Major Change To Delta National Forest Proposed

[MSDuckmen]

[MSDuckmen]

[peewee]

[crow]

[tsbadb]

I wish we could off this age think no I wasn't there then but you weren't there in the mid 40's when our club was built either, and it's not all about hunting it's about manging the forest to get it's maxium return. And yes they the trappers killed off beavers on my side of the river also dried up one the best duck holes I've ever hunted now we only get water during flood years.

[MSDuckmen]

[tsbadb]

MS thanks for you comments and ideas I wish we did see eye to eye on this but a least we live were we can debate about it no matter what side your on. Hope to see you at the Meeting in Oct. or Nov.

[Goose]

What would the DNF look like today if Larry Moore & his people had not aggressively gone after the beavers in 1995? That 12,000 acres of flooded timber would be 12,00 acres of dead timber today. Would that be better habitat for anybody? It would certainly be "natural", but I don't believe it would be better. What would be the economic impact of letting 12,000 acres of hardwood bottomland timber just die because beavers flooded it? I would guess 5 to 10 million dollars?

I have to believe that Larry Moore & his current staff are diligently watching after our asset in the DNF. They are "managing" the resource to the best of their ability, and sure, they aren't going to please everyone, but I think if you step back and look objectively at what they are doing, it is sound timber management practices.

And as far as the roads go, can any of you remember the 707 road under Alvin Womack's tenure? You couldn't travel 20 mph for the washboard. I think the roads are in great shape today....thanks to Larry Moore & his staff.

[Meeka]

[Po Monkey Lounger]

[peewee]

[tsbadb]

[Goose]

Meeka, if you were fortunate enough to spend any time in the DNF around 1993 - 1994 you would have seen beaver dams that literally ran for miles and weren't more than 18" tall in most places. The dams in the main bayous & sloughs were sometimes 8 - 10 feet tall and eventually took bulldozers to clear them. The duck hunting was great in those years because of the habitat created by the beavers, and quite frankly I hated to see it go; however, as responsible stewards of that forest, the US Forest Service had to do something to save that volume of timber from going to waste. Not only saving the timber, but I happen to own some property on the upstream end of several major drains, and it got to where we were unable to drain our property because it had to drain across the forest, so they also needed to open up these drainages to accommodate drainage from ajacent properties. It got so bad in the winter of 1994 that cotton fields along Highway 16 were flooded because the whole area could not drain. Something had to be done to open up this huge drainage that is bigger than just DNF, and that's exactly what the US Forest Service set out to do.

Larry Moore even got DU involved to install a series of structures in the main drains to theoritically be able to hold the water like the beavers were doing. I don't think these structures flood the same acreage as the beavers; however, they do keep water in the main bayous. All & all, I again applaud the US Forest Service for practicing sound forest management principals in so far as draining the water from the forest, and even going one step further in securing the structures to help recreate the diserable habitat that unfortunately had to be lost.

[bigwater]

[tunica]