working for the state

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Speaker 1: Fish and Wildlife, and I had this hunting property that

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Speaker 1: I was managed. Is about forty acres and you know,

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Speaker 1: mostly timbered, and it had several small open spots. And

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Speaker 1: I tried to make those little open spots bigger by

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Speaker 1: cutting down a but just cedar trees. And this is

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Speaker 1: before I knew anything, before I knew most of my

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Speaker 1: native plants. And I went through. I spread the whole

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Speaker 1: place with glaifa say, to try to turn it into

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Speaker 1: a food plot. I even brought in trailer a trailer

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Speaker 1: load of like composts to try to build the soil up,

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Speaker 1: and that all washed away the first year. But the

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Speaker 1: next summer I was in there, I noticed where I

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Speaker 1: cut down those cedar trees. It was just like a

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Speaker 1: rainbow of color of just different plants that I had

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Speaker 1: never seen before. I mean, I was in forgery school.

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Speaker 1: I'd graduated forger school, and I had no idea what

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Speaker 1: these plants were. And I'd realized that's what used to

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Speaker 1: be on the interior of that field, and I had

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Speaker 1: killed it off. And try to make a food plot.

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Speaker 1: So I took what was you know, make a long

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Speaker 1: story short, after I took the time to figure out

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Speaker 1: what these plants were. I invited a botanist friend out

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Speaker 1: there with me, and he was just in awe of

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Speaker 1: what was there, tons of rare species, state listed species

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Speaker 1: county records that have never been documented in my county.

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Speaker 1: Before I realized that I had, I had sprayed and

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Speaker 1: killed off something that was better for wildlife and what

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Speaker 1: I was trying to plant there. And and man, that's

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Speaker 1: what I think. That's the moment that that kind of

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Speaker 1: flipped a switch, like, hey, maybe this is what I

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Speaker 1: should be managing for, and maybe these plants are what

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Speaker 1: I should be looking for on other properties. So as

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Speaker 1: I as I, you know, as I became a forester

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Speaker 1: and was working on a lot of private lands, I

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Speaker 1: was looking for a lot of those same species that

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Speaker 1: I saw on that on that property. And they weren't

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Speaker 1: they weren't almost properties most places were they were mowing

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Speaker 1: them and um, you know it was close canopy. But

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Speaker 1: when we'd go in there and do a timber harvest

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Speaker 1: any we'd start seeing some of those things species. Maybe

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Speaker 1: not the diversity this place has and I've come to

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Speaker 1: figure out the place that I first started with was

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Speaker 1: one of the higher quality sites in my area. So

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Speaker 1: but even if I could find half the plants on

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Speaker 1: a property, that place was pretty diverse. And I wasn't

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Speaker 1: finding that most of the time on ninety percent of properties,

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Speaker 1: But every now and then I'd come across and and

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Speaker 1: it was those properties that I found them on that

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Speaker 1: had the most wildlife diversity. There was turkeys, they still

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Speaker 1: had turkeys or quail, and they had great dear populations. Um.

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Speaker 1: And and that's when you know, you know, I'm very

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Speaker 1: add and I'm I can't sit down and listen, but

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Speaker 1: when I'm very visual and when I when I saw

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Speaker 1: that for myself, I was like, man, this is the

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Speaker 1: way to go. This is what we should be doing.

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Speaker 1: Um And as hunters, man, that's uh, we're the We're

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Speaker 1: the ones out there putting in the time and the

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Speaker 1: money and uh, you know, buying equipment to do this

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff. And you know, maybe this is what

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Speaker 1: we should really be focused on. So um, you know,

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Speaker 1: a long score short. Now got the Native Habitat project

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Speaker 1: and try to try to make other people see the

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Speaker 1: lot like I did. Yeah, So imagine you were on

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Speaker 1: an elevator and uh, hardcore deer hunter land manager steps

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Speaker 1: on the elevator with you, and you're gonna go up

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Speaker 1: to the twentieth floor. So you got a couple of minutes,

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Speaker 1: but it's not a ton of time before he's going

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Speaker 1: to hop off that elevator and go to his room

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Speaker 1: wherever he stand. Maybe you guys are at NWTF, you're

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Speaker 1: at the convention together, and you know that this guy

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Speaker 1: is the typical whitetail hunter and land manager. He puts

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Speaker 1: in a bunch of food plots. He maybe does some

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Speaker 1: timber cutting or some hinge cutting to create a couple

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Speaker 1: of betting areas, but he's got a bunch of monoculture

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Speaker 1: food plots, and all of his work is dedicated just

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Speaker 1: to growing big deer and shooting more big deer. How

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Speaker 1: would you how would you present your philosophy to this guy,

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Speaker 1: and how would you pitch him on considering it if

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Speaker 1: you had just these few minutes to kind of get

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Speaker 1: across to him, like, hey, here's the different way I'm recommending,

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Speaker 1: and here's why it might be worth considering. What would

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Speaker 1: you tell that guy when you're managing a place with

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Speaker 1: about diversity when you've got sometimes hundreds of species of

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Speaker 1: grasses and sedges and wildflowers and rubs. If you're providing

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Speaker 1: food year round and not just food your brows. You're

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Speaker 1: providing insects for turkeys and quail. UM, you're providing cover

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Speaker 1: for those deer. UM, you're providing cover during fawning season

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Speaker 1: for those does. You're providing a food source during finding season,

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Speaker 1: a food source during hunting season. It's it's a year

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Speaker 1: round uh. You know that's these ecosystems, these native ecosystems,

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Speaker 1: they don't have room for plants that aren't pulling their

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Speaker 1: weight um year round, or they don't have they don't

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Speaker 1: have UM. I guess they don't have space for um

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Speaker 1: just monocultures. And that's why most of our native species

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Speaker 1: don't form monocultures. UM. And there I am getting this.

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Speaker 1: We're probably on the nineteenth floor now, but UM, you know,

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Speaker 1: not just managing for deer, We're managing for an ecosystem.

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Speaker 1: And the more biod diversity you have, the more things

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Speaker 1: that you're providing year round, and they're not just one

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Speaker 1: that one species and just providing food like a lot

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Speaker 1: of our food plant stuff are it's providing it's providing brows,

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Speaker 1: but it's also providing seeds that is producing when it flowers,

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Speaker 1: and it's providing its attracting insects, it is providing cover

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Speaker 1: that one plant, you know, one native plant is doing

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Speaker 1: multiple things that maybe that one species you're planting a

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Speaker 1: as as a monoculture can't do, and so you're less

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Speaker 1: likely to not have that one thing that you're lacking.

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Speaker 1: And sometimes, you know, people hunters don't realize that, you know,

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Speaker 1: what they're doing in the landscape is leaving out something

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Speaker 1: you know they might not have. They're like, where's my turkey? Well,

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Speaker 1: you might not have that cover, But when you're managing

335
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Speaker 1: an ecosystem, you don't have to worry about that because

336
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Speaker 1: you're going to have pretty much everything and there's not

337
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Speaker 1: going to be any limiting factors most of the time.

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Speaker 1: So what if this person on that elevator with you

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Speaker 1: is thinking to himself, well, man, when I look out

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Speaker 1: there on the property like that, mother nature is already

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Speaker 1: doing this. It's already managing the ecosystem. I'm seeing trees here,

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Speaker 1: I see grasses here, I see stuff all around. You know,

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Speaker 1: why do I really need to do anything, or how

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Speaker 1: could I really make an impact in some way that's

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Speaker 1: actually better than just planting my food plots. Like I

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Speaker 1: put in a food plot, I see this instant change

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Speaker 1: to that person. You know, I guess what I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to say here, not very clearly, is when you say

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Speaker 1: manage for a native ecosystem, why do we need to

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Speaker 1: quote unquote manage a native ecosystem. Shouldn't it naturally be

351
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Speaker 1: doing that something someone might be saying, yeah, Well, for one,

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Speaker 1: we've removed fire from the landscape, and most of the

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Speaker 1: time that disturbance is what would have kept these is diverse.

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Speaker 1: When you even on some of the best rendants I manage,

355
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Speaker 1: if you remove fire landscape, little blue stems going to

356
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Speaker 1: take over. And then you're going to start seeing a

357
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Speaker 1: decrease in wildflowers. And you're thinking wildflowers, Why do I

358
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:18,040
Speaker 1: give a crap about wildflowers? They're a wildflower. All of

359
00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:21,280
Speaker 1: this to wildlife is a thing that attracts insects for

360
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Speaker 1: their you know, bull for turkeys and quail to consume,

361
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Speaker 1: and a thing that produces seeds for them to consume.

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Speaker 1: M So it's not really a wildflier, it's a it's

363
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Speaker 1: a food, it's the thing something that's providing a food source. Um.

364
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Speaker 1: And so we've removed fire from the landscape, but we've

365
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Speaker 1: also introduced invasives to the landscape. So on most properties

366
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Speaker 1: I go on, there's invasives everywhere, whether it's non dative

367
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Speaker 1: turf grasses or invasive shrubs you know, cerecio, les, dizam

368
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Speaker 1: and these invasives don't act like dative species. They want

369
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Speaker 1: to take over and form monocultures most of the time.

370
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Speaker 1: And so that requires us to go in there initially

371
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Speaker 1: and remove those invasives and created that give that environment

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Speaker 1: back to those native species to thrive again. Um. So

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Speaker 1: to me, those are the two you know, big reasons

374
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Speaker 1: that we now have to step in and play a

375
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Speaker 1: role on these places. Yeah, what about this? You know

376
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Speaker 1: you talk You mentioned natives versus invasives a lot, and

377
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Speaker 1: there are I guess there's there's two kind of Devil's

378
00:21:31,760 --> 00:21:36,120
Speaker 1: advocates positions on this. One would say, you know, why

379
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Speaker 1: does it really matter at all? Like, you know, if

380
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Speaker 1: if if the deer eating it, why does it matter

381
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Speaker 1: if the if the turkeys are hanging out in it?

382
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Speaker 1: Why does it matterfests native or invasive so that's question

383
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Speaker 1: number one. How would you argue that? In question number

384
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Speaker 1: two is um, you know we are we are? How

385
00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:59,479
Speaker 1: do I describe this? This is the way of the future,

386
00:21:59,520 --> 00:22:02,840
Speaker 1: Like this stuff keeps happening, Invasives are moving in, everything

387
00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:05,520
Speaker 1: is spreading all over the place. There's nothing you can

388
00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:07,760
Speaker 1: do at this point. It's a lost cause this is

389
00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:11,960
Speaker 1: a new normal. Those would be two possible Devil's advocate

390
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:17,320
Speaker 1: positions to your native habitat philosophy. How would you address

391
00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:22,439
Speaker 1: those two things? Well, first of all, you just because

392
00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:26,199
Speaker 1: a deer eats something doesn't mean that's good habitat because

393
00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:29,439
Speaker 1: they're basically a goat. You know, you could put a

394
00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:34,000
Speaker 1: deer in a in the richest neighborhood in Alabama. You

395
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:35,920
Speaker 1: could put a deer there and they're going to survive.

396
00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:38,960
Speaker 1: And I know that's something a lot of deer hunters

397
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Speaker 1: don't want to hear, but dad gum, I mean, look

398
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Speaker 1: at other wildlife species and they're I mean, they're highly

399
00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:49,760
Speaker 1: they're specialist, and they have to have insects, so they

400
00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:52,639
Speaker 1: have to have flower and seeds there, or they have

401
00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:55,920
Speaker 1: to have a certain type of cover or they can't

402
00:22:55,920 --> 00:23:00,960
Speaker 1: reproduce deer. I mean they can basically live anywhere. And

403
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:03,720
Speaker 1: then you know, there's plenty of deer hunters that can

404
00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:07,040
Speaker 1: attest for that, you know, killing giant deer in the

405
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:11,719
Speaker 1: middle of urban areas. And so for one, that's that's

406
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,080
Speaker 1: not really a measurement of how good an ecosystem is

407
00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:17,520
Speaker 1: um And so we have to look at what kind

408
00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:21,199
Speaker 1: of you know, what species are the canary in the

409
00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:24,040
Speaker 1: coal mine that are are telling us, hey, maybe this

410
00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:26,600
Speaker 1: ecosystem isn't what it should be. And those are the

411
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:31,080
Speaker 1: specialist species like coel and turkeys, and those are species

412
00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:34,080
Speaker 1: that we're seeing declines in across the country. And not

413
00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:40,480
Speaker 1: just those species, but also non game species songbirds and insects.

414
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Speaker 1: We're seeing decline in those numbers. And that's because those

415
00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:48,640
Speaker 1: things were really, really really depend on our native ecosystems.

416
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Speaker 1: And so so look at those look at those species,

417
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Speaker 1: and do you have those on your property, because in

418
00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:59,960
Speaker 1: North Alabama, I'm lucky to see a covey of quet

419
00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:04,520
Speaker 1: once every year or two um. And it's because those

420
00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:07,480
Speaker 1: are the ones who can't stand those invasives. So if

421
00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:09,840
Speaker 1: you only care about deer and you don't care about

422
00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:12,080
Speaker 1: those species, and yeah, I mean, let your property get

423
00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:15,400
Speaker 1: taken over with invasives because the deer, I mean, they're

424
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:18,320
Speaker 1: they're gonna be just fine. Um. But it's those other

425
00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:20,960
Speaker 1: things that aren't going to be just fine. And and

426
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:24,720
Speaker 1: I think those are those species are worthwhile as well. Um,

427
00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:27,560
Speaker 1: I mean they're I want to make sure we still

428
00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:31,040
Speaker 1: have those species around for future generations. On hunters, because

429
00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:34,639
Speaker 1: your kids and your grandkids they're probably gonna be deer hunters,

430
00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:36,520
Speaker 1: but they might be interested in in turkey hunt or

431
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:39,680
Speaker 1: quill hunting. And so when you're managing deer with this,

432
00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:44,159
Speaker 1: you know, by managing native ecosystems, you're you're giving that

433
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:47,760
Speaker 1: option to your kids and grandkids to also you know

434
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:53,240
Speaker 1: hunt woodcock or rabbits or quail and all those other

435
00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:56,520
Speaker 1: species that are very you know, they're specialists and really

436
00:24:56,560 --> 00:25:00,400
Speaker 1: depend on these native ecosystems. Maybe I hope that answer

437
00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:02,600
Speaker 1: to it. Yeah, yeah, Now what to what about the

438
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:06,600
Speaker 1: second part, which was it's a foregone conclusion everything invasive

439
00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:08,840
Speaker 1: is going everywhere. There's no way we can return to

440
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:12,159
Speaker 1: native everything because we've already changed so much. What do

441
00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:16,480
Speaker 1: you say to that person, No, it's we can. You

442
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:19,520
Speaker 1: can make a difference on a property. Um, And I

443
00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:22,439
Speaker 1: see examples of that every day. Um, And it's and

444
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 1: it's really about how you manage it. Yeah, there's situations

445
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 1: where you might be fighting an invasive and you're not

446
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:32,080
Speaker 1: having any luck with it, and you're like, man, this

447
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:34,560
Speaker 1: is a lost cause. Well, it could have been your

448
00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:36,600
Speaker 1: It could have been your your strategy, that could have

449
00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:39,160
Speaker 1: been the problem. You could have had a bad strategy

450
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:41,919
Speaker 1: or an approach. So for example, if you've got an

451
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:47,160
Speaker 1: understory full of private and autumn olive and bush honeysuckle,

452
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:48,840
Speaker 1: or and you go in there and you do a

453
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 1: timber harvest and you know, bring in a ton of sunlight,

454
00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:55,280
Speaker 1: and then you come in with a multure and just

455
00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:59,360
Speaker 1: start spraying it. And then that same year you come

456
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:02,720
Speaker 1: in and try to plant new hardwoods. Well that gum,

457
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:05,840
Speaker 1: I mean, you set yourself up for a very bad

458
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:09,960
Speaker 1: situation because the first thing you did was bring in sunlight,

459
00:26:10,359 --> 00:26:14,560
Speaker 1: which is going to make those invasives explode. So you

460
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:16,320
Speaker 1: probably should have gone in there before you did a

461
00:26:16,359 --> 00:26:21,800
Speaker 1: timber harvest and mulch those invasives spent several years spraying

462
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:24,120
Speaker 1: those stump sprouts to come back, which is it's very

463
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:27,600
Speaker 1: easy because all those species, for the most part have

464
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:31,240
Speaker 1: green leaves in the wintertime, and so you can go

465
00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:33,800
Speaker 1: through there with glyphasate and spray it and you're not

466
00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:36,600
Speaker 1: going to kill your native species that are dormant. And

467
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 1: once you've got that under control, then you can come

468
00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 1: in into your timber harvest and then you can come

469
00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:43,359
Speaker 1: in and plant new harvest trees if that's what you

470
00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 1: want to do. But it's really all about the approach,

471
00:26:46,119 --> 00:26:48,680
Speaker 1: because yeah, there's there's a lot of approaches that I've

472
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:52,200
Speaker 1: done to get rid of invasis where I was like, man,

473
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:54,720
Speaker 1: that was just a lost cause. I think I might

474
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:58,960
Speaker 1: have made things worse. But it's really about the strategy.

475
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:01,960
Speaker 1: So you have to sit down and figure out how

476
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 1: to approach it first, and then it might be something

477
00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:08,040
Speaker 1: very simple and might I mean to me, that's a

478
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:11,440
Speaker 1: very easy approach to getting rid of you know, riven

479
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:15,440
Speaker 1: automotive or honeysuckle um. For having that option to spray

480
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:18,040
Speaker 1: them in the wintertime and not kill your native species,

481
00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:21,440
Speaker 1: that makes it a whole lot easier and easier to accomplish.

482
00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:24,000
Speaker 1: But it's easy to see how you know, somebody else

483
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:27,120
Speaker 1: who didn't go that route could have, you know, made

484
00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:30,199
Speaker 1: it worse. And then you know, then they've kind of like,

485
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:33,680
Speaker 1: you know, they're kicking themselves and down on themselves for

486
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:35,919
Speaker 1: for uh you know, you know these invasives and they

487
00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:37,960
Speaker 1: just give up on human trying to get rid of them.

488
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:41,480
Speaker 1: So um, just learn, learn what you get, learn what

489
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:44,280
Speaker 1: you have on your property, learned the invasive species, and

490
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:46,320
Speaker 1: then spend a year trying to figure out how to

491
00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:48,919
Speaker 1: get rid of them. And I think approach should take

492
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:50,760
Speaker 1: to get rid of them. And that's where, you know,

493
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:55,080
Speaker 1: I started a group Native Habitat Managers on on on

494
00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:57,800
Speaker 1: Facebook and we were in the you know there you

495
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:01,040
Speaker 1: have the Habitat Managers group on Facebook, and there was

496
00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:02,840
Speaker 1: you know, about eight of us guys in there who

497
00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:05,359
Speaker 1: were really managing native ecosystems, and we were like, hey,

498
00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:08,199
Speaker 1: let's start our own, and let's start it. You know,

499
00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:11,440
Speaker 1: we want a group that has hunters in there and

500
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:16,600
Speaker 1: nine hunters. We want botanists, we want foresters because those botanists,

501
00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:20,200
Speaker 1: those foresters, they know how to manage these places. They

502
00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:22,879
Speaker 1: know the plants, and you know, they usually know how

503
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:26,359
Speaker 1: to get rid of them. And so we've made the

504
00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:29,919
Speaker 1: community of hunters and nine hunters, which is we were like,

505
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 1: this is going to go you know this is going

506
00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:35,879
Speaker 1: to be awful, but it's actually gone really well and

507
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:37,720
Speaker 1: there's a very little conflict in there. And now it's

508
00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:40,760
Speaker 1: become a place where you can go and ask questions like, hey,

509
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 1: I've got these invasives that I'm just really overwhelmed with

510
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:47,239
Speaker 1: who's had success, And then you get a you know,

511
00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:50,080
Speaker 1: just last week we had a comment section full of

512
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 1: people managing Japanese steel grass and having success getting rid

513
00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:58,840
Speaker 1: of Japanese steel grass, and even myself, that's one that

514
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:02,360
Speaker 1: I almost have giving up on on my property, but

515
00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:04,440
Speaker 1: it's because I was going about it wrong. I was

516
00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 1: trying to get rid of it in a way that

517
00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:09,120
Speaker 1: probably wasn't the smartest way to get rid of it.

518
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: And now you know, I've got the group, and I've

519
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,440
Speaker 1: seen how all these other people are having success, and

520
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:17,840
Speaker 1: you know, this year, I'm gonna try what those guys

521
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:21,240
Speaker 1: have been having success with. So learn your property, learn

522
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:23,840
Speaker 1: what you have that's invasive, and go to a group

523
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:27,160
Speaker 1: like Native Habitat Managers and say, hey, I've got this invasive,

524
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:28,760
Speaker 1: how are y'all getting rid of it? Or go to

525
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:33,080
Speaker 1: the top and just search Japanese steal grass and you're

526
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 1: gonna get ten posts of people talking about how to

527
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 1: get rid of Japanese steel grass. So it's really it's

528
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:42,400
Speaker 1: not a lost calls. It's it's definitely a worthwhile task

529
00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 1: and you'll be thinking yourself for doing it, and you know,

530
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:47,920
Speaker 1: maybe three or four years from now, but you'll be

531
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:52,120
Speaker 1: thinking yourself. Yeah, yeah, So I heard you talk once

532
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:57,719
Speaker 1: about you know, not only does managing for the ecosystem

533
00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:01,160
Speaker 1: in the way you're discussing and managing for versus invasive

534
00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:03,560
Speaker 1: not only does that actually help, you know, in a

535
00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:07,360
Speaker 1: tangible hunting kind of way, or like help you in

536
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:11,440
Speaker 1: reach whatever your wildlife goals are, but there's also maybe

537
00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:13,960
Speaker 1: a little bit of a I don't know if moral

538
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:17,760
Speaker 1: obligation is the right word for it, but there's there's

539
00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:20,800
Speaker 1: some kind of obligation we have to give back to

540
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:23,840
Speaker 1: these places since we're taking from them as hunters, right.

541
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:28,320
Speaker 1: And then also not only that, but also the public

542
00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:32,760
Speaker 1: perception of what we do and how how we manage

543
00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:36,160
Speaker 1: might be viewed. So, for example, if all we do

544
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:38,920
Speaker 1: is plant food plots because we want to kill more deer,

545
00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 1: that does not nearly have the same optics as US

546
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 1: hunters who like to claim that we are the original

547
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 1: conservationists managing and helping and trying to restore and protect

548
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:58,320
Speaker 1: and conserve the entire ecosystem, and pollinators just as much

549
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:01,240
Speaker 1: as bees, or just as much as bucks, and you know,

550
00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 1: songbirds just as much as turkeys. Um can you can

551
00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:06,920
Speaker 1: you speak to that a little bit? Am I am

552
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:11,840
Speaker 1: I explaining your position right? Or the man perfect? That's

553
00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 1: that's that's exactly how I feel. And you know, we,

554
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:22,880
Speaker 1: for one, you know, as as hunters, there's things that

555
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:26,640
Speaker 1: we're we've done in the past, that our granddads or

556
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 1: our dads have done, and that we're we've already seen

557
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 1: the light on. And even if you're somebody who who

558
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:35,600
Speaker 1: isn't into managing native habitats, you see that. You see

559
00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:40,920
Speaker 1: how you know, as as hunters haven't evolved. Um. And

560
00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:43,360
Speaker 1: And it's not to say that the pastoration didn't know

561
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:45,320
Speaker 1: what they were doing or that they were you know,

562
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:49,360
Speaker 1: out to do harm, but they made mistakes and those

563
00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:53,640
Speaker 1: are mistakes that we need to learn from and do

564
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:56,600
Speaker 1: our best to not do those again, because you know,

565
00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:01,840
Speaker 1: let's say, you know, let's just for example, Bradford pair.

566
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:07,240
Speaker 1: Somebody in North America Brad Bradford pair and started putting

567
00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:10,320
Speaker 1: it on the market. Well, who's getting blamed for planning

568
00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:13,600
Speaker 1: that Bradford pair. It's not that person who brought it

569
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:17,000
Speaker 1: to market. It's the homeowners um in the in the area.

570
00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:21,160
Speaker 1: And we don't want to be, you know, hunters don't.

571
00:32:21,200 --> 00:32:22,800
Speaker 1: We don't want to be in that position to where

572
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:25,840
Speaker 1: we're like, all right, yeah, we brought in autumnolive. We

573
00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:31,320
Speaker 1: brought in um, what is it not trifoli and orange

574
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:37,920
Speaker 1: bicolored lesbediza. You know, these invasive species that that are

575
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:41,520
Speaker 1: now reckon havoc can cause it harm we brought in. Well,

576
00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:45,520
Speaker 1: let's learn our lesson from those and let's manage native ecosystems,

577
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:49,240
Speaker 1: because we essentially become bulletproof when that happens. If if

578
00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:52,280
Speaker 1: we're the ones out there managing native ecosystems not just

579
00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:54,640
Speaker 1: for deer, but for you know, all wildlife as a

580
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:59,040
Speaker 1: whole and trying to improve biodiversity or trying to you know,

581
00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:04,160
Speaker 1: as a as a hunter. In my area, I've been

582
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:07,400
Speaker 1: going around on roadsides and if I find a rattlesnake

583
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:10,440
Speaker 1: master and I'm like, man, I haven't seen that around

584
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:12,640
Speaker 1: here much at all. I grab some seeds of that

585
00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 1: rattlesneak master and I'm now growing plugs of it or

586
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:19,560
Speaker 1: planted on my hunt property. And and just to you know,

587
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:25,600
Speaker 1: for selfish reasons, I'm improving the plant communities on my

588
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:29,560
Speaker 1: hunt property and essentially improving my wildlife populations on my property.

589
00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:34,160
Speaker 1: But to the public, I'm conserving a plant species, And

590
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 1: to me that's just you know, as a brownie points.

591
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:38,960
Speaker 1: The more brownie points we can get to the pub

592
00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:43,680
Speaker 1: get from the public, the better chapids and our grandkids

593
00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:45,320
Speaker 1: are going to be able to hunt in the future

594
00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:49,720
Speaker 1: because we're the ones actually out here doing real conservation work,

595
00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:53,800
Speaker 1: and not just the conservation work that we think is

596
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:56,480
Speaker 1: going to make us kill a big deer. The conservation

597
00:33:56,520 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 1: work that's gonna that's managing ECOSISMS as a whole and

598
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:05,280
Speaker 1: improving dear populations and those you know, non game species

599
00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 1: populations as well. So I don't know, I think it's

600
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:10,800
Speaker 1: just a way to make hunters a little more bulletproof

601
00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:14,640
Speaker 1: from the public. And that can't hurt that can um,

602
00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:17,120
Speaker 1: That can only be that can only benefit us in

603
00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:19,759
Speaker 1: the long run. So that's why I really push on that.

604
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:23,640
Speaker 1: I think it's as hunters, um we should really get

605
00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:30,279
Speaker 1: back to focusing on conservation first. And I think, you know,

606
00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:33,799
Speaker 1: back in the day, that's why that's what we're focused on.

607
00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:37,120
Speaker 1: When you know, when hunters started out, that's what our

608
00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:40,839
Speaker 1: main goal was was conservation. And I'm not saying that's

609
00:34:40,880 --> 00:34:43,560
Speaker 1: totally shifted, but I don't think that's the main focus anymore,

610
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:46,640
Speaker 1: and I think we should get back to that. And

611
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:48,719
Speaker 1: and uh, I don't know. It's just the little things, man,

612
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:50,799
Speaker 1: that's that's the kind of stuff I enjoy. I probably

613
00:34:50,920 --> 00:34:54,160
Speaker 1: enjoy finding rare wildfliers on the side of the road

614
00:34:54,239 --> 00:34:57,160
Speaker 1: bringing them back to my property more than I do

615
00:34:57,280 --> 00:35:00,799
Speaker 1: hunting now, just because it's a you get a whole

616
00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:03,279
Speaker 1: lot out of it, man's and that makes your you're

617
00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:05,479
Speaker 1: hunting experience a whole lot more enjoyable. But you're sitting

618
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:07,759
Speaker 1: there on your property and you you know what those

619
00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:09,760
Speaker 1: deer are walking by, and you know what they're consuming,

620
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:11,960
Speaker 1: and you know you had a hand and make sure

621
00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:16,080
Speaker 1: this negative ecosystem was back and intact and the way

622
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:20,600
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be. Yeah, So I guess the next thing,

623
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:23,680
Speaker 1: if I'm well, I am listening to this, but if

624
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:25,600
Speaker 1: I were listening to this on the other end of

625
00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:29,480
Speaker 1: the microphone or on the speakers, and this resonating with me.

626
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:32,240
Speaker 1: I think the next thing I'd be thinking as well,

627
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:34,319
Speaker 1: how do I start, like, how do I how do

628
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:39,520
Speaker 1: I incorporate these ideas or this philosophy into a property

629
00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:42,560
Speaker 1: management plan? Is it? Is it as simple as well,

630
00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:44,400
Speaker 1: I got to go out and just kill every invasive

631
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:46,480
Speaker 1: species I can find? Or is it I got to

632
00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:49,239
Speaker 1: get rid of my food plots and put in grasslands,

633
00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:52,439
Speaker 1: or is it you know, how do you incorporate these

634
00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:57,360
Speaker 1: ideas into a plan, into you know, a management philosophy

635
00:35:57,400 --> 00:35:59,520
Speaker 1: For someone who is a deer hunter wants to improve

636
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:01,960
Speaker 1: their hunt, but also wants to start doing these things

637
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:05,640
Speaker 1: you're talking about, how do we start thinking about that? Well, so,

638
00:36:06,520 --> 00:36:09,400
Speaker 1: at the bare minimum, if you're listening to this and

639
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:12,640
Speaker 1: you want to know what you can do and this

640
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:17,960
Speaker 1: takes no effort at all, don't plant invasive species on

641
00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:22,040
Speaker 1: your property. Um, don't contribute to the problem, because you know,

642
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:26,120
Speaker 1: as somebody who's walked a ton of private land, everyone

643
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:29,440
Speaker 1: has invasives. And the problem that invasives are such a

644
00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:33,719
Speaker 1: huge problem, Like we've we we have three thousand or

645
00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 1: like thirty one hundred native species in Alabama we've introduced

646
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:45,080
Speaker 1: sixty five hundred species in the way. Did I say

647
00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:47,160
Speaker 1: that right? Did I say thirty? I said thirty one hundred.

648
00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:51,320
Speaker 1: In Alabama, we've introduced sixty five hundred species of an

649
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:54,319
Speaker 1: invasive species to the US. I'm not talking non native wow,

650
00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:58,200
Speaker 1: and I'm not talking soybeans are non native, but they're

651
00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:02,120
Speaker 1: not invasive. Um, there's nothing wrong with soybeans. If you

652
00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:04,680
Speaker 1: want to plant soybeans on your property, go have at it.

653
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:08,120
Speaker 1: You're not gonna cause problems for future generations about plant soybeans.

654
00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:12,319
Speaker 1: I'm talking sixty five hundred species that are invasive. We've

655
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:15,200
Speaker 1: introduced twice the amount of invasive plants in the US.

656
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:18,719
Speaker 1: Then there are native plants and one of the most

657
00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:23,000
Speaker 1: biodiverse states in the country, and that's alarming. So at

658
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:26,760
Speaker 1: the bare minimum, just make sure what your planting isn't invasive.

659
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:28,919
Speaker 1: And they're still invasives and some of these snood plot

660
00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:31,919
Speaker 1: seed mixes, but you know the majority of food plot

661
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:33,880
Speaker 1: mixes are totally fine, and you're not going to do

662
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:36,440
Speaker 1: anything wrong unless you're doing what I did, and when

663
00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:40,080
Speaker 1: go in and kill off a really biodiverse area. But

664
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:43,400
Speaker 1: my advice is is find your worst area on your property.

665
00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:45,680
Speaker 1: If you want to put food plot, which I'm I'm

666
00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:47,880
Speaker 1: all four. If you want a food plot on your property,

667
00:37:48,239 --> 00:37:50,479
Speaker 1: find the worst area, Find the plus spot where maybe

668
00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:53,440
Speaker 1: you have a ton of fescue or a ton of lespediza,

669
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:56,919
Speaker 1: or you have privet taken over. Clear that area, get

670
00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:00,520
Speaker 1: rid of those invasives. Plant your food plot there, um,

671
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:03,000
Speaker 1: but make sure it's a mix that doesn't have invasive

672
00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:05,560
Speaker 1: species in it. So I think, you know, at the

673
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:10,239
Speaker 1: bare minimum, as hunters, we should stop planting invasives or

674
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:12,759
Speaker 1: things that can become invasive or things that are going

675
00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:15,799
Speaker 1: to be permanent on the landscape. And the next um,

676
00:38:16,320 --> 00:38:18,520
Speaker 1: the next landowner is gonna have to deal with we

677
00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:21,480
Speaker 1: don't we don't want to add anything that isn't going

678
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:27,600
Speaker 1: to allow our native plants native university thrive. Um. You know.

679
00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:30,600
Speaker 1: But yeah it's starting to do. You know. That's that's

680
00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:33,480
Speaker 1: the first at the bare minimum, um. But if you

681
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:36,359
Speaker 1: really want to make a difference on your property, get

682
00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:40,200
Speaker 1: rid of invasis you know, um, figure out what the

683
00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:42,319
Speaker 1: worst place on your property is, figure out where what

684
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:45,320
Speaker 1: plants you have that are problems. Get get the I

685
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:48,919
Speaker 1: naturalist app man. I love the naturalist stapp. There's other

686
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:53,359
Speaker 1: great apps Picture this or Google Lens and things like that,

687
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:56,440
Speaker 1: but on our Naturalists you can go around and take

688
00:38:56,480 --> 00:38:59,640
Speaker 1: pictures of plants and it'll tell you what they are.

689
00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:03,120
Speaker 1: You can find out if they're native or invasive, and

690
00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:05,279
Speaker 1: you can look at a map to see where other

691
00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:08,880
Speaker 1: people are seeing that plant in the country, which to

692
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:12,600
Speaker 1: me is really awesome. There's plants, there's native plants that

693
00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:15,960
Speaker 1: I found in Alabama that nobody else in Alabama has

694
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:20,799
Speaker 1: documented yet. And that's how I discovered. I discovered new

695
00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:24,280
Speaker 1: species for the state that way on properties. They weren't

696
00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:26,359
Speaker 1: my properties, there were other people's properties. But man, how

697
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:29,040
Speaker 1: cool would that be to find a new plant species

698
00:39:29,080 --> 00:39:32,759
Speaker 1: on your for the state, on your property. But do that,

699
00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:35,600
Speaker 1: figure out what you have that's native and what you

700
00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:37,799
Speaker 1: have that's non native, and just start trying to get

701
00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:40,240
Speaker 1: rid of the non natives and start trying to encourage

702
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:43,000
Speaker 1: the native species, and then do like what I did.

703
00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:46,040
Speaker 1: You know, if you find some cool native species on

704
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:49,480
Speaker 1: a roadside or something, yeah, you know, collect some seeds

705
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,000
Speaker 1: and introduce those of your property, improve upon the native

706
00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:55,719
Speaker 1: plant communities, and try to get rid of the non

707
00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:58,319
Speaker 1: native of the communities. That's a good place to start.

708
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:01,319
Speaker 1: And that looks a little bit different than woodlands and

709
00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:03,359
Speaker 1: then a dozen fields. You know, you're going to deal

710
00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:07,160
Speaker 1: with different invasive species in different areas. Um And I

711
00:40:07,160 --> 00:40:09,239
Speaker 1: can't tell you what's going to be invasive in your

712
00:40:09,280 --> 00:40:14,360
Speaker 1: area because you know, in Tennessee, thirty minutes from my house,

713
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:20,120
Speaker 1: everybody's dealing with with a tree of heaven alianthis in

714
00:40:20,120 --> 00:40:22,239
Speaker 1: my area, we don't have tree of heaven. That's not

715
00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:26,719
Speaker 1: a problem yet. Um So, just very short distances invasives

716
00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:29,759
Speaker 1: that people are dealing with, changes and the way to

717
00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:33,600
Speaker 1: manage those changes. And that's why it's a You got

718
00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:35,480
Speaker 1: to learn what's under property and learn what you're dealing

719
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:38,640
Speaker 1: with the first first of all. And to me, that's

720
00:40:38,440 --> 00:40:41,640
Speaker 1: the best first step you can take to to do

721
00:40:41,719 --> 00:40:44,680
Speaker 1: the kind of things I'm talking about. Yeah, so almost

722
00:40:44,719 --> 00:40:46,799
Speaker 1: you gotta do. You need to do a survey of

723
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:49,560
Speaker 1: what you're working with to start right, taking invent take

724
00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:53,640
Speaker 1: an inventory. Yeah and uh, you know, with our naturalists,

725
00:40:53,640 --> 00:40:56,360
Speaker 1: you can create a list of what's on your property.

726
00:40:56,719 --> 00:40:58,799
Speaker 1: And that's something I've done on my place. You know,

727
00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:01,400
Speaker 1: five years ago, I spread and killed off on my fescue.

728
00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:04,680
Speaker 1: Every year I walked through my property. Oh, in the afternoons,

729
00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:07,319
Speaker 1: me and my family walk around that field. I use

730
00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:09,839
Speaker 1: I made mode trails around the field that I use

731
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:13,120
Speaker 1: as I use a fire lines, but also uses walking

732
00:41:13,160 --> 00:41:16,040
Speaker 1: trails fool with my family. And every year I walked through,

733
00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:19,120
Speaker 1: I take pictures of anything, any plants I haven't seen before.

734
00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:23,560
Speaker 1: And I've got a whole inventory of what's native or

735
00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:27,360
Speaker 1: what's what's returned to my property after killing off that

736
00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:31,040
Speaker 1: rescue And man, as I you know you're a landowner,

737
00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:35,359
Speaker 1: how cool would it have been if oh, how cool

738
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:36,880
Speaker 1: is it going to be for the person who owns

739
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:39,799
Speaker 1: the property effort you if you've got a list of

740
00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:44,400
Speaker 1: what you're seeing now in twenty twenty three. Man, how

741
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:46,560
Speaker 1: if I had a list of the plants people were

742
00:41:46,560 --> 00:41:49,800
Speaker 1: seeing on a property back in the nineteen nineties, that'd

743
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:52,400
Speaker 1: be so cool. I'd like to have a as complete

744
00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:54,520
Speaker 1: of a list that's possible of what was growing there

745
00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:57,960
Speaker 1: so you can you can, then now thirty years later,

746
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:02,799
Speaker 1: as a landowner, know what's changed, what's still here, and

747
00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:04,960
Speaker 1: what's not here. That's going to make you a better

748
00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:08,480
Speaker 1: land manager for that property. So to those private landowners

749
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:10,879
Speaker 1: out there, to me, that's one of the best things

750
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:14,120
Speaker 1: you can do. Take an inventory, have a list of

751
00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:18,800
Speaker 1: what's growing on your place now, and even what invasives

752
00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:22,200
Speaker 1: you're dealing with. Talk about what invasives you have that

753
00:42:22,280 --> 00:42:25,640
Speaker 1: you're trying to get rid of, and and make you

754
00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:27,399
Speaker 1: make put it that in a format that you can

755
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:30,239
Speaker 1: pass it on to the next landowner, whether that's your

756
00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:33,239
Speaker 1: kids or somebody else. Yeah, yeah, that would be that

757
00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:48,400
Speaker 1: would be pretty cool. So we've done a survey, we've

758
00:42:48,520 --> 00:42:51,279
Speaker 1: got an inventory, we know what's out there on our place,

759
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:54,480
Speaker 1: and we're thinking, okay, you know now, now what's next?

760
00:42:54,560 --> 00:42:57,120
Speaker 1: And you mentioned how there's kind of there's some significant

761
00:42:57,120 --> 00:42:59,560
Speaker 1: differences between it here if you're working with open areas

762
00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:04,160
Speaker 1: versus if you're working with timbered areas. Um, let's talk openings,

763
00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:09,160
Speaker 1: let's talk grasslands, that kind of stuff. You know, first off,

764
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:12,640
Speaker 1: why in particularly we've talked kind of generally, but can

765
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:16,360
Speaker 1: you can you cover a little bit about why native

766
00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:21,600
Speaker 1: grassland ecosystems are so darn powerful and important for all

767
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:26,080
Speaker 1: sorts of stuff out there? That gum, I mean, I'll talk,

768
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:29,719
Speaker 1: I'll talk. I'll talk in the hunters language. Look at

769
00:43:29,719 --> 00:43:33,479
Speaker 1: the prairie states. I mean, look at the deer killed

770
00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:37,200
Speaker 1: in the prairie States. That's that's the difference. I mean,

771
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:42,840
Speaker 1: and in the southeast, and fact, most of North America

772
00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:46,560
Speaker 1: was grasslands. It was our dominant ecosystem. And in the

773
00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:49,080
Speaker 1: southeast it was the same. Most of our dominant ecosystem.

774
00:43:49,160 --> 00:43:52,840
Speaker 1: Down here, we're grasslands, but we have a longer growing season,

775
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:56,279
Speaker 1: we have warmer temperatures, the more moisture. So a lot

776
00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:59,000
Speaker 1: of the southeast turned into forest pretty quickly once fire

777
00:43:59,120 --> 00:44:02,359
Speaker 1: was moved. Um. But the majority of the main, the

778
00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:07,799
Speaker 1: main ecosystem here were grasslings and those those grasslands or powerhouses. Man,

779
00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:11,520
Speaker 1: when he comes to deer like, I mean, this is

780
00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:14,200
Speaker 1: this is stuff I was learning, you know, five years

781
00:44:14,200 --> 00:44:19,520
Speaker 1: ago reading Craig Harper's books. Um, I mean he but

782
00:44:19,680 --> 00:44:24,560
Speaker 1: you got like fifty pounds an acre of deer food

783
00:44:24,640 --> 00:44:28,640
Speaker 1: in a close canopy forest, in an in an open

784
00:44:28,719 --> 00:44:35,200
Speaker 1: field of natives, there's upwards two twenty five hundred pounds

785
00:44:35,520 --> 00:44:40,560
Speaker 1: of food per acre. That's to me, that's that's enough

786
00:44:40,640 --> 00:44:45,120
Speaker 1: right there to make a hundred realize how important these

787
00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:48,480
Speaker 1: grasslands are too, not just deer, but all these other

788
00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:51,040
Speaker 1: wildlife species as well. The amount of deer food in

789
00:44:51,080 --> 00:44:54,319
Speaker 1: the grass and far exceeds man. You'd have to have

790
00:44:55,120 --> 00:44:56,880
Speaker 1: you know how, I can't do the math off the

791
00:44:56,880 --> 00:44:59,040
Speaker 1: time of my head, fifty fifty acres. You'd have to

792
00:44:59,040 --> 00:45:01,120
Speaker 1: have fifty acres of those canady for us to do

793
00:45:01,160 --> 00:45:05,200
Speaker 1: what one acre of of a grassland can do. They're

794
00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:09,480
Speaker 1: just powerhouses. And they provide a ton of cover for fawns.

795
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:13,040
Speaker 1: If you hate man, if you hate next predators and

796
00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:17,319
Speaker 1: and fawn killers, make sure your property has that cover

797
00:45:17,480 --> 00:45:19,920
Speaker 1: first and a and a good bit of it, not

798
00:45:20,040 --> 00:45:22,879
Speaker 1: just one acre that they can come check and walk

799
00:45:22,920 --> 00:45:25,400
Speaker 1: through the whole thing real quick, and and see what's

800
00:45:25,520 --> 00:45:31,040
Speaker 1: what's laying down in there? Give your give your what

801
00:45:31,200 --> 00:45:34,920
Speaker 1: is it? Ah, gosh, Jerry Jerry Clour down here on

802
00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:37,800
Speaker 1: the radio, give them, but give him a fighting chance.

803
00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:41,000
Speaker 1: Give give your give your turkeys, and give your fawns

804
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:43,480
Speaker 1: a fighting chance. Man. And then they don't have a

805
00:45:43,480 --> 00:45:47,120
Speaker 1: fighting chance that they don't have that cover. Um. And

806
00:45:47,120 --> 00:45:51,000
Speaker 1: and you know your quail that that have disappeared. North

807
00:45:51,040 --> 00:45:54,919
Speaker 1: Alabama used to have prairie chickens. I know up heels

808
00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:58,319
Speaker 1: Away y'all had prairie chickens. But nobody knows that the

809
00:45:58,440 --> 00:46:01,319
Speaker 1: Southeast had prairie chickens. We had so much prairie. We

810
00:46:01,320 --> 00:46:05,160
Speaker 1: had prairie chickens um and they're even more grassling independent

811
00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:08,040
Speaker 1: than quail. But our quail are disappearing. Our turkeys have

812
00:46:08,120 --> 00:46:11,160
Speaker 1: disappeared in North Alabama. I mean, they're My county's the

813
00:46:11,200 --> 00:46:16,600
Speaker 1: worst in the state for turkeys. And and uh, you know,

814
00:46:16,800 --> 00:46:20,520
Speaker 1: bringing back these grasslands, you see that immediate response even

815
00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:23,479
Speaker 1: my front flower beds. Man Like, in my front yard,

816
00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:26,360
Speaker 1: I converted part of my yard to native prairie and

817
00:46:26,480 --> 00:46:30,400
Speaker 1: it's maybe maybe twenty foot by sixty foot and I

818
00:46:30,440 --> 00:46:33,279
Speaker 1: filled it full of native wildfliers. That first year, you

819
00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:36,719
Speaker 1: could audibly hear the amount of insects in it, like

820
00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:40,560
Speaker 1: just like that. It went from dead silent to the

821
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:44,640
Speaker 1: noise was almost deafening, the amount of insects and pollinators.

822
00:46:44,719 --> 00:46:48,319
Speaker 1: Using this little little bitty strip and you you take

823
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:50,880
Speaker 1: that twenty foot by sisty foot area and turn it

824
00:46:50,880 --> 00:46:54,680
Speaker 1: into twenty acres, think about the amount of food that

825
00:46:54,840 --> 00:46:59,520
Speaker 1: is for turkeys and quail, and the amount of brows

826
00:46:59,560 --> 00:47:01,840
Speaker 1: that is or deer, an amount of cover that is.

827
00:47:01,880 --> 00:47:04,880
Speaker 1: I mean, it's that's the thing is people have to

828
00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:07,359
Speaker 1: see this for themselves, and it takes a little experiences

829
00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:09,719
Speaker 1: like I had in my front yard or I had,

830
00:47:10,160 --> 00:47:12,800
Speaker 1: you know, killing off that prairie on that Hunt property.

831
00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:14,840
Speaker 1: It takes a little experiences like that for people to

832
00:47:14,880 --> 00:47:17,680
Speaker 1: see it for themselves and be like, man, there's really

833
00:47:17,680 --> 00:47:20,959
Speaker 1: something to this, Like we're starving these things to death,

834
00:47:22,200 --> 00:47:25,279
Speaker 1: and not just you know, not just deer. I mean, dear,

835
00:47:25,880 --> 00:47:27,960
Speaker 1: we're starving them to death too. When you're starving deer

836
00:47:27,960 --> 00:47:30,560
Speaker 1: to death, I mean that's you're a you're you have

837
00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:32,600
Speaker 1: a real problem there where you have a brows line

838
00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:37,160
Speaker 1: because deer, and you're so far from from correcting that.

839
00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:40,440
Speaker 1: I mean, it's you're really you're really deep. Then you're

840
00:47:40,520 --> 00:47:42,080
Speaker 1: really deep into it. It's gonna take a lot to

841
00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:46,239
Speaker 1: fix it. But the grasslands are the first or the

842
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:48,719
Speaker 1: first answer. Man. If you can take something, if you

843
00:47:48,719 --> 00:47:50,879
Speaker 1: can take an open end and turn it back into

844
00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:53,759
Speaker 1: a grassland and provide that year round food and cover

845
00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:56,600
Speaker 1: and and I mean, that's the best thing you can

846
00:47:56,640 --> 00:47:58,319
Speaker 1: do on a property that has a lot of close

847
00:47:58,400 --> 00:48:01,200
Speaker 1: can to be timber. I know that, yeah, and and

848
00:48:01,200 --> 00:48:03,000
Speaker 1: and not none of that, But can you speak a

849
00:48:03,040 --> 00:48:06,000
Speaker 1: little bit to the benefits that native grass lands have

850
00:48:06,120 --> 00:48:10,640
Speaker 1: to to water quality or carbon sequestration or any of

851
00:48:10,680 --> 00:48:15,359
Speaker 1: these other bigger, bigger things. Yeah, so obviously they're they're

852
00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:19,080
Speaker 1: cleaning water. They're they're those deep root systems. So they

853
00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:21,759
Speaker 1: native grasses have roots I mean anywhere from eight to

854
00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:24,600
Speaker 1: fifteen foot I mean, and some of your wildflowers are

855
00:48:24,640 --> 00:48:27,920
Speaker 1: the same. And these big long tap roots um. And

856
00:48:28,640 --> 00:48:31,080
Speaker 1: that's allowing what's that What that is doing is basically

857
00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:35,720
Speaker 1: doing what what uh what tillage ravages do of those

858
00:48:36,080 --> 00:48:39,360
Speaker 1: you know, they're breaking that hard pan, They're they're going

859
00:48:40,160 --> 00:48:43,080
Speaker 1: way way deep down to the soil, reaching nutrients that

860
00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:49,280
Speaker 1: you know, fescue and like these shorter root grasses can't reach.

861
00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:51,880
Speaker 1: And so they're bringing that nutrients to the top and

862
00:48:51,920 --> 00:48:55,720
Speaker 1: that's building your soils and that's improving your soil quality.

863
00:48:55,880 --> 00:48:59,040
Speaker 1: That's also allowing that water to slow down those tall

864
00:48:59,080 --> 00:49:04,719
Speaker 1: grasses when water hits it, um that water slowing down

865
00:49:05,000 --> 00:49:08,279
Speaker 1: and it's now easier for it to penetrate down into

866
00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:11,000
Speaker 1: your aquifers. And that's cleaning water. When water can get

867
00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:13,600
Speaker 1: down to our aquifers, it filters it before it even

868
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:18,680
Speaker 1: gets to our streams. UM. But talking about carbon, your

869
00:49:18,760 --> 00:49:22,920
Speaker 1: forests and forests are storing most of their carbon above ground,

870
00:49:23,000 --> 00:49:25,759
Speaker 1: in the in the timber, in the logs, and so

871
00:49:26,680 --> 00:49:29,399
Speaker 1: you're you're storing that carbon. If you cut that tree

872
00:49:29,440 --> 00:49:31,840
Speaker 1: down and use it as a wood product, that carbon

873
00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:34,680
Speaker 1: is then stored in the home for however long that

874
00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:38,680
Speaker 1: home exists. But eight of grasses and Forbes, man, they're

875
00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:44,560
Speaker 1: storing eighty five their carbon underground. And that's why you

876
00:49:44,600 --> 00:49:47,080
Speaker 1: know down you've got the black Belt Prairie of Alabama.

877
00:49:47,320 --> 00:49:50,960
Speaker 1: These prairie soils are just really dark and rich from

878
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:55,200
Speaker 1: all the carbon stored in them. And when a fire

879
00:49:55,280 --> 00:49:58,600
Speaker 1: goes through a grassland, it's burning the tops of those grasses,

880
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:01,200
Speaker 1: but it's not really in the carbon that it's already

881
00:50:01,200 --> 00:50:04,719
Speaker 1: stored underground. When you have a fire or a wildfire,

882
00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:06,759
Speaker 1: now that's been you know, that's you're gonna get me

883
00:50:06,840 --> 00:50:10,839
Speaker 1: off on a different topic there. But when when you know,

884
00:50:10,880 --> 00:50:12,880
Speaker 1: a fire goes through a forest, it's burning up all

885
00:50:12,880 --> 00:50:16,840
Speaker 1: those stems and leaves and sticks and down logs, and

886
00:50:16,840 --> 00:50:19,120
Speaker 1: and it's releasing take carbon back in the air. When

887
00:50:19,120 --> 00:50:21,160
Speaker 1: those logs fall down and they rot on the ground,

888
00:50:21,600 --> 00:50:24,040
Speaker 1: that carbon is released back in the ground. So it's

889
00:50:24,040 --> 00:50:28,040
Speaker 1: not necessarily that grasslands are better at sequestering carbon, because

890
00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:32,960
Speaker 1: forests are better at sequestering carbon. Grasslands just store carbon

891
00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:37,000
Speaker 1: in a safer place to where it's likelihood of being

892
00:50:37,040 --> 00:50:41,279
Speaker 1: released again is very low. So when it comes to that,

893
00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:47,160
Speaker 1: grasslands are better carbon sequester or better store or storing carbon.

894
00:50:47,239 --> 00:50:51,520
Speaker 1: But um, is that that makes sense? Last one? Yeah,

895
00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:54,279
Speaker 1: that makes sense? So okay, So grasslands are going to

896
00:50:54,360 --> 00:50:57,640
Speaker 1: be incredible producers of food, of cover, They're going to

897
00:50:57,680 --> 00:50:59,759
Speaker 1: clean our water, they're in store carbon, They're gonna do

898
00:50:59,800 --> 00:51:03,000
Speaker 1: all these incredible things. I want some How do I

899
00:51:03,120 --> 00:51:05,440
Speaker 1: do it? I've got some I've got some openings on

900
00:51:05,480 --> 00:51:08,520
Speaker 1: my property, let's say. And actually, here here, I'll give

901
00:51:08,560 --> 00:51:11,960
Speaker 1: you a real life example. I have a property I

902
00:51:11,960 --> 00:51:14,480
Speaker 1: have permission to do some stuff with as long as

903
00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:16,560
Speaker 1: I don't mess with the crops. So I can't do

904
00:51:16,600 --> 00:51:19,439
Speaker 1: a ton. But like, my main openings that I have

905
00:51:19,640 --> 00:51:23,080
Speaker 1: are power lines, and the power lines are just full

906
00:51:23,120 --> 00:51:25,160
Speaker 1: of like I'm not exactly sure what kind of cool

907
00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:27,600
Speaker 1: season grasses, but its fescue or some kind of turf

908
00:51:27,600 --> 00:51:33,720
Speaker 1: grass that's doing nothing. How do you recommend transforming something

909
00:51:33,760 --> 00:51:38,480
Speaker 1: like that into a healthy native grassland that packs a

910
00:51:38,520 --> 00:51:42,040
Speaker 1: big punch for wildlife? Well, what's the history on that

911
00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:45,319
Speaker 1: power line? Has it been farmed? The power line has

912
00:51:45,360 --> 00:51:48,719
Speaker 1: not been farmed. This is just like grassy cutting through

913
00:51:48,760 --> 00:51:51,279
Speaker 1: a piece of timber kind of stuff, all right, So

914
00:51:51,320 --> 00:51:53,880
Speaker 1: that's when you're going to take a different approach it.

915
00:51:53,960 --> 00:51:55,680
Speaker 1: It still has a native seed bank, you think it

916
00:51:55,719 --> 00:51:58,000
Speaker 1: still has some natives in that seed bank that can respond.

917
00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:01,920
Speaker 1: What you want to do is go in. I'm guessing

918
00:52:02,040 --> 00:52:03,560
Speaker 1: you know you got a lot of fescue and cool

919
00:52:03,560 --> 00:52:07,120
Speaker 1: season grasses. You can go in during November, you know,

920
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:11,399
Speaker 1: sometimes March. I prefer doing it in the fall. Going

921
00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:14,560
Speaker 1: in the fall and when most everything else has gone dormant,

922
00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:16,680
Speaker 1: and you're gonna you're gonna want to do it on

923
00:52:16,719 --> 00:52:19,719
Speaker 1: a day that's in the fifties. Um, so you're you

924
00:52:19,760 --> 00:52:22,399
Speaker 1: know glaphy sad is working, or your herbicide whatever you're using,

925
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:25,680
Speaker 1: and and spray those native grasses. You can even use

926
00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:28,719
Speaker 1: a grass selective herbicide on those and only kill them

927
00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:31,680
Speaker 1: the native or the non native grasses that are green.

928
00:52:32,200 --> 00:52:35,719
Speaker 1: So spray those, kill those off, and maybe run a

929
00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:37,560
Speaker 1: fire through it. And it might take you a couple

930
00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:38,920
Speaker 1: of years. You might have to come back through the

931
00:52:38,960 --> 00:52:42,399
Speaker 1: next year and do some touching up, but kill off

932
00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:46,040
Speaker 1: that at a non native grass and see how that

933
00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:49,759
Speaker 1: seed responds, See how it responds by just not mowing it,

934
00:52:50,200 --> 00:52:52,640
Speaker 1: by bringing fire back. And that's what I did in

935
00:52:52,680 --> 00:52:55,040
Speaker 1: my pasture. And I've had a great response I've had.

936
00:52:55,680 --> 00:52:58,960
Speaker 1: You know, I think I've got fifty six species of

937
00:52:59,160 --> 00:53:02,200
Speaker 1: native wildfliers and grasses down there that have come back

938
00:53:02,239 --> 00:53:04,680
Speaker 1: on their own um. And you can you can watch

939
00:53:04,680 --> 00:53:08,000
Speaker 1: the videos of that on some of my pages. There's

940
00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:10,800
Speaker 1: one where you see just tons of black eyed susan,

941
00:53:10,840 --> 00:53:13,640
Speaker 1: those yellow flowers in the background. That's my past year.

942
00:53:13,719 --> 00:53:16,960
Speaker 1: That was once rescue and now it's a solid blanket

943
00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:20,000
Speaker 1: of yellow just from the seed bank and just from

944
00:53:20,080 --> 00:53:23,359
Speaker 1: not mowing it. Because that first year that these you're

945
00:53:23,360 --> 00:53:25,360
Speaker 1: gonna get a lot of pioneer species, just like you

946
00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:30,040
Speaker 1: would have forest. There's secessional stage, successional stages, and uh

947
00:53:30,200 --> 00:53:33,000
Speaker 1: so you're gonna get those pioneer species. You're gonna have

948
00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:36,000
Speaker 1: a lot of ragweed um, the stuff you find in

949
00:53:36,040 --> 00:53:38,319
Speaker 1: old fields a lot of the time. Yeah, it's gonna

950
00:53:38,360 --> 00:53:43,520
Speaker 1: take it's gonna take longer for your native your perennials

951
00:53:43,880 --> 00:53:46,960
Speaker 1: to establish. So some of those um, some of those

952
00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:50,279
Speaker 1: take three years to get fully grown and established, but

953
00:53:51,800 --> 00:53:55,200
Speaker 1: not not mowing that during the summer for several years

954
00:53:55,480 --> 00:53:58,799
Speaker 1: allows those natives to flower and go to seed, and

955
00:53:58,840 --> 00:54:01,200
Speaker 1: that seed drops on the ground, so you're gonna get

956
00:54:01,520 --> 00:54:06,040
Speaker 1: more the next year. It's gonna multiply, So you know

957
00:54:06,200 --> 00:54:08,160
Speaker 1: that first year. Really you can go in there even

958
00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:11,439
Speaker 1: with some native wild flower plugs and adds some native

959
00:54:11,440 --> 00:54:14,680
Speaker 1: wildflier plugs to it the first year, and those are

960
00:54:14,719 --> 00:54:17,399
Speaker 1: gonna grow and go to seed, and you can you'd

961
00:54:17,440 --> 00:54:21,600
Speaker 1: be surprised just how one wildflower plug being able to

962
00:54:21,640 --> 00:54:24,719
Speaker 1: grow and go to seed, how that will multiply year

963
00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:27,960
Speaker 1: after year if you're not mowing it while it's flowering

964
00:54:28,280 --> 00:54:32,160
Speaker 1: or before it goes to seed. And that's how I

965
00:54:32,480 --> 00:54:34,920
Speaker 1: on something like you're talking about. That's probably how I'd

966
00:54:34,920 --> 00:54:37,480
Speaker 1: approach it. I'd kill the fescue, maybe add a few

967
00:54:37,560 --> 00:54:39,480
Speaker 1: native plugs if you can find them for your area,

968
00:54:40,600 --> 00:54:42,280
Speaker 1: if you want to find if you've got some native

969
00:54:42,360 --> 00:54:46,120
Speaker 1: seeds available in the southeast, we don't our closest one.

970
00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:51,239
Speaker 1: It's Roundstone in Kentucky, but up your way, where's where's

971
00:54:51,280 --> 00:54:55,759
Speaker 1: your place exactly southern Michigan. So there's I don't know

972
00:54:55,800 --> 00:55:00,000
Speaker 1: about Michigan, but I know I think Ohio and Indie

973
00:55:00,040 --> 00:55:03,399
Speaker 1: and Illinois. I mean those there's there's stay native seed

974
00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:05,239
Speaker 1: producers in those areas, so you can probably get some

975
00:55:05,320 --> 00:55:07,680
Speaker 1: from them, and after you kill at rescue, that'd be

976
00:55:07,680 --> 00:55:10,480
Speaker 1: a good time probably go through and just throw out

977
00:55:10,520 --> 00:55:12,759
Speaker 1: some of those by hand. And um, you don't have

978
00:55:12,800 --> 00:55:14,480
Speaker 1: to drill them. If you have a if you can

979
00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:17,799
Speaker 1: get a native seed drill from a from the you know,

980
00:55:17,960 --> 00:55:21,160
Speaker 1: nurcs or something in your area, UM, you could run

981
00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:23,799
Speaker 1: through and drill that. Um, that might be a good

982
00:55:23,840 --> 00:55:26,920
Speaker 1: option to first year. But to me, honestly enjoy just

983
00:55:26,960 --> 00:55:29,600
Speaker 1: seeing what comes back from the seed bank. Um. And

984
00:55:29,640 --> 00:55:32,439
Speaker 1: then um, if it's not the response I was wont

985
00:55:32,480 --> 00:55:34,400
Speaker 1: then I can go through and add some plugs or

986
00:55:34,440 --> 00:55:37,520
Speaker 1: throwing some seeds. But to me, it's fun seeing what

987
00:55:37,600 --> 00:55:40,279
Speaker 1: just comes back on its home. Yeah. So in a

988
00:55:40,360 --> 00:55:45,719
Speaker 1: situation mind specifically, UM, I did a prescribe fire once

989
00:55:45,840 --> 00:55:49,560
Speaker 1: and actually had the power line company come when I

990
00:55:49,600 --> 00:55:51,919
Speaker 1: was doing it and flip out on us for doing

991
00:55:51,920 --> 00:55:53,719
Speaker 1: it near the power lines. So I've been gun shy

992
00:55:53,800 --> 00:55:56,680
Speaker 1: to ever do that again. Can you can you do

993
00:55:56,719 --> 00:56:01,000
Speaker 1: this and have success without the fire? Just doing that? Cool?

994
00:56:01,040 --> 00:56:05,120
Speaker 1: Season spraying or is the fire really key? Yeah, I

995
00:56:05,120 --> 00:56:08,560
Speaker 1: mean that can you can have good results from that. Um.

996
00:56:09,120 --> 00:56:12,120
Speaker 1: And then and then you're gonna, like I said, let

997
00:56:12,120 --> 00:56:14,360
Speaker 1: a flower go to seed, and then in the in

998
00:56:14,400 --> 00:56:18,040
Speaker 1: the winter, you can mow half of it, um, leave

999
00:56:18,080 --> 00:56:22,040
Speaker 1: half of it standing, so it's acting as cover. Um.

1000
00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:25,319
Speaker 1: But um, you know, mow it every now and then

1001
00:56:25,360 --> 00:56:27,360
Speaker 1: just to keep it from growing up in trees. But

1002
00:56:27,520 --> 00:56:29,960
Speaker 1: alternate because that's the main thing. You don't want it

1003
00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:32,200
Speaker 1: to grow up in trees. But you're also not going

1004
00:56:32,239 --> 00:56:34,319
Speaker 1: to get the response you would from fire. I mean,

1005
00:56:34,360 --> 00:56:39,239
Speaker 1: fire is really uh, that's that's the best way. And man,

1006
00:56:39,280 --> 00:56:41,400
Speaker 1: you must have got really unlucky for that to happen,

1007
00:56:41,400 --> 00:56:45,560
Speaker 1: because I've never I've never I've burned under tons of

1008
00:56:45,560 --> 00:56:47,799
Speaker 1: power lines and they've I've never had an issue with it.

1009
00:56:47,840 --> 00:56:50,920
Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't know if they threatened threatened me

1010
00:56:50,920 --> 00:56:53,360
Speaker 1: with all sorts of stuff and it got me nervous

1011
00:56:53,400 --> 00:56:55,239
Speaker 1: to ever do it again. But maybe I just caught

1012
00:56:55,239 --> 00:56:57,080
Speaker 1: the wrong guys on the wrong day and they were

1013
00:56:58,120 --> 00:57:01,160
Speaker 1: making it seem like it was way more risk it.

1014
00:57:01,320 --> 00:57:03,840
Speaker 1: I even had a I even had a fireman buddy

1015
00:57:03,920 --> 00:57:05,600
Speaker 1: with me, So it's like we had we were doing

1016
00:57:05,600 --> 00:57:07,879
Speaker 1: everything right. We weren't too close to the polls. But man,

1017
00:57:07,920 --> 00:57:09,800
Speaker 1: they really gave it to us that we weren't supposed

1018
00:57:09,800 --> 00:57:12,360
Speaker 1: to be doing that. And I don't know so. So

1019
00:57:12,520 --> 00:57:16,480
Speaker 1: what they say is that if that smoke is sticking us,

1020
00:57:17,280 --> 00:57:21,560
Speaker 1: that the electricity can arc through the smoke down to

1021
00:57:21,600 --> 00:57:26,600
Speaker 1: the ground. Um. But that's what you if you google it,

1022
00:57:26,640 --> 00:57:31,360
Speaker 1: that's what it says. But take this for what it's worth. UM.

1023
00:57:31,600 --> 00:57:33,919
Speaker 1: Probably I was in the I took a prescribed pirate

1024
00:57:34,040 --> 00:57:37,640
Speaker 1: training class again this year with some buddy's of mind

1025
00:57:37,640 --> 00:57:40,920
Speaker 1: who wanted to do it just to just to uh,

1026
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:42,840
Speaker 1: just because I was. The last time I took it,

1027
00:57:42,920 --> 00:57:45,440
Speaker 1: I was. It was twenty fifteen and I was had

1028
00:57:45,480 --> 00:57:47,360
Speaker 1: no idea what I was even doing then. But I

1029
00:57:47,440 --> 00:57:49,600
Speaker 1: just took it again as a refresher. And it was

1030
00:57:49,640 --> 00:57:53,080
Speaker 1: with one of the one of the best prescribed burners

1031
00:57:53,440 --> 00:57:56,320
Speaker 1: in the I considering the world, probably has done more

1032
00:57:56,320 --> 00:57:59,600
Speaker 1: prescribed fires than anybody else in the world. It's not

1033
00:57:59,720 --> 00:58:04,240
Speaker 1: his three This guy burns like three hundred days a year. Um.

1034
00:58:04,360 --> 00:58:07,080
Speaker 1: I mean he'll do like five hundred burns in a year,

1035
00:58:07,720 --> 00:58:11,040
Speaker 1: doing multiple burns a day on different properties. Um. But

1036
00:58:11,160 --> 00:58:13,880
Speaker 1: he's he's like he burns under power lines and doesn't

1037
00:58:13,880 --> 00:58:15,880
Speaker 1: worry about it. He said, he's never had a problem

1038
00:58:15,920 --> 00:58:18,560
Speaker 1: with him. Um, but for the longest, I was scared

1039
00:58:18,600 --> 00:58:21,440
Speaker 1: because I saw something about it being able to arc.

1040
00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:25,040
Speaker 1: But I still haven't had that issue, and I've started

1041
00:58:25,080 --> 00:58:29,120
Speaker 1: burning in power lines again. Nothing's happened. But UM, don't

1042
00:58:29,440 --> 00:58:33,640
Speaker 1: don't take my word for that, right If I'm not

1043
00:58:33,720 --> 00:58:36,520
Speaker 1: I'm not liable. Yeah, I want so let's see you.

1044
00:58:37,000 --> 00:58:40,480
Speaker 1: Um So what about You know, a lot of folks

1045
00:58:40,880 --> 00:58:43,440
Speaker 1: buy a property and there's some tillable on it, and

1046
00:58:43,680 --> 00:58:45,080
Speaker 1: you know, one of the if they don't want to

1047
00:58:45,080 --> 00:58:46,680
Speaker 1: plan all that tillable and food, or if they're not

1048
00:58:46,680 --> 00:58:48,760
Speaker 1: going to rent it out. Um. A lot of folks

1049
00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:52,080
Speaker 1: look at programs like CRP UM or something like that.

1050
00:58:52,240 --> 00:58:54,760
Speaker 1: What are your what are your thoughts on those commons?

1051
00:58:54,760 --> 00:58:58,040
Speaker 1: CRP mixes or you know, pheasants forever mixes that a

1052
00:58:58,040 --> 00:59:01,320
Speaker 1: lot of folks use, um, different stuff like that. If

1053
00:59:01,360 --> 00:59:03,480
Speaker 1: you're in a government program that's going to pay for

1054
00:59:03,520 --> 00:59:07,240
Speaker 1: some of that work, you know, what are your thoughts

1055
00:59:07,280 --> 00:59:09,440
Speaker 1: on those things? Make sure it has a lot of

1056
00:59:09,480 --> 00:59:13,480
Speaker 1: biodiversity in it. If it's mostly native grasses, steer clear.

1057
00:59:14,840 --> 00:59:22,800
Speaker 1: I've seen places. Hold on one second. I've seen places

1058
00:59:22,840 --> 00:59:25,600
Speaker 1: that people have planted some of those mixes in and

1059
00:59:25,640 --> 00:59:28,760
Speaker 1: it was almost all non native excuse me, it was

1060
00:59:28,760 --> 00:59:32,640
Speaker 1: almost all native warmpses and grasses, so blue stem, big

1061
00:59:32,640 --> 00:59:37,440
Speaker 1: blue stem, switch grass, indian grass, gamma grass. And what

1062
00:59:37,480 --> 00:59:40,200
Speaker 1: happens is that takes over and you don't have any

1063
00:59:40,240 --> 00:59:42,080
Speaker 1: of the forbes. You don't have any of the things

1064
00:59:42,080 --> 00:59:45,120
Speaker 1: that are really attracting insects, you don't have any of

1065
00:59:45,120 --> 00:59:47,280
Speaker 1: the things that are getting browsed by dear. You don't

1066
00:59:47,320 --> 00:59:49,520
Speaker 1: have any of the things that are producing a lot

1067
00:59:49,560 --> 00:59:53,800
Speaker 1: of edible seeds dropping on the ground. So it really

1068
00:59:53,800 --> 00:59:56,200
Speaker 1: sets you up to make it hard to get any

1069
00:59:56,240 --> 01:00:00,840
Speaker 1: more native diversity in there because those native wormses and

1070
01:00:00,880 --> 01:00:03,880
Speaker 1: grasses are really aggressive. So make sure it has a

1071
01:00:03,880 --> 01:00:06,240
Speaker 1: lot of forbes in that mix when you plan it.

1072
01:00:07,160 --> 01:00:09,160
Speaker 1: So that's my advice. And make sure it's an area

1073
01:00:09,200 --> 01:00:12,000
Speaker 1: that you can burn. I've seen places where people did

1074
01:00:12,040 --> 01:00:14,959
Speaker 1: a mix like that and they're like, well, I can't

1075
01:00:14,960 --> 01:00:17,960
Speaker 1: burn it um and or I can't bow it because

1076
01:00:17,960 --> 01:00:20,000
Speaker 1: it's wetmost of the year, And then you've got five

1077
01:00:20,080 --> 01:00:23,760
Speaker 1: years worth of native wormses and grass thatch built up,

1078
01:00:24,440 --> 01:00:27,560
Speaker 1: and man, that's not not that's not very good for wildlife.

1079
01:00:28,400 --> 01:00:30,360
Speaker 1: It's gonna be really thick and there's not gonna be

1080
01:00:30,360 --> 01:00:33,360
Speaker 1: anything in there for a deer to eat, and it's

1081
01:00:33,400 --> 01:00:36,479
Speaker 1: gonna be too thick for things that use this nest

1082
01:00:36,560 --> 01:00:39,240
Speaker 1: and cover and stuff. So, um, make sure that's one

1083
01:00:39,280 --> 01:00:40,920
Speaker 1: of my advice. Maketure is an area that you can

1084
01:00:40,920 --> 01:00:44,000
Speaker 1: burn and make sure there's a lot of forbes. Yeah,

1085
01:00:44,120 --> 01:00:46,680
Speaker 1: so okay, that that leads me to the next question,

1086
01:00:46,760 --> 01:00:48,880
Speaker 1: which you alluded to some of the things right here.

1087
01:00:48,880 --> 01:00:51,720
Speaker 1: But but maybe you can expand on if you do

1088
01:00:51,840 --> 01:00:55,320
Speaker 1: have one of these areas, if you do have a

1089
01:00:55,360 --> 01:00:57,680
Speaker 1: spot where you were able to plant some kind of

1090
01:00:57,760 --> 01:01:01,680
Speaker 1: native grass and forb mix, if you've got ground in CRP,

1091
01:01:01,920 --> 01:01:04,400
Speaker 1: if you've got you know, powerline that you were able

1092
01:01:04,440 --> 01:01:06,439
Speaker 1: to convert like I just talked about, and you've you've

1093
01:01:06,440 --> 01:01:09,000
Speaker 1: done it. You got you got this habitat out there.

1094
01:01:09,480 --> 01:01:12,520
Speaker 1: But what's the right way to manage it? What are

1095
01:01:12,560 --> 01:01:16,720
Speaker 1: your you know, recommendations for how often to create some

1096
01:01:16,800 --> 01:01:21,120
Speaker 1: kind disturbance in the right way to do that? Well,

1097
01:01:21,360 --> 01:01:26,120
Speaker 1: so that's the way I do it is is I'm

1098
01:01:26,160 --> 01:01:31,640
Speaker 1: I'm if you're ever questioning anything managing native ecosystems, can

1099
01:01:31,920 --> 01:01:35,080
Speaker 1: ask yourself, what's going to be the most diverse? How

1100
01:01:35,120 --> 01:01:38,400
Speaker 1: can I make how can I diversify this so it's

1101
01:01:38,440 --> 01:01:42,880
Speaker 1: not all the same. Um So my advice is split

1102
01:01:42,960 --> 01:01:46,520
Speaker 1: it up, Split it up in several sections, as many

1103
01:01:46,520 --> 01:01:50,000
Speaker 1: sections as you want. Make it a checkerboard. Make it

1104
01:01:50,480 --> 01:01:52,480
Speaker 1: look like the American flag if you want. I mean,

1105
01:01:52,520 --> 01:01:56,160
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter, and burn like or burn or mo

1106
01:01:57,360 --> 01:02:02,520
Speaker 1: one section, leave three sections, burn another one in the fall,

1107
01:02:03,080 --> 01:02:05,960
Speaker 1: burn another one in the spring. Make sure you're leaving

1108
01:02:06,120 --> 01:02:10,560
Speaker 1: half of it standing at all times. And that's gonna

1109
01:02:10,560 --> 01:02:13,200
Speaker 1: make sure you always have cover. You always have a

1110
01:02:13,240 --> 01:02:17,440
Speaker 1: place for wildlife to escape, and you also always have

1111
01:02:17,560 --> 01:02:20,720
Speaker 1: something greening up or something that's gonna You know, burning

1112
01:02:20,760 --> 01:02:25,360
Speaker 1: in the fall really benefits your wildflowers and your forbes

1113
01:02:25,640 --> 01:02:29,240
Speaker 1: because right now, I don't know about where you're at,

1114
01:02:29,240 --> 01:02:31,880
Speaker 1: but in Alabama, things are starting to green up and

1115
01:02:31,920 --> 01:02:34,600
Speaker 1: it's all those forbes. You're seeing a lot of forbes

1116
01:02:34,680 --> 01:02:38,920
Speaker 1: greening up, and they drop their seeds at the end

1117
01:02:38,920 --> 01:02:41,800
Speaker 1: of last summer, and those seeds hit the ground, they

1118
01:02:41,880 --> 01:02:45,400
Speaker 1: cold stratified, they started germinating, and now they're growing if

1119
01:02:45,400 --> 01:02:48,160
Speaker 1: I did a burn run now in the spring, it's

1120
01:02:48,160 --> 01:02:49,640
Speaker 1: going to kill a lot of those forbes that are

1121
01:02:49,640 --> 01:02:55,280
Speaker 1: starting to sprout. And then late summer your native forms

1122
01:02:55,360 --> 01:02:57,640
Speaker 1: and grasses are going to come in and take over.

1123
01:02:58,040 --> 01:03:01,040
Speaker 1: And so spring burns manage for more native on seas

1124
01:03:01,080 --> 01:03:05,800
Speaker 1: and grasses. Fall burns really benefit your forbes and your wildflowers.

1125
01:03:06,080 --> 01:03:08,240
Speaker 1: So mixing it up on your property doing a little

1126
01:03:08,240 --> 01:03:10,480
Speaker 1: bit of both. Do a growing season burn if you

1127
01:03:10,520 --> 01:03:14,120
Speaker 1: have to. If you're dealing with woody plants like trees

1128
01:03:14,160 --> 01:03:16,600
Speaker 1: and briars or whatever, and you don't want them there,

1129
01:03:16,600 --> 01:03:19,440
Speaker 1: and there are species that you don't want there, you know,

1130
01:03:19,480 --> 01:03:21,880
Speaker 1: if they're a native like plums or hazel nut or

1131
01:03:21,920 --> 01:03:25,120
Speaker 1: something I mean, or sumac I mean, those are going

1132
01:03:25,200 --> 01:03:29,720
Speaker 1: to be good for wildlife. If it's something you don't want,

1133
01:03:29,760 --> 01:03:31,480
Speaker 1: to a growing season burn to kill them, or do

1134
01:03:31,520 --> 01:03:33,880
Speaker 1: a fall burn to trying to kill them. It's really,

1135
01:03:35,480 --> 01:03:37,960
Speaker 1: you know, depends on what you're what issues you're having,

1136
01:03:38,000 --> 01:03:40,840
Speaker 1: And that's why you know, splitting it up into different

1137
01:03:40,840 --> 01:03:44,080
Speaker 1: sections and diversifying it helps because you might see, hey,

1138
01:03:44,120 --> 01:03:45,760
Speaker 1: this section is starting to get a lot of trees

1139
01:03:45,800 --> 01:03:48,280
Speaker 1: in there, maybe I should come in here and mow

1140
01:03:48,320 --> 01:03:51,240
Speaker 1: it or treat it with herbside or whatever, and you're

1141
01:03:51,280 --> 01:03:52,960
Speaker 1: not having to do that to your whole entire place,

1142
01:03:53,680 --> 01:03:56,600
Speaker 1: So submit it. I've split up those fields and you

1143
01:03:56,600 --> 01:03:59,320
Speaker 1: can do it with mode lanes. I like mode lanes

1144
01:03:59,360 --> 01:04:01,680
Speaker 1: because I can use those mode lanes as fire lines.

1145
01:04:02,360 --> 01:04:04,640
Speaker 1: And if you're a deer hunter, yeah, you can plant

1146
01:04:04,640 --> 01:04:07,000
Speaker 1: those mode lanes and clover if you want um and

1147
01:04:07,200 --> 01:04:11,040
Speaker 1: use that green clover as a fire line. And there's different,

1148
01:04:11,040 --> 01:04:13,640
Speaker 1: all kinds of different things you can do. But that's

1149
01:04:14,000 --> 01:04:16,760
Speaker 1: that's my answer to everything, because I had to figure

1150
01:04:16,760 --> 01:04:19,400
Speaker 1: out a lot of these questions on my own, and

1151
01:04:19,560 --> 01:04:21,840
Speaker 1: so when I try to think through that through my head,

1152
01:04:21,880 --> 01:04:26,480
Speaker 1: I'm like, what's going to be the best for my adversity.

1153
01:04:26,520 --> 01:04:29,560
Speaker 1: What's going to make my property the most diverse? Because

1154
01:04:29,680 --> 01:04:32,919
Speaker 1: when I make my property the most diverse, I'm more

1155
01:04:33,000 --> 01:04:38,320
Speaker 1: likely to have what that deer needs dear in a

1156
01:04:38,360 --> 01:04:40,760
Speaker 1: specific time of year, so he's not having to go

1157
01:04:40,800 --> 01:04:43,320
Speaker 1: off my place looking for something, you know, some kind

1158
01:04:43,360 --> 01:04:46,400
Speaker 1: of habitat or something that he's looking for. I've likely

1159
01:04:46,400 --> 01:04:49,440
Speaker 1: got it on my place because I've persified it and

1160
01:04:49,520 --> 01:04:51,720
Speaker 1: I've got those I feel that's mostly forwards I've got

1161
01:04:51,720 --> 01:04:54,240
Speaker 1: to feel that's most native ones and grasses. I got

1162
01:04:54,240 --> 01:04:57,800
Speaker 1: a strip that's a lot of thickets. You know, you've

1163
01:04:57,800 --> 01:05:00,400
Speaker 1: got a lot of thickets species in there, all thorns

1164
01:05:00,440 --> 01:05:05,200
Speaker 1: and hazel nuts and plums and crab apples, and you

1165
01:05:05,240 --> 01:05:08,280
Speaker 1: know a lot of your native shrub species. So he's

1166
01:05:08,360 --> 01:05:10,480
Speaker 1: you know, a deer's got that kind of habitat. Quail

1167
01:05:10,480 --> 01:05:13,400
Speaker 1: and turkey have that kind of habitat. Just make it

1168
01:05:13,440 --> 01:05:15,880
Speaker 1: as diverse as possible. And that's you know, that's the

1169
01:05:15,920 --> 01:05:18,600
Speaker 1: benefit of natives. I mean, we have a lot of

1170
01:05:19,040 --> 01:05:23,280
Speaker 1: native plan university in the US, and and and they

1171
01:05:23,320 --> 01:05:26,520
Speaker 1: all provide different things. I mean that one plant can

1172
01:05:26,560 --> 01:05:30,160
Speaker 1: do you know so much. I mean, and not to

1173
01:05:30,200 --> 01:05:34,680
Speaker 1: hate on. Not to hate on like um, let's say

1174
01:05:35,840 --> 01:05:40,360
Speaker 1: Egyptian wheat. Like you've got an Egyptian wheat um strip

1175
01:05:40,480 --> 01:05:44,200
Speaker 1: that you were using. Um, not to hate on it.

1176
01:05:44,240 --> 01:05:48,200
Speaker 1: But like if you can plant, if you can plant

1177
01:05:48,400 --> 01:05:51,560
Speaker 1: switch grass, and you've got ragweed in there, you've got

1178
01:05:52,000 --> 01:05:55,360
Speaker 1: you've got some different silk films or maximilian sunflowers and

1179
01:05:55,920 --> 01:06:01,120
Speaker 1: um ironweeds and golden ross and taller herbacious species um

1180
01:06:01,400 --> 01:06:05,680
Speaker 1: mixed in there. Um one of those herbaseous species, like

1181
01:06:05,760 --> 01:06:08,720
Speaker 1: one of those native grasses in that mix that you're

1182
01:06:08,800 --> 01:06:12,200
Speaker 1: using there is going to provide more than that Egyptian.

1183
01:06:12,200 --> 01:06:15,920
Speaker 1: We can just one of those native species. It's gonna

1184
01:06:16,080 --> 01:06:19,640
Speaker 1: you know that, just you just used the one that

1185
01:06:19,680 --> 01:06:23,360
Speaker 1: people hate the most, like ragweed, I mean, or golden rod,

1186
01:06:23,520 --> 01:06:27,600
Speaker 1: like even the gold I hate golden Just use common

1187
01:06:27,600 --> 01:06:29,200
Speaker 1: golden rod. I got it in my passion. It's a

1188
01:06:29,200 --> 01:06:33,160
Speaker 1: problem that common golden rod is gonna. It has um,

1189
01:06:33,200 --> 01:06:36,800
Speaker 1: It has insects that depend on it. It has goldfinches

1190
01:06:36,800 --> 01:06:38,520
Speaker 1: that are gonna eat the seed heads off of it

1191
01:06:38,560 --> 01:06:42,320
Speaker 1: and stuff. It's it's it can get browsed on by

1192
01:06:42,440 --> 01:06:46,640
Speaker 1: you know, all kinds of different things deer and rabbits um.

1193
01:06:46,720 --> 01:06:49,960
Speaker 1: That Egyptian wheat doesn't have. None of our native insects

1194
01:06:50,200 --> 01:06:54,320
Speaker 1: use it as a host plant um. None of our

1195
01:06:54,400 --> 01:06:59,280
Speaker 1: native insects are adapted to using it as a as

1196
01:06:59,280 --> 01:07:03,200
Speaker 1: a stemmed over winter, and none of our native bird

1197
01:07:03,280 --> 01:07:05,800
Speaker 1: species are used to having it as a food. So

1198
01:07:05,880 --> 01:07:07,880
Speaker 1: worse because they don't really know to go to it

1199
01:07:07,920 --> 01:07:11,880
Speaker 1: all the time. It's not providing brows, I mean, it's

1200
01:07:12,200 --> 01:07:15,280
Speaker 1: the things that one not a native plant can do

1201
01:07:16,880 --> 01:07:20,360
Speaker 1: is very minimal to what one native plant can do.

1202
01:07:20,680 --> 01:07:23,240
Speaker 1: And then when you say, when you throw in dozens

1203
01:07:23,240 --> 01:07:26,280
Speaker 1: and dozens of native plants into that mix, man, that's

1204
01:07:26,320 --> 01:07:29,800
Speaker 1: when it really becomes a powerhouse compared to you know,

1205
01:07:29,920 --> 01:07:34,840
Speaker 1: a monoculture of a non native. So diversity, man, diversity

1206
01:07:35,080 --> 01:07:38,160
Speaker 1: is really the key. And so if you're asking yourself,

1207
01:07:38,200 --> 01:07:41,440
Speaker 1: what should I do to my property, make it more diverse?

1208
01:07:41,840 --> 01:07:45,000
Speaker 1: Add more native plant diversity into it, because you can't

1209
01:07:45,000 --> 01:08:00,720
Speaker 1: go wrong. So you bring up Egyptian wheat, which is

1210
01:08:00,760 --> 01:08:05,520
Speaker 1: a popular screening you know plant. I've used it myself, Um,

1211
01:08:05,640 --> 01:08:10,200
Speaker 1: I have to. And um, another one that folks talk

1212
01:08:10,240 --> 01:08:14,560
Speaker 1: about more and more often is muscanthus. Um. So I've

1213
01:08:14,560 --> 01:08:17,200
Speaker 1: got two questions for you related to this. Number one,

1214
01:08:17,760 --> 01:08:21,360
Speaker 1: can you can you convince me why I shouldn't use muscanthus?

1215
01:08:22,280 --> 01:08:26,640
Speaker 1: And number two, Um, you talked about how adding diversity

1216
01:08:26,680 --> 01:08:28,840
Speaker 1: to you know, these different different things would be better.

1217
01:08:28,880 --> 01:08:31,679
Speaker 1: But if you had to specifically give me your best

1218
01:08:31,720 --> 01:08:36,639
Speaker 1: recommendation for a native screening mix or option, what would

1219
01:08:36,680 --> 01:08:39,400
Speaker 1: that be? So basically, why shouldn't I use muscanthus? And

1220
01:08:39,439 --> 01:08:43,280
Speaker 1: then secondly what would I what should I use? Instead? Yeah?

1221
01:08:43,400 --> 01:08:45,600
Speaker 1: Well that's really the one I wanted to use it

1222
01:08:45,840 --> 01:08:50,439
Speaker 1: as an example thereat. But uh, and I would never

1223
01:08:50,840 --> 01:08:52,760
Speaker 1: I would never try to convince somebody to not use

1224
01:08:52,800 --> 01:08:56,160
Speaker 1: Egyptian wheat because Egyptian wheat, for one, it's not gonna

1225
01:08:56,320 --> 01:08:59,800
Speaker 1: it's not a perennial. It's not gonna be there for

1226
01:09:00,960 --> 01:09:03,920
Speaker 1: decades and decades and decades and become a problem for

1227
01:09:04,800 --> 01:09:09,679
Speaker 1: the next landowner. Even even if it's not invasive, even

1228
01:09:09,760 --> 01:09:11,759
Speaker 1: if it just stays in the spot that you planted

1229
01:09:11,760 --> 01:09:15,080
Speaker 1: it in and it spreads by rhizomes like muscant this does.

1230
01:09:16,000 --> 01:09:19,439
Speaker 1: It's you know, that's that's really the problem. I mean,

1231
01:09:19,680 --> 01:09:24,160
Speaker 1: Egyptian wheat is is non native. Yes, I don't hate nonnatives.

1232
01:09:24,280 --> 01:09:29,080
Speaker 1: I plant nonnatives in certain situations. Um, but Egyptian wheat

1233
01:09:29,160 --> 01:09:30,840
Speaker 1: is not going to become invasive and it's not going

1234
01:09:30,880 --> 01:09:33,519
Speaker 1: to be there. It won't even be there two years

1235
01:09:33,520 --> 01:09:37,600
Speaker 1: from now. Um. But that's the problem with muscant is

1236
01:09:37,600 --> 01:09:41,880
Speaker 1: is people are like, well, it's sterile. You know, we've

1237
01:09:41,880 --> 01:09:45,320
Speaker 1: heard that before from a lot of things. Um, but

1238
01:09:45,439 --> 01:09:49,160
Speaker 1: let's just say, let's just pretend yes, it is sterile

1239
01:09:49,200 --> 01:09:52,280
Speaker 1: and it's not going to spread by seeds. Well, it's

1240
01:09:52,320 --> 01:09:56,000
Speaker 1: spreading right now. Because we're planting it, and we're putting

1241
01:09:56,000 --> 01:09:59,439
Speaker 1: it on properties all across the country, hunting properties, which

1242
01:09:59,479 --> 01:10:03,200
Speaker 1: are you know, look across the landscape. I'm gonna go

1243
01:10:03,240 --> 01:10:06,919
Speaker 1: the long route with explaining this, but look across the landscape.

1244
01:10:07,000 --> 01:10:09,840
Speaker 1: Look at all the different land uses. You've got agriculture,

1245
01:10:10,080 --> 01:10:16,120
Speaker 1: you've got housings, neighborhood development, pastures, and I mean, there's

1246
01:10:16,160 --> 01:10:19,400
Speaker 1: not many places for native plants to thrive. The one

1247
01:10:19,479 --> 01:10:22,920
Speaker 1: place where I believe that native plants can thrive the

1248
01:10:22,960 --> 01:10:27,519
Speaker 1: most are on hunting properties and rural hunting properties. Yet

1249
01:10:28,240 --> 01:10:31,400
Speaker 1: our rural hunting properties are underattacked by a lot of

1250
01:10:31,400 --> 01:10:35,479
Speaker 1: these invasives that are brought in from you know, the

1251
01:10:35,520 --> 01:10:38,960
Speaker 1: horticulture trade, to these neighborhoods and stuff, and so you're

1252
01:10:38,960 --> 01:10:41,320
Speaker 1: getting a lot of these neighborhood landscaping plants escape on

1253
01:10:41,400 --> 01:10:43,600
Speaker 1: your property. I don't know about you, but I have

1254
01:10:43,640 --> 01:10:46,160
Speaker 1: more invasives than I want to deal with my own property.

1255
01:10:47,360 --> 01:10:50,000
Speaker 1: The last thing we should be doing as hunters is

1256
01:10:50,200 --> 01:10:55,760
Speaker 1: planting something that's going to take more ground away from

1257
01:10:55,800 --> 01:10:59,479
Speaker 1: our native habitats. And so that's exactly what mescantus does.

1258
01:10:59,520 --> 01:11:02,679
Speaker 1: Even if it doesn't spread by seed, it's just like bamboo,

1259
01:11:02,720 --> 01:11:06,840
Speaker 1: you plant in one spot and that one rhizomeie plant

1260
01:11:06,880 --> 01:11:09,240
Speaker 1: isn't going to come up. It's one stem. It's not

1261
01:11:09,240 --> 01:11:11,519
Speaker 1: going to stay one stem. Each year, those stems multiplied,

1262
01:11:11,960 --> 01:11:15,719
Speaker 1: it's rhizomes multiplied, and it and it grows, It spreads

1263
01:11:15,720 --> 01:11:19,679
Speaker 1: by rhizomes and it and it fills in that space

1264
01:11:20,080 --> 01:11:24,280
Speaker 1: to where no natives can grow in there. Like if

1265
01:11:25,120 --> 01:11:28,559
Speaker 1: it's a solid monoculture, there's no diversity in there. And

1266
01:11:28,600 --> 01:11:34,200
Speaker 1: so it's another we've just essentially created another thicket of

1267
01:11:34,360 --> 01:11:39,040
Speaker 1: bush honeysuckle. And how invaluable it is to wildlife. This

1268
01:11:39,120 --> 01:11:42,519
Speaker 1: is the same thing we've we've taken more of our

1269
01:11:43,200 --> 01:11:47,720
Speaker 1: North American ground and where native North American species should be,

1270
01:11:48,120 --> 01:11:52,080
Speaker 1: and we've put a you know, a non native species

1271
01:11:52,360 --> 01:11:56,400
Speaker 1: in this place that our wildlife can't utilize. They can't

1272
01:11:56,520 --> 01:12:00,040
Speaker 1: use it as a food source, they can't use it

1273
01:12:00,120 --> 01:12:03,320
Speaker 1: in the same you know, as the same nesting habitat

1274
01:12:03,360 --> 01:12:07,839
Speaker 1: that they would really like to um. And you're gonna say, yeah,

1275
01:12:07,960 --> 01:12:11,120
Speaker 1: it provides even more cover. I'd say it provides too

1276
01:12:11,200 --> 01:12:15,680
Speaker 1: much cover for for our certain wildlife species. It's too

1277
01:12:15,800 --> 01:12:19,160
Speaker 1: much um and it's too thick for them to utilize

1278
01:12:19,360 --> 01:12:22,200
Speaker 1: the way they should or the way they want to um.

1279
01:12:22,600 --> 01:12:25,400
Speaker 1: But um, I was trying to think, what's the what

1280
01:12:25,560 --> 01:12:30,080
Speaker 1: was the The second part was then, Okay, if I

1281
01:12:30,120 --> 01:12:37,439
Speaker 1: shouldn't use myscantus, yeah, what's my best alternative? Man? For one? Oh,

1282
01:12:37,680 --> 01:12:39,599
Speaker 1: here's what I did on my property is I just

1283
01:12:40,080 --> 01:12:43,280
Speaker 1: stopped mowing and I just let it grow up. But

1284
01:12:44,600 --> 01:12:50,080
Speaker 1: I've been adding in native plums, native hawthorns, depending on

1285
01:12:50,120 --> 01:12:53,240
Speaker 1: what your soils like, what shrubs you can support those

1286
01:12:53,360 --> 01:12:57,679
Speaker 1: native shrubs or powerhouses. Man like power houses. I saw

1287
01:12:57,680 --> 01:13:02,599
Speaker 1: a possum haul this year that I'm talking. It had

1288
01:13:02,600 --> 01:13:05,120
Speaker 1: to be hundreds of thousands of berries on this thing.

1289
01:13:05,400 --> 01:13:09,920
Speaker 1: The ground was solid red from a from a from

1290
01:13:09,960 --> 01:13:13,400
Speaker 1: a possum hall shrub. That's food. It's called possum all

1291
01:13:13,439 --> 01:13:17,080
Speaker 1: because possums and raccoons and and other things eat it.

1292
01:13:17,560 --> 01:13:20,519
Speaker 1: And heck, the more you people are like, why would

1293
01:13:20,560 --> 01:13:22,160
Speaker 1: you want to feed a raccoon, the more you can

1294
01:13:22,320 --> 01:13:25,200
Speaker 1: keep your raccoons them less likely it's going to be

1295
01:13:25,200 --> 01:13:28,919
Speaker 1: eating something you don't want to eat, and it's providing

1296
01:13:28,960 --> 01:13:33,599
Speaker 1: food for birds songbirds. So native plums food source, native

1297
01:13:33,600 --> 01:13:37,160
Speaker 1: hazel nut food source. There are also host plants for

1298
01:13:37,200 --> 01:13:41,000
Speaker 1: a ton of native insects, So you're attracting insects to

1299
01:13:41,000 --> 01:13:45,479
Speaker 1: your property, food source for quill and turkeys. Mascantus can't

1300
01:13:45,479 --> 01:13:49,719
Speaker 1: do any of that stuff. And at the same time,

1301
01:13:50,200 --> 01:13:54,200
Speaker 1: these native plums and hazel nuts are allowing for other

1302
01:13:54,320 --> 01:13:57,120
Speaker 1: native species to grow amongst them. Native grasses can grow

1303
01:13:57,160 --> 01:14:01,800
Speaker 1: in your piece. Um. You know, just the plum trees

1304
01:14:01,840 --> 01:14:05,759
Speaker 1: behind my house, they have wild rye grass growing underneath them,

1305
01:14:06,479 --> 01:14:10,559
Speaker 1: Virginia wild rye, and those produced they were consumed by

1306
01:14:10,600 --> 01:14:13,680
Speaker 1: Native Americans. The seedheads like you would have grain um,

1307
01:14:13,760 --> 01:14:17,800
Speaker 1: and they're consumed by wildlife. The greinhead is um and

1308
01:14:18,200 --> 01:14:21,040
Speaker 1: tons of wildfliers are coming up underneath them. Um. And

1309
01:14:21,120 --> 01:14:26,400
Speaker 1: so you can plan a diverse mix. That's that's really

1310
01:14:26,400 --> 01:14:33,360
Speaker 1: what I'd like to promote instead of myscantis is hedgerows,

1311
01:14:34,160 --> 01:14:38,240
Speaker 1: native thicket species um, and native grasses and forbes that

1312
01:14:38,280 --> 01:14:41,719
Speaker 1: can grow amongst those. So you can do a multi tier.

1313
01:14:41,960 --> 01:14:44,800
Speaker 1: If you want to screen on edge your property, plant

1314
01:14:44,840 --> 01:14:48,400
Speaker 1: a row of native plums, hawthorns, whatever you can get

1315
01:14:48,439 --> 01:14:52,800
Speaker 1: your hands on, native native shrub species, dogwoods um like

1316
01:14:52,840 --> 01:14:56,200
Speaker 1: the swamp dogwoods, and then plant a row of native

1317
01:14:56,200 --> 01:14:58,960
Speaker 1: grasses and forbes. And you're you're gonna have a really

1318
01:14:58,960 --> 01:15:02,719
Speaker 1: great screen. That's also we're going to become an excellent

1319
01:15:02,800 --> 01:15:06,960
Speaker 1: nesting habitat for things like quail, and when we can

1320
01:15:07,040 --> 01:15:11,240
Speaker 1: benefit when we can have something that's fulfilling our human need,

1321
01:15:11,800 --> 01:15:15,000
Speaker 1: which is all Mscantus is doing. It's we're using it

1322
01:15:15,040 --> 01:15:18,040
Speaker 1: to fulfill a human need if we can have something

1323
01:15:18,040 --> 01:15:20,960
Speaker 1: that fulfills that human need. But it's also playing a

1324
01:15:21,080 --> 01:15:27,080
Speaker 1: huge role in our ecosystem, and it is a habitat

1325
01:15:27,200 --> 01:15:29,960
Speaker 1: type that is dwindling in our country that is not

1326
01:15:30,080 --> 01:15:35,240
Speaker 1: common anymore. We're doing a good thing. And and in

1327
01:15:35,240 --> 01:15:39,599
Speaker 1: in twenty years when hunting properties everywhere have M. Scantus

1328
01:15:39,640 --> 01:15:41,280
Speaker 1: on them and everybody's like, dagum, I just bought this

1329
01:15:41,360 --> 01:15:44,679
Speaker 1: hunting property. I'm gonna deal with this Mscantus first, which,

1330
01:15:44,720 --> 01:15:49,400
Speaker 1: for you know, by the way that mscanthus gigantist is

1331
01:15:49,400 --> 01:15:52,439
Speaker 1: one of the more difficult ones to get rid of

1332
01:15:52,520 --> 01:15:55,960
Speaker 1: with Glasha say. It takes multiple treatments of glass say

1333
01:15:56,000 --> 01:16:00,360
Speaker 1: to get rid of it. Those those landhowners aren't going

1334
01:16:00,400 --> 01:16:05,320
Speaker 1: to be blaming the folks selling Muscantus. They're gonna say, well, dagum,

1335
01:16:05,320 --> 01:16:08,639
Speaker 1: the hunters, the hunters who had this property before us

1336
01:16:09,120 --> 01:16:13,040
Speaker 1: planted Muscantus. And and the last thing I want to

1337
01:16:13,040 --> 01:16:17,640
Speaker 1: do for my kid or you know, my grandkids is

1338
01:16:18,920 --> 01:16:22,360
Speaker 1: is give hunters a bad look, because I want to

1339
01:16:22,400 --> 01:16:25,960
Speaker 1: make sure that when they become hunters and when they're

1340
01:16:26,000 --> 01:16:29,599
Speaker 1: taking their grandkids hunting, that hunters are looked at as

1341
01:16:30,680 --> 01:16:34,800
Speaker 1: conservation leaders in our country and the biggest conservation powerhouse,

1342
01:16:34,840 --> 01:16:38,599
Speaker 1: which I believe we are. But I want the public

1343
01:16:38,800 --> 01:16:41,840
Speaker 1: to see hunters as that, and I don't want to

1344
01:16:41,840 --> 01:16:46,559
Speaker 1: give the public any reason to be upset with hunters.

1345
01:16:47,600 --> 01:16:49,760
Speaker 1: And that's just one way. I mean, I think we

1346
01:16:49,760 --> 01:16:54,120
Speaker 1: should become bulletproof. And when we're leading conservation and doing

1347
01:16:54,160 --> 01:16:58,479
Speaker 1: things the right way, will become bulletproof and nobody can

1348
01:16:58,520 --> 01:17:01,320
Speaker 1: say anything to us. I mean, they can't say we're

1349
01:17:01,320 --> 01:17:04,000
Speaker 1: doing things wrong when we are the ones out here

1350
01:17:05,800 --> 01:17:11,000
Speaker 1: keeping North American ecosystems thriving. I mean, I really believe

1351
01:17:11,080 --> 01:17:13,360
Speaker 1: that that's what hunters can be, and I believe that's

1352
01:17:13,360 --> 01:17:17,120
Speaker 1: what most of us already are. But that's to me,

1353
01:17:17,200 --> 01:17:19,479
Speaker 1: that's that's how I see it, and that's why I'm

1354
01:17:19,520 --> 01:17:23,080
Speaker 1: so passionate about it. I'm not passionate about it because

1355
01:17:23,120 --> 01:17:26,000
Speaker 1: I hate in basis. I mean, I am, but I

1356
01:17:26,000 --> 01:17:28,599
Speaker 1: do hate in basis, but I'm passionate about it because

1357
01:17:28,600 --> 01:17:32,240
Speaker 1: I don't want to give hunters a bad name, and

1358
01:17:32,320 --> 01:17:36,320
Speaker 1: not for selfish reasons, but for reasons that you know,

1359
01:17:36,479 --> 01:17:40,080
Speaker 1: for my kids and my future grandkids. I mean, I

1360
01:17:40,160 --> 01:17:42,479
Speaker 1: want them to be hunters, and I want to make

1361
01:17:42,520 --> 01:17:45,200
Speaker 1: sure that they're gonna be able to do the things

1362
01:17:45,200 --> 01:17:48,200
Speaker 1: that I love. And that's the mean, that's without hunting, man,

1363
01:17:48,240 --> 01:17:51,639
Speaker 1: that's I wouldn't the Native Habitat Project wouldn't be a thing.

1364
01:17:51,680 --> 01:17:54,559
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the whole reason I'm into what I'm

1365
01:17:54,600 --> 01:17:56,960
Speaker 1: into and I'm out here doing what I'm doing is

1366
01:17:57,000 --> 01:17:59,919
Speaker 1: because I grew up hunting with my dad and my granddad,

1367
01:18:00,520 --> 01:18:02,759
Speaker 1: and I mean that's what I want for my kids

1368
01:18:02,760 --> 01:18:05,880
Speaker 1: and my great great great grand kids. So making sure

1369
01:18:05,960 --> 01:18:09,920
Speaker 1: hunters have a good, good uh you know, pr with

1370
01:18:10,000 --> 01:18:13,759
Speaker 1: the public. I mean, that's that's super super super important

1371
01:18:13,760 --> 01:18:17,240
Speaker 1: to me. And that's that's all I'm concerned about. Yeah, yeah,

1372
01:18:17,320 --> 01:18:21,000
Speaker 1: I uh, I couldn't agree more with all that, and

1373
01:18:21,240 --> 01:18:24,000
Speaker 1: uh and on them scant this thing, I'm I'm convinced

1374
01:18:24,120 --> 01:18:27,200
Speaker 1: you got me. You got me on that too. So yeah,

1375
01:18:27,560 --> 01:18:31,639
Speaker 1: so I mean, where are you saying? Oh that, and

1376
01:18:31,640 --> 01:18:35,439
Speaker 1: and that's you know, I'm not People think I just

1377
01:18:35,640 --> 01:18:38,240
Speaker 1: hate on invasives, but man like or I hate on

1378
01:18:38,280 --> 01:18:40,880
Speaker 1: non natives and it's not it's not that, man. There's

1379
01:18:40,880 --> 01:18:44,240
Speaker 1: a there's a huge difference between non native and non

1380
01:18:44,280 --> 01:18:49,400
Speaker 1: native invasives. And and you know, you can you can plant.

1381
01:18:49,400 --> 01:18:51,720
Speaker 1: There's all sorts of things that are non native, like

1382
01:18:51,760 --> 01:18:54,240
Speaker 1: Egyptian wheat that you can plant and it's not going

1383
01:18:54,320 --> 01:18:57,680
Speaker 1: to become a problem. And I you know, we've I

1384
01:18:57,760 --> 01:18:59,840
Speaker 1: worked on a wildlife management area where we had to

1385
01:18:59,840 --> 01:19:03,840
Speaker 1: do with automotive and buy color Lisabetiza and salt tooth

1386
01:19:03,880 --> 01:19:07,120
Speaker 1: oaks spreading. I mean, yeah, and that's that's a bad word,

1387
01:19:07,160 --> 01:19:10,400
Speaker 1: I know, but I saw for myself salt tooth oaks

1388
01:19:10,400 --> 01:19:14,519
Speaker 1: spreading by the thousands and alcomputing native oak trees and

1389
01:19:15,120 --> 01:19:18,799
Speaker 1: I saw, you know it was that was hunters doing that.

1390
01:19:18,920 --> 01:19:21,840
Speaker 1: I mean, we planted those for wildlife and we were

1391
01:19:21,840 --> 01:19:24,320
Speaker 1: going to do a good thing. And I just want

1392
01:19:24,320 --> 01:19:28,679
Speaker 1: to make sure we learn from those mistakes and we

1393
01:19:28,800 --> 01:19:31,240
Speaker 1: were actually planting things that are going to do a

1394
01:19:31,280 --> 01:19:34,720
Speaker 1: good thing. And when we plant native we don't have

1395
01:19:34,760 --> 01:19:38,760
Speaker 1: to question whether what we're planting is going to backfire

1396
01:19:38,800 --> 01:19:42,400
Speaker 1: on us in the future because those plants are supposed

1397
01:19:42,439 --> 01:19:46,680
Speaker 1: to be there. So it's a pretty full proof system.

1398
01:19:46,720 --> 01:19:50,360
Speaker 1: If you plant native, you know you're not gonna, you know,

1399
01:19:50,640 --> 01:19:52,559
Speaker 1: regrette it one day. And there's plenty of things that

1400
01:19:52,600 --> 01:19:55,040
Speaker 1: I've planted, and I'm sure I'm sure there's things you've planted,

1401
01:19:55,080 --> 01:19:57,720
Speaker 1: and half the listeners have planted that we regret. Um,

1402
01:19:58,320 --> 01:20:01,200
Speaker 1: I'm still dealing with rye gras on one of my

1403
01:20:01,400 --> 01:20:04,120
Speaker 1: grasses because I've planted it there and a food plot mix,

1404
01:20:04,160 --> 01:20:08,080
Speaker 1: and it's it's really became an aggressive but um, there's

1405
01:20:09,240 --> 01:20:10,960
Speaker 1: you you know, you can't mess up. What do you

1406
01:20:11,000 --> 01:20:13,760
Speaker 1: plant native? I mean, it's it's pretty full proof. Yeah,

1407
01:20:13,800 --> 01:20:16,280
Speaker 1: And I like something you've said, I think even today

1408
01:20:16,320 --> 01:20:18,719
Speaker 1: in other places you've talked about how natives always carry

1409
01:20:18,760 --> 01:20:22,200
Speaker 1: their weight, like they're never just doing, you know, one

1410
01:20:22,320 --> 01:20:25,720
Speaker 1: single thing. They're always serving multiple purposes and they're they're

1411
01:20:25,720 --> 01:20:28,599
Speaker 1: there for a reason, and they serve multiple purposes for

1412
01:20:28,640 --> 01:20:31,560
Speaker 1: all different levels of the ecosystem, which is which is

1413
01:20:31,600 --> 01:20:34,360
Speaker 1: a pretty powerful thing man, And then and purposes that

1414
01:20:34,400 --> 01:20:36,880
Speaker 1: you and I will never even be able to cover here, right,

1415
01:20:37,080 --> 01:20:39,240
Speaker 1: you know, we'll never be able to wrap our heads around,

1416
01:20:40,200 --> 01:20:43,800
Speaker 1: uh what a what a grass? And with a with

1417
01:20:43,960 --> 01:20:46,519
Speaker 1: even one hundred speed on hundred native species out there,

1418
01:20:46,560 --> 01:20:49,040
Speaker 1: will never be able to wrap our heads around what

1419
01:20:49,240 --> 01:20:53,439
Speaker 1: all that ecosystem provides. UM. I mean it's doing things

1420
01:20:53,479 --> 01:20:55,479
Speaker 1: that will never will never even know. But it's too

1421
01:20:55,640 --> 01:20:59,679
Speaker 1: we know what's doing good things. Yeah, let's let's shift

1422
01:20:59,800 --> 01:21:03,240
Speaker 1: in to the timber now. So let's say we've we've

1423
01:21:03,280 --> 01:21:05,960
Speaker 1: done our inventory in the timber. We're starting to do that.

1424
01:21:05,960 --> 01:21:08,639
Speaker 1: We're walking around, We're trying to id different trees, We're

1425
01:21:08,640 --> 01:21:10,439
Speaker 1: trying to figure out, Okay, what's supposed to be here,

1426
01:21:10,520 --> 01:21:13,680
Speaker 1: what's not? UM. I think there's probably a lot of

1427
01:21:13,720 --> 01:21:15,240
Speaker 1: people they'll be wondering, well, how do I know if

1428
01:21:15,320 --> 01:21:16,640
Speaker 1: this is a good thing to have or not a

1429
01:21:16,680 --> 01:21:20,040
Speaker 1: good thing to have? Where should I manage timber? How

1430
01:21:20,080 --> 01:21:22,880
Speaker 1: should I manage it? Um? What would be some of

1431
01:21:22,920 --> 01:21:25,840
Speaker 1: your starting points for someone who's, you know, wanting to

1432
01:21:25,840 --> 01:21:30,559
Speaker 1: take this native approach and this ecosystem approach and apply

1433
01:21:30,640 --> 01:21:35,320
Speaker 1: it to their timbered lands. The first thing I do

1434
01:21:36,200 --> 01:21:39,640
Speaker 1: is I I'll look at what's in the UNDERSTORYUM. I

1435
01:21:39,720 --> 01:21:42,960
Speaker 1: also look at the slope aspect. If it's if it's

1436
01:21:42,960 --> 01:21:44,960
Speaker 1: got any kind of hills like we have around here,

1437
01:21:46,320 --> 01:21:50,080
Speaker 1: your north slopes, your east slopes, or really your northeast

1438
01:21:50,400 --> 01:21:54,840
Speaker 1: north slopes are gonna be are are traditionally gonna be

1439
01:21:54,920 --> 01:21:58,400
Speaker 1: close canopy forests. You're gonna have spring ephemerals on those

1440
01:21:58,400 --> 01:22:01,320
Speaker 1: sides of the hills. And that's why those that's why

1441
01:22:01,360 --> 01:22:03,360
Speaker 1: those spring of femerals are there, because those spring of

1442
01:22:03,400 --> 01:22:07,880
Speaker 1: femberals flower this time of the year before right before

1443
01:22:07,880 --> 01:22:10,200
Speaker 1: the leaves come back on the trees, because they know

1444
01:22:10,280 --> 01:22:11,880
Speaker 1: in a few months when there's leaves on the trees,

1445
01:22:12,120 --> 01:22:14,760
Speaker 1: there's gonna be so much shade that nothing's gonna be

1446
01:22:14,760 --> 01:22:17,240
Speaker 1: able to grow. So those spring of femberals are adapted

1447
01:22:17,280 --> 01:22:20,280
Speaker 1: to close canopy forests. So they're all flowering right now

1448
01:22:20,320 --> 01:22:23,439
Speaker 1: where there's still sunlight on the ground. But you don't

1449
01:22:23,880 --> 01:22:27,920
Speaker 1: you know, that's on north slopes, northeast slopes, bottom lands,

1450
01:22:28,120 --> 01:22:31,520
Speaker 1: places where there wouldn't historically have been fire, so like ravines,

1451
01:22:32,520 --> 01:22:35,599
Speaker 1: deep drawls, places where there's a lot of moisture where

1452
01:22:35,600 --> 01:22:40,519
Speaker 1: you see two lap popular and maples and beach and

1453
01:22:40,920 --> 01:22:45,559
Speaker 1: lots of hemblogs and things like that. So your south slopes,

1454
01:22:45,600 --> 01:22:49,439
Speaker 1: your ridge tops, your west slopes sometimes your east and

1455
01:22:49,479 --> 01:22:57,160
Speaker 1: southeast Aasan slopes were predominantly savannahs or dryer. They got

1456
01:22:57,200 --> 01:22:59,760
Speaker 1: sunlight on them throughout the winter and that kept them

1457
01:23:00,680 --> 01:23:04,120
Speaker 1: and they got fire a lot. So those places are

1458
01:23:04,160 --> 01:23:08,040
Speaker 1: where you can manage for savannahs very easily because you

1459
01:23:08,080 --> 01:23:10,200
Speaker 1: know you're gonna be able to use fire. Um, it's

1460
01:23:10,200 --> 01:23:12,719
Speaker 1: gonna be dry enough, that's what's supposed to be there.

1461
01:23:13,520 --> 01:23:17,160
Speaker 1: And there's usually still remnant savannah species there. So you

1462
01:23:17,200 --> 01:23:20,920
Speaker 1: know all those south slopes and ridge stops and some

1463
01:23:21,160 --> 01:23:24,200
Speaker 1: flat rolling dry places where there would have been cressings

1464
01:23:24,200 --> 01:23:27,160
Speaker 1: in savannahs, do you find around here? You look for

1465
01:23:27,240 --> 01:23:32,479
Speaker 1: remnant trees like post oaks and shinka pins and black jacks,

1466
01:23:32,760 --> 01:23:37,200
Speaker 1: short leaf pines, you know, chestnut oaks, a lot of

1467
01:23:37,240 --> 01:23:41,479
Speaker 1: those upland hardwoods with very real lofty you know, white

1468
01:23:41,479 --> 01:23:45,479
Speaker 1: oaks have those real lofty leaves. Um, if there's a

1469
01:23:45,520 --> 01:23:47,800
Speaker 1: lot of those real lofty leaf trees there, then you

1470
01:23:47,840 --> 01:23:51,160
Speaker 1: know those are trees that like fire. So you think

1471
01:23:51,200 --> 01:23:55,080
Speaker 1: about think about water oak and willow oak, those bottom

1472
01:23:55,160 --> 01:23:59,200
Speaker 1: land oak species. They have those very tiny leaves that

1473
01:23:59,320 --> 01:24:02,519
Speaker 1: lay flat on the ground, so fire doesn't move through

1474
01:24:02,560 --> 01:24:06,439
Speaker 1: them very well. And that's because they're they're adapted to

1475
01:24:06,439 --> 01:24:08,799
Speaker 1: grow in places that would have had fire. Your upland

1476
01:24:08,800 --> 01:24:11,000
Speaker 1: oaks would have had fire, so they have those real

1477
01:24:11,040 --> 01:24:15,400
Speaker 1: lofty leaves. And when those leaves burned through those oaks,

1478
01:24:15,720 --> 01:24:21,280
Speaker 1: when those pine needles burned, it got hot. And those

1479
01:24:21,479 --> 01:24:23,880
Speaker 1: upland oaks and those pines are adapted to that. They

1480
01:24:23,880 --> 01:24:27,360
Speaker 1: can handle it. Those hickories can handle that fire. But

1481
01:24:27,520 --> 01:24:30,880
Speaker 1: what can handle that fire is your beach and your maple,

1482
01:24:31,600 --> 01:24:37,680
Speaker 1: some of your tulip, poplars, sweet gums, and those cedars,

1483
01:24:37,760 --> 01:24:39,800
Speaker 1: trees that aren't supposed to be there, that aren't fire

1484
01:24:39,840 --> 01:24:43,599
Speaker 1: tolerant because they can't handle fire. And that's how those

1485
01:24:43,640 --> 01:24:47,080
Speaker 1: ecosystems adapted. So when you're going into those places figuring

1486
01:24:47,080 --> 01:24:50,799
Speaker 1: out what should be there and what shouldn't, keep those

1487
01:24:50,920 --> 01:24:53,080
Speaker 1: and not all of you can remove some of those

1488
01:24:53,240 --> 01:24:56,559
Speaker 1: upland hardwind species, but you know, keep some of those

1489
01:24:56,960 --> 01:25:00,559
Speaker 1: and remove the species that aren't supposed to be there. Um,

1490
01:25:00,960 --> 01:25:03,439
Speaker 1: And you think about sweet gums, like, how I'm guessing

1491
01:25:03,479 --> 01:25:05,519
Speaker 1: you'll have sweet gums up your way? No, I don't

1492
01:25:05,520 --> 01:25:09,360
Speaker 1: think so. Well, you probably would know, but they sweet gums,

1493
01:25:09,400 --> 01:25:11,400
Speaker 1: their leaves just crumble man, and you pick them up

1494
01:25:11,400 --> 01:25:14,240
Speaker 1: that just crumble because they grow on bottom land areas,

1495
01:25:14,240 --> 01:25:17,200
Speaker 1: they don't knock fire. So get we're into those species

1496
01:25:17,760 --> 01:25:22,439
Speaker 1: um and and that's going to open things up. And

1497
01:25:22,680 --> 01:25:25,840
Speaker 1: what that's gonna do is you bring a sunlight to

1498
01:25:25,880 --> 01:25:27,479
Speaker 1: the ground. And that's the first thing you really want

1499
01:25:27,520 --> 01:25:30,320
Speaker 1: to do before you bring fire back to a place,

1500
01:25:30,640 --> 01:25:33,920
Speaker 1: because if you bring fire back to a place and

1501
01:25:33,960 --> 01:25:36,920
Speaker 1: it's close canopy, you're not going to get that response

1502
01:25:36,960 --> 01:25:38,519
Speaker 1: you want. And then it's just gonna be bare soil

1503
01:25:38,600 --> 01:25:42,200
Speaker 1: under there. So you want to come through and kill

1504
01:25:42,280 --> 01:25:44,320
Speaker 1: some of those trees first. You can either do that

1505
01:25:44,360 --> 01:25:49,640
Speaker 1: through you know, the hack and spray girdling um. And

1506
01:25:49,720 --> 01:25:52,320
Speaker 1: this is a great time to remove in faces Tom

1507
01:25:52,479 --> 01:25:55,519
Speaker 1: Bradford pairs and prive it and sure you heaven and

1508
01:25:55,520 --> 01:25:57,640
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Kill them. You know, this is a

1509
01:25:57,640 --> 01:25:59,320
Speaker 1: great time to take care of a lot of those.

1510
01:25:59,360 --> 01:26:01,960
Speaker 1: But go through and kill those trees that are supposed

1511
01:26:01,960 --> 01:26:04,880
Speaker 1: to be there. You can drop them psalm and drop

1512
01:26:04,920 --> 01:26:08,920
Speaker 1: them down the ground and leave those stumps to re sprout,

1513
01:26:09,120 --> 01:26:11,280
Speaker 1: or you can treat some of those stumps. And you

1514
01:26:11,280 --> 01:26:13,720
Speaker 1: know how I said before, being diverse with it. If

1515
01:26:13,720 --> 01:26:16,240
Speaker 1: you're ever wondering how to go about something. Be diverse

1516
01:26:16,360 --> 01:26:19,559
Speaker 1: with it. Don't don't go through there and just hack

1517
01:26:19,560 --> 01:26:22,320
Speaker 1: and spray. Don't go through there and just hinge cut

1518
01:26:22,360 --> 01:26:25,280
Speaker 1: if you want to, I mean, but go through there

1519
01:26:25,320 --> 01:26:28,120
Speaker 1: and do a mix of things, like just cut a

1520
01:26:28,160 --> 01:26:31,120
Speaker 1: tree down, let it resprout. Obviously if it's invasive, to

1521
01:26:31,200 --> 01:26:33,519
Speaker 1: cut it down and treat the stump, but treat half

1522
01:26:33,520 --> 01:26:36,080
Speaker 1: the stumps, leave some of them one treated, and just

1523
01:26:36,160 --> 01:26:39,719
Speaker 1: be diverse with it. You want to bring that sunlight

1524
01:26:39,760 --> 01:26:41,760
Speaker 1: in because once you get that sunlight in, you can

1525
01:26:41,840 --> 01:26:43,599
Speaker 1: run a fire through there and you're going to get

1526
01:26:43,600 --> 01:26:45,920
Speaker 1: a really good response from that seed bank. Then you're

1527
01:26:45,920 --> 01:26:48,560
Speaker 1: gonna get a lot of understory, need of grasses and wildfliers.

1528
01:26:48,840 --> 01:26:52,760
Speaker 1: And I mentioned earlier that close canopy forest that has

1529
01:26:52,800 --> 01:26:55,760
Speaker 1: fifty pounds food per acre. When you open up that

1530
01:26:55,800 --> 01:27:00,519
Speaker 1: canopy bring fireback, you're bringing in not too thousand pounds,

1531
01:27:00,560 --> 01:27:03,240
Speaker 1: but you might be bringing in five hundred pounds of foodbreacre.

1532
01:27:03,640 --> 01:27:06,240
Speaker 1: And that's only going to improve your wildlife habitat. And

1533
01:27:06,360 --> 01:27:08,560
Speaker 1: those are going to be areas that are perfect for

1534
01:27:09,120 --> 01:27:14,280
Speaker 1: hiding fawns and nesting turkeys, and that's what you want.

1535
01:27:14,439 --> 01:27:17,880
Speaker 1: You want that those trees that are protecting from aerial predators.

1536
01:27:18,439 --> 01:27:22,360
Speaker 1: And you want that grassland complex underneath those trees to

1537
01:27:22,479 --> 01:27:27,160
Speaker 1: provide cover and provide food and attracting six and all

1538
01:27:27,200 --> 01:27:30,439
Speaker 1: those things, a million things I've mentioned before, but that

1539
01:27:30,640 --> 01:27:33,160
Speaker 1: you want that mix of a grassing and a forest.

1540
01:27:33,240 --> 01:27:37,240
Speaker 1: And to me, man, that's like the optimal ecosystem. Savannahs

1541
01:27:38,120 --> 01:27:42,400
Speaker 1: you got mass producing trees. You got when it's open

1542
01:27:42,520 --> 01:27:44,760
Speaker 1: like that, you get those oak trees that sprawl out

1543
01:27:44,840 --> 01:27:48,439
Speaker 1: with those big limbs, and those become excellent roosting trees,

1544
01:27:48,880 --> 01:27:52,280
Speaker 1: and the turkeys can fly up to them because there's

1545
01:27:52,320 --> 01:27:53,800
Speaker 1: not a lot of shrubs and stuff in the way.

1546
01:27:53,800 --> 01:27:56,120
Speaker 1: You've got if you're using fire, it's open, they could

1547
01:27:56,160 --> 01:28:00,679
Speaker 1: fly up roosting those trees. You've got all the benefits

1548
01:28:00,720 --> 01:28:02,720
Speaker 1: of a grass and you got all the benefits of

1549
01:28:02,800 --> 01:28:07,680
Speaker 1: a forest. And it's just to me, the ideal ecosystem

1550
01:28:08,880 --> 01:28:11,600
Speaker 1: is there. You know, you mentioned that the couple or

1551
01:28:11,680 --> 01:28:14,920
Speaker 1: three I think different ways you can kill those trees

1552
01:28:15,040 --> 01:28:19,680
Speaker 1: girdling them, cutting them, cutting them, and probably on the

1553
01:28:19,720 --> 01:28:21,760
Speaker 1: herb side. And I guess the fourth you mentioned hinge

1554
01:28:21,840 --> 01:28:23,760
Speaker 1: cut And I like that. I like the point you

1555
01:28:23,880 --> 01:28:26,800
Speaker 1: made about you know, diversify, like everything diversify. That's a

1556
01:28:26,880 --> 01:28:29,840
Speaker 1: great kind of guideline to apply across all of your

1557
01:28:29,880 --> 01:28:32,160
Speaker 1: different land work. Always have different ways you're doing it.

1558
01:28:32,640 --> 01:28:36,120
Speaker 1: But when it comes to those specific you know, timber

1559
01:28:36,240 --> 01:28:41,439
Speaker 1: management practices, I guess, are there any that work best

1560
01:28:41,520 --> 01:28:44,760
Speaker 1: for certain goals? Like I'm thinking, like, if you're trying

1561
01:28:44,760 --> 01:28:47,000
Speaker 1: to diversify your timber, you know, one of the things

1562
01:28:47,000 --> 01:28:48,680
Speaker 1: a lot of deer hunters are trying to do is like, hey,

1563
01:28:48,720 --> 01:28:50,680
Speaker 1: I want to also make sure I've got some particularly

1564
01:28:50,760 --> 01:28:54,360
Speaker 1: good betting areas or different things like that. Are there

1565
01:28:54,400 --> 01:28:58,120
Speaker 1: any certain ways of cutting and killing a tree or

1566
01:28:58,320 --> 01:29:04,680
Speaker 1: managing this timber asked for certain goals? Well, you know,

1567
01:29:05,800 --> 01:29:10,360
Speaker 1: providing cover, betting areas, a lot of those methods that

1568
01:29:10,439 --> 01:29:13,840
Speaker 1: people use, like hinge cutting or just piling up trees,

1569
01:29:13,880 --> 01:29:16,000
Speaker 1: I like making brush piles. I feel like those will

1570
01:29:16,000 --> 01:29:18,600
Speaker 1: get utilized a good bit. But these are all just

1571
01:29:18,800 --> 01:29:26,479
Speaker 1: band aids. They're all just really they're not what the

1572
01:29:26,560 --> 01:29:29,519
Speaker 1: wildlife really want. You're just trying to mimic what's supposed

1573
01:29:29,520 --> 01:29:32,439
Speaker 1: to be there. So if you want those things cover

1574
01:29:33,479 --> 01:29:36,679
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, that's where thickets come in play.

1575
01:29:36,800 --> 01:29:41,439
Speaker 1: I mean around here in the South. Well, that's what

1576
01:29:41,520 --> 01:29:46,360
Speaker 1: Alabama means. Alabama means thick, it clears people who it

1577
01:29:46,640 --> 01:29:49,080
Speaker 1: means clear and thickets because we're we have so much.

1578
01:29:50,160 --> 01:29:52,640
Speaker 1: You know, somebody's thickets and stuffing here. But if you

1579
01:29:52,720 --> 01:29:56,000
Speaker 1: want that, just cut down a bunch of it's gonna

1580
01:29:56,040 --> 01:29:58,880
Speaker 1: take longer. That's the thing you can. You can cut

1581
01:29:58,960 --> 01:30:01,439
Speaker 1: down those trees and have some barry cover, but make

1582
01:30:01,479 --> 01:30:04,240
Speaker 1: sure your end goal is to make like a thicket

1583
01:30:04,320 --> 01:30:09,120
Speaker 1: of plums or hazel nuts or or you know, dog woods,

1584
01:30:09,160 --> 01:30:10,920
Speaker 1: and there's a meal. You'll probably have a ton of

1585
01:30:10,960 --> 01:30:14,400
Speaker 1: shrubs species up there that we don't have, but get

1586
01:30:14,439 --> 01:30:17,000
Speaker 1: some shrubs in there, and so that gives you the

1587
01:30:17,080 --> 01:30:21,040
Speaker 1: more that's called a woodland. So you have grasslands, and

1588
01:30:21,120 --> 01:30:23,600
Speaker 1: then you have where grasses start going to forest. You

1589
01:30:23,680 --> 01:30:27,400
Speaker 1: have savannas, which are grasslands with overstory of trees. And

1590
01:30:27,479 --> 01:30:32,320
Speaker 1: then you have woodlands, which are forests with a grasslands

1591
01:30:32,439 --> 01:30:35,000
Speaker 1: underneath a little bit but a lot of shrubs. You

1592
01:30:35,080 --> 01:30:37,240
Speaker 1: got a shrub combonent and so I think that's what

1593
01:30:37,439 --> 01:30:41,040
Speaker 1: woodlands are good at. But also just having shrubs on

1594
01:30:41,240 --> 01:30:45,240
Speaker 1: edges of openings gives you that you know, people love

1595
01:30:45,320 --> 01:30:49,240
Speaker 1: that feathered edge look kilds. And you talk about using trees,

1596
01:30:49,320 --> 01:30:52,519
Speaker 1: cutting them down and making that temporary feathered edge with

1597
01:30:52,760 --> 01:30:56,360
Speaker 1: those trees, but really your end goal should be to

1598
01:30:56,560 --> 01:31:01,560
Speaker 1: have have it go from forest to rubs to grasslands

1599
01:31:02,000 --> 01:31:04,479
Speaker 1: and have that shrubby complex there on the edge, because

1600
01:31:04,520 --> 01:31:09,960
Speaker 1: that's gonna be great betting cover. So yeah, you use hingecuts,

1601
01:31:10,120 --> 01:31:13,760
Speaker 1: use it. I mean that, I mean, put it, make

1602
01:31:13,840 --> 01:31:18,040
Speaker 1: you a giant wall of down to logs and I

1603
01:31:18,080 --> 01:31:20,120
Speaker 1: mean a bugs while I gonna bet against that. I mean,

1604
01:31:20,200 --> 01:31:23,080
Speaker 1: but it's all temporary until you can get what's supposed

1605
01:31:23,080 --> 01:31:25,080
Speaker 1: to be there established, and that's kind of should be

1606
01:31:25,120 --> 01:31:28,560
Speaker 1: your end goal of I believe. But you know I

1607
01:31:28,720 --> 01:31:31,120
Speaker 1: mentioned those methods of using saws and stuff. That's the

1608
01:31:32,200 --> 01:31:34,720
Speaker 1: you know those that's my poor boy method, and that's

1609
01:31:34,760 --> 01:31:36,599
Speaker 1: what I can do, you know, when I get off

1610
01:31:36,640 --> 01:31:38,080
Speaker 1: work or whatever. I mean, you can go and do

1611
01:31:38,200 --> 01:31:40,080
Speaker 1: those things. But you can also do it at a

1612
01:31:40,160 --> 01:31:42,960
Speaker 1: large scale. I mean no, you can use it multures

1613
01:31:43,000 --> 01:31:46,080
Speaker 1: and um, I mean if you really have to, and

1614
01:31:46,600 --> 01:31:48,880
Speaker 1: and you can use logging crews. I do that a

1615
01:31:48,960 --> 01:31:51,800
Speaker 1: lot with my job as force or I did a

1616
01:31:51,880 --> 01:31:54,760
Speaker 1: lot of savanna restorations by having a crew come in

1617
01:31:55,280 --> 01:31:58,600
Speaker 1: and log it and man, that is the that's the

1618
01:31:58,680 --> 01:32:00,920
Speaker 1: best way. If you have a large that's the best

1619
01:32:01,000 --> 01:32:04,760
Speaker 1: way to get a really good response quickly. And you

1620
01:32:04,800 --> 01:32:07,600
Speaker 1: know I mentioned earlier you have you know, you have

1621
01:32:07,680 --> 01:32:11,439
Speaker 1: those upland hardwood species. Obviously it's gonna be tempting. People

1622
01:32:11,439 --> 01:32:12,760
Speaker 1: are gonna want to go in there and do the

1623
01:32:12,800 --> 01:32:15,920
Speaker 1: opposite of a high grade where you leave. You know,

1624
01:32:16,080 --> 01:32:19,240
Speaker 1: high grading is leaving all the crab trees and only

1625
01:32:19,280 --> 01:32:21,720
Speaker 1: cutting the good trees. So like you're big oak, you know,

1626
01:32:21,840 --> 01:32:25,960
Speaker 1: oaks and and pickrees, and you know the trees are

1627
01:32:26,000 --> 01:32:28,920
Speaker 1: gonna make you money, and leaving the crab trees. You

1628
01:32:28,960 --> 01:32:30,720
Speaker 1: don't want to do that. But you also don't want

1629
01:32:30,720 --> 01:32:32,439
Speaker 1: to go in there and cut all the crab trees

1630
01:32:32,960 --> 01:32:35,880
Speaker 1: and just leave your big um. You know, you don't

1631
01:32:35,880 --> 01:32:37,960
Speaker 1: want to leave your property covered in giant white oaks

1632
01:32:38,520 --> 01:32:41,240
Speaker 1: because every time the wind blows, you're gonna be You're

1633
01:32:41,240 --> 01:32:42,720
Speaker 1: not gonna be able to sleep at night. You're gonna

1634
01:32:42,720 --> 01:32:45,559
Speaker 1: be like, there's I've got, you know, hundreds of thousands

1635
01:32:45,600 --> 01:32:47,400
Speaker 1: of dollars worth of white oaks there that are now

1636
01:32:47,760 --> 01:32:50,240
Speaker 1: up to the wind. They're gonna blow over. So um,

1637
01:32:50,680 --> 01:32:52,960
Speaker 1: what I used to do is I I go in

1638
01:32:53,040 --> 01:32:57,240
Speaker 1: and market and I'm move the maples and the beach

1639
01:32:57,360 --> 01:33:01,680
Speaker 1: and the and the sweet gums and poplars and and

1640
01:33:01,960 --> 01:33:05,920
Speaker 1: remove your bigger um. You know, make sure you're not

1641
01:33:06,040 --> 01:33:09,880
Speaker 1: just leaving the interior white oaks. But if you have

1642
01:33:10,120 --> 01:33:14,280
Speaker 1: some young white oaks, young oaks and hickries leave like

1643
01:33:14,400 --> 01:33:17,160
Speaker 1: the middle aged ones, you know, compared to the just

1644
01:33:17,360 --> 01:33:21,080
Speaker 1: giant timber quality ones, you can make some money on that.

1645
01:33:21,439 --> 01:33:24,360
Speaker 1: And um, you know, then it's gonna you're gonna be

1646
01:33:24,400 --> 01:33:26,280
Speaker 1: able to get a logger and they're easier when you say, hey,

1647
01:33:26,439 --> 01:33:28,120
Speaker 1: you can cut some of these bigger white oaks, but

1648
01:33:28,680 --> 01:33:32,800
Speaker 1: make sure you make sure you market because you don't

1649
01:33:32,840 --> 01:33:34,280
Speaker 1: want them to just go and you don't just want

1650
01:33:34,320 --> 01:33:36,240
Speaker 1: to turn a longer and use in your place without marketing.

1651
01:33:36,360 --> 01:33:41,280
Speaker 1: But in the end, what you have a savannah, it's

1652
01:33:41,280 --> 01:33:43,280
Speaker 1: going to grow up in the grasslands and you're gonna

1653
01:33:43,280 --> 01:33:45,920
Speaker 1: bring fire back to it. But your trees are gonna

1654
01:33:45,920 --> 01:33:49,439
Speaker 1: be those middle aged oaks and hickores and things like

1655
01:33:49,600 --> 01:33:52,200
Speaker 1: you know, short leaf pines or whatever. They're not gonna

1656
01:33:52,200 --> 01:33:55,000
Speaker 1: be so tall that they blow over because you know

1657
01:33:55,120 --> 01:33:57,679
Speaker 1: they've been growing in in a forest with a bunch

1658
01:33:57,680 --> 01:33:59,599
Speaker 1: of trees around them to protect them, so they haven't

1659
01:33:59,640 --> 01:34:03,120
Speaker 1: really put in that root structure that's going to hold

1660
01:34:03,160 --> 01:34:05,479
Speaker 1: them up. Two wins. But if you leave a lot

1661
01:34:05,520 --> 01:34:07,960
Speaker 1: of the middle aged ones and they're not going to

1662
01:34:08,000 --> 01:34:10,280
Speaker 1: blow over, and it's going to give them times to

1663
01:34:10,479 --> 01:34:13,599
Speaker 1: form those root systems and be get used to being

1664
01:34:13,680 --> 01:34:17,360
Speaker 1: out in somewhat open areas. But that's how you can

1665
01:34:17,400 --> 01:34:20,000
Speaker 1: go about it without just using a chainsaw and a

1666
01:34:20,600 --> 01:34:22,800
Speaker 1: bottle herbside. You can do it at a larger scale

1667
01:34:22,840 --> 01:34:25,439
Speaker 1: with a timber harvest. If you if you find a

1668
01:34:25,520 --> 01:34:29,559
Speaker 1: good forrester, and if you want to find a good forester,

1669
01:34:30,080 --> 01:34:32,759
Speaker 1: that Native Habitat Manager's page, it's good for that finding

1670
01:34:32,800 --> 01:34:35,200
Speaker 1: somebody in your area that has used somebody for a

1671
01:34:35,280 --> 01:34:39,960
Speaker 1: job like that. Yeah, well, speaking of that Native Habitat

1672
01:34:40,080 --> 01:34:44,840
Speaker 1: Manager's page, that sounds like a great resource. I've kept

1673
01:34:44,880 --> 01:34:48,320
Speaker 1: you here, John away with your sore throat for a

1674
01:34:48,400 --> 01:34:50,639
Speaker 1: good long time, which I appreciate it, but I feel

1675
01:34:50,640 --> 01:34:52,840
Speaker 1: like I should let you get back to it. So

1676
01:34:53,240 --> 01:34:57,080
Speaker 1: where could folks go to get more resources from you?

1677
01:34:57,280 --> 01:34:59,840
Speaker 1: Where can they see your content and connect with you

1678
01:35:00,000 --> 01:35:03,800
Speaker 1: and all that good stuff? Kyle? Yeah, Well, yeah, we've

1679
01:35:03,880 --> 01:35:09,240
Speaker 1: got I post videos on YouTube and Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, um.

1680
01:35:10,040 --> 01:35:13,320
Speaker 1: And then we have a podcast, um that we we

1681
01:35:13,479 --> 01:35:16,840
Speaker 1: put on pause for a while because Jake and I,

1682
01:35:17,320 --> 01:35:20,680
Speaker 1: uh we both just had newborns within you know, a

1683
01:35:20,800 --> 01:35:23,559
Speaker 1: month of each other. So we were like, for our

1684
01:35:23,600 --> 01:35:26,080
Speaker 1: wife's sakes, we're gonna put the podcast on Pauls. But

1685
01:35:26,120 --> 01:35:27,840
Speaker 1: we're about to start it back up. We have a

1686
01:35:27,880 --> 01:35:30,880
Speaker 1: lot of good episodes on there, but um, that's ah,

1687
01:35:31,360 --> 01:35:33,599
Speaker 1: that's where you can find us. And um, we're also

1688
01:35:33,680 --> 01:35:36,160
Speaker 1: on Patreon. People donate on there and we use that

1689
01:35:36,240 --> 01:35:38,800
Speaker 1: towards your store and some you know, rare grass and

1690
01:35:38,920 --> 01:35:43,400
Speaker 1: sites and uh, and we're we're about to start We're

1691
01:35:43,400 --> 01:35:46,240
Speaker 1: about to start selling some T shirts with a specific

1692
01:35:46,880 --> 01:35:49,320
Speaker 1: plant species on there. So I mentioned earlier finding rare

1693
01:35:49,360 --> 01:35:53,240
Speaker 1: stuff on grass or on roadsides. Um, there's some species

1694
01:35:53,280 --> 01:35:56,519
Speaker 1: in our state, like leafy prairie clover that that only

1695
01:35:56,600 --> 01:35:59,240
Speaker 1: has like three populations in the state, and we're gonna

1696
01:35:59,240 --> 01:36:02,559
Speaker 1: start selling T shirts with that leafy prairie clover on there. Um,

1697
01:36:03,040 --> 01:36:06,000
Speaker 1: And all that money's gonna go towards conserving that hopefully

1698
01:36:06,040 --> 01:36:09,200
Speaker 1: hopefully buying some of those properties and make sure they're

1699
01:36:10,120 --> 01:36:13,320
Speaker 1: safe for conservation. So that's something else cool we're doing.

1700
01:36:13,400 --> 01:36:15,800
Speaker 1: So just you can find all that following us on

1701
01:36:15,920 --> 01:36:20,040
Speaker 1: it on Instagram or Facebook. So but that's about it, man,

1702
01:36:20,120 --> 01:36:23,320
Speaker 1: And appreciate you having me on. Oh yeah, that's uh,

1703
01:36:23,479 --> 01:36:26,400
Speaker 1: that's some really cool stuff. I'm I'm glad that I've

1704
01:36:26,439 --> 01:36:29,760
Speaker 1: discovered your your content and your work and I'm glad

1705
01:36:29,760 --> 01:36:31,800
Speaker 1: you're out there doing it. So thank you for that, Kyle,

1706
01:36:31,960 --> 01:36:34,920
Speaker 1: and thanks for sharing all this with us today. Yeah,

1707
01:36:34,920 --> 01:36:37,519
Speaker 1: I appreciate it to you. Man. Well, I'm happy to

1708
01:36:37,600 --> 01:36:39,880
Speaker 1: come back going whenever of you. Do you ever have

1709
01:36:40,000 --> 01:36:43,439
Speaker 1: any more topics like this, I'd be happy to talk

1710
01:36:43,439 --> 01:36:46,639
Speaker 1: about it. Maybe maybe next time my voice we'll be back.

1711
01:36:46,720 --> 01:36:49,479
Speaker 1: So yes, yeah, I feel like we're just scraping the

1712
01:36:49,560 --> 01:36:51,639
Speaker 1: surface on a lot of this stuff. So yeah, we'll

1713
01:36:51,640 --> 01:36:53,479
Speaker 1: definitely need to have you on for for a second

1714
01:36:53,520 --> 01:36:56,400
Speaker 1: go around, and I'll make sure schedule at not right

1715
01:36:56,439 --> 01:37:00,880
Speaker 1: after the big Old Turkey convention. Yeah, well I got it.

1716
01:37:01,080 --> 01:37:03,559
Speaker 1: Just so happened. We have a pregnant goat down here

1717
01:37:03,600 --> 01:37:05,679
Speaker 1: in my podcast studio. We have is at my barn

1718
01:37:06,000 --> 01:37:09,360
Speaker 1: and we just had him. Our goat literally had three babies.

1719
01:37:09,520 --> 01:37:12,240
Speaker 1: As I was walking into the to do this podcast,

1720
01:37:12,320 --> 01:37:15,400
Speaker 1: so I gotta go check on some baby goats too. Yep,

1721
01:37:15,560 --> 01:37:19,320
Speaker 1: priorities we'll get after Kyle. Thanks again, appreciate it man.

1722
01:37:19,400 --> 01:37:23,439
Speaker 1: We'll see you later. And that is a rap. I

1723
01:37:23,600 --> 01:37:26,680
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed this one. Thanks for being here. I

1724
01:37:26,760 --> 01:37:30,200
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed this entire month of habitat related discussions.

1725
01:37:31,120 --> 01:37:33,439
Speaker 1: I've certainly learned a lot. I'm excited to get out

1726
01:37:33,520 --> 01:37:37,360
Speaker 1: on the ground doing some of this work myself starting

1727
01:37:37,560 --> 01:37:42,240
Speaker 1: next week. Mister Tony Peterson, my good friend and partner

1728
01:37:42,280 --> 01:37:43,640
Speaker 1: in crime and a lot of the stuff we do

1729
01:37:43,760 --> 01:37:46,160
Speaker 1: here at Wired to Hunt is taking over. He's going

1730
01:37:46,200 --> 01:37:49,160
Speaker 1: to do an offseason project series. We're gonna talk about

1731
01:37:49,200 --> 01:37:51,800
Speaker 1: all sorts of interesting things. He's going to be talking

1732
01:37:51,880 --> 01:37:55,160
Speaker 1: through scouting and shed hunting and turkeys and all sorts

1733
01:37:55,200 --> 01:37:57,000
Speaker 1: of good stuff that we can be focusing on this

1734
01:37:57,120 --> 01:37:59,680
Speaker 1: time of year as we kind of prepare for that

1735
01:37:59,840 --> 01:38:03,599
Speaker 1: next phase of the year. So be sure to check

1736
01:38:03,680 --> 01:38:06,320
Speaker 1: back in next week for that, check in for more

1737
01:38:06,400 --> 01:38:09,519
Speaker 1: details for me on the Working for Wildlife tour coming soon,

1738
01:38:10,040 --> 01:38:13,360
Speaker 1: and until the next time, Thanks for being here and

1739
01:38:13,640 --> 01:38:16,200
Speaker 1: stay Wired to Hunt.