August Management Recommendations

 

Fire Ecology

  • Prescribe burn logging slash or build brush piles.
  • Finish growing season burns in native ground cover before arrival of fall.

Forestry

  • Plan for regeneration by conducting a visual survey of mature longleaf pine trees for cone production
  • Order seedlings early if regeneration is planned and cone crop is poor. Planting containerized seedlings in the fall can achieve better survival than waiting until later in the year.
  • If adequate cone crop, plan for site preparation burn to capture regeneration.
  • Mow between alternate rows within pine plantations to eliminate competition and create different heights of vegetation.

Game Bird

  • Supplemental feed at 1-2 bu/ac/yr.
  • Manage for nest predators if needed.

Land Management

  • Good month to spray herbicides, girdle or fell hardwoods.
  • Plant second round of millet in dove fields, for those who want grain available for the second phase of dove season.
  • Wetter dove fields should be planted with Japanese millet during this wetter month.
  • Plan deer survey route for spotlight counts (Florida only).
  • Mow roads and repair woods roads.

Vertebrate Ecology

  • Good time to replace worn-out artificial cavities for Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. Juveniles start roosting in cavities this time of year and will adopt clean cavities quickly.
  • Lake and pond draw-downs at this time of year can provide benefits for migrating shorebirds and wading birds.
  • Chimney Swifts begin to stage for migration and may use novel roosting sites, including the chimneys of abandoned tenant homes.
  • Swallow-tailed and Mississippi Kites gather in large migratory flocks and may forage over open fields.
  • Early songbird migrants appear; look for Yellow Warblers & Louisiana Water Thrushes along brushy wetland edges.
  • Hummingbirds that venture from breeding habitats may show up at feeders almost anywhere; maintain feeding stations.
  • Gopher Tortoise nests start hatching; keep heavy equipment away from tortoise burrows.
  • Allow some lightning-struck trees to die and decay naturally for the benefit of snag-nesting wildlife.

September Management Recommendations

 

Fire Ecology

  • Execute late growing season prescribed burns for native ground cover.

Forestry

  • Apply fall herbicides for control of hardwoods.
  • Conduct site-preparation burns to capture longleaf regeneration.

Game Bird

  • Begin to mow or chop hunting lanes in late September.
  • Mow thickets, and areas that were too wet to mow in the spring
  • Begin dog training.
  • Begin conditioning of horses and mules.
  • Continue supplemental Feeding at 1-2 bu/ac/yr.
  • Discontinue Predation Management.

Land Management

  • Plant fall food plots, if rainfall is sufficient.
  • Begin mowing or harvesting dove fields.
  • For those who want grain available for the third phase of dove season, plant second round of millet in dove fields.
  • Implement deer surveys to determine harvest strategy.
  • Apply herbicide for exotic grasses.
  • Apply herbicide for hardwood control.

Vertebrate Ecology

  • Fall songbird migration begins in earnest; watch for colorful birds along streamside zones and in hardwood forests.
  • Early Bald Eagles start to return to stake out territories and begin courtships.
  • Red-cockaded Woodpecker translocations begin; trucks in the woods at night may be helping this endangered species.

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