Many Thanks

[eastwoods]

I shot Bulldog a PM and he made the biggest lightbulb (disk it) go off in my head about moist soil plants and something I was doing all wrong.

Many thanks to you Bulldog and may many birds fall to your gun this year!!!

This is a great site, you MS boys are alright.

[SkippyJ]

EW check your PM's bro.

[bulldog]

Eastwoods,
You are more than welcome. I am glad I could help because that is what I have been trained to do. In my opinion, scientific knowledge is valuable only if it can be used to improve management (waterfowl or otherwise). I hope a lot of birds fall to my gun this year too.

[eastwoods]

Well the Cache is about 10' today and my woods are flooded. Going to be real lucky to get in there in the fall with disk and tractor.

Exactly what Bulldog turned me onto was succession. I have a MS in Biology and thought I knew what succession was, but I made a big mistake and couldn't see the forest for the trees.

Since I was getting no tree sapling, buck brush, or willow growth happening in my slough openings, I thought all I had to do was spray the dicots every year and wallah' the grasses and sedges would take off eventually. Well, I've been at it for 5 summers and I still have a bunch of perrenials. Where I was really at was stuck right in the middle of a mid-succession stage of perenial smartweed and other non-beneficial broadleaves.

Bulldog pointed out that you [u:"@#$%#"][i:"@#$%#"][b:"@#$%#"]disk for next year [/b:"@#$%#"][/i:"@#$%#"][/u:"@#$%#"]sometimes not this year.

Why I am so convinced that this will work is because we always disk an area right in front of the blinds in October (30 + years). Guess what grows there, you got it, grasses, sedges and annual smartweeds.

[bulldog]

My work has shown that these moist-soil areas provide a lot more food per acre than harvested rice fields, here is the breakdown:

Harvested rice= 62 lb/acre
Intensively managed moist-soil= 1038 lb/acre
Moist-soil average= 538 lb/acre

Intensive moist-soil management denotes disking every year and good water control (summer irrigation). Average moist-soil habitat values are based on lb/acre for intensive, active (typical of what most people do), and passive management (no management). Your duck holes should provide a lot of ducks with a lot of days worth of food, at least more than most cut rice fields.

[eastwoods]

What's your favorite pub. on moist soil management in natural sloughs like mine.

I've read extensively on the subject and have several pub.s, but thought you might know one standout paper that is the be-all end-all to building duck habitat.

[Wingman]

I would like to know more about this as well. The food is there, all I need to know is what type of drawdown and soil prep is needed to get the food that is most favored by the birds.

Wingman

[eastwoods]

I think you can "intensively manage" for abundance which is about taking water on and off at the right times and right depths, but I can't do that.

You know I bet it takes a duck a lot longer to eat 1,000 pounds of smartweed seeds as opposed to 62 pounds of rice.

I'm getting pretty pumped up about gettin' that disk in there this year. Guess I'm gonna' break me some beaver dams afterall.

[bulldog]

The best source on habitat management that I know of is:

http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/wdb/pub/wmh/contents.html

That publication includes everything about water-level and vegetation manipulation. Wingman, if you already have the food, just keep doing what you are doing...disk regularly (every year or two), slow April-May drawdown, and irrigation (is possible) when necessary to keep the soil moist during the growing season.