By Theron Terhune, Outreach & Education Coorinator
I have to say that fall is by far my favorite time of year! I love most everything about this time of year: the cooler mornings; the brilliance and varied fall colored leaves; the welcoming “koi-lee” sound of the distinct bobwhite covey call; and, of course, the anticipation of the next “big” hunt. I haven’t, however, figured out who enjoys hunting season more me or my bird dog, Gerti!
Gerti ready for the next duck to drop and, now, anxiously anticipating the next hunt. Are you ready?
For many though, this time of year is the busiest and most challenging. An ongoing challenge of many wild quail managers is not only adequately managing habitat to ensure quality hunting but also tracking bobwhite populations, harvest rates, evaluating hunting success and dog performance, and coordinating hunts, feeding schedules and predation management program.
As such, to aid land managers and land owners, Tall Timbers has partnered with CoveyIQ to help address these challenges and to bring you the latest and greatest technology, affording wild quail plantations a valuable way to collect and archive relevant quail hunting information, such as coveys found, dogs pointed, and number of birds harvested. During September, we hosted our second land managers luncheon where more than 25 folks learned about CoveyIQ. Luncheon attendees discovered that CoveyIQ provides a nice, user-friendly platform for entering data and evaluating hunting success and even allows you to customize year-end reports. The CoveyIQ system is accessible by computers (at the office) and mobile (in the field) devices, where users just need internet access to get started and log hunting data. In addition to quail hunting information, CoveyIQ users can plan where and where to hunt or when/where to feed, as well as collect predation management information. For more information about CoveyIQ, visit their website at http://www.coveyiq.com/ or email Theron.
In the near future, we hope to incorporate CoveyIQ into land management tools being developed at Tall Timbers such as web mapping applications, population monitoring tools and other management decision tools. This integration and accumulation of data over time will help Tall Timbers game bird scientists to advance quail research by studying anonymous hunting data at regional scales with the intent to better inform quail conservation landscape-wide.
This past luncheon on CoveyIQ was a great one, but there are many more to come! Many thanks to those sending in comments and suggestions for future land managers luncheons. Here are the topics and tentative time periods for Next Year’s (2013) Luncheons:
Jan/Feb – Best Management Practice in Prescribed Fire
Apr/May – Use and Application of Herbicides
July – Utilizing Conservation Incentive Programs to your Advantage (e.g. FB and Safe Harbor)
Sept/Oct – Evaluating your Wildlife Population (predators, quail, songbirds, etc.)
We need your vote today, and every day until November 30 for Operation Outdoors
For their Future Forward Grant Contest,SportDOG Brand® has chosen the conservation project that Tall Timbers Outreach & Education Coordinator, Dr. Theron Terhune proposed, along with Dr. James Martin at Mississippi State University. Tall Timbers’ project,Operation Outdoors, was nominated as 1 of 7 projects to choose from to receive a $25,000 grant. The project receiving the most votes will be awarded the grant. To win the grant contest, we need your vote today, and every day until November 30.
About Operation Outdoors
The Operation Outdoors grant request is for developing and planning an intensive semester of outdoor education for young adults at the college/university level. Grant funds, if awarded, will go towards paying for travel of project planning partners (i.e., from Clemson University, Mississippi State University, Washington College, etc.), for course development, and to undergraduate students and young adults to offset costs incurred for university classes, such as Upland Avian Ecology, when visiting the field site. Project Outdoors allow students to visit field research stations, participate in research and learn about practical habitat management without paying the out-of-pocket expenses associated with field site visits.
You can start voting today and can vote once every day until November 30. You can also vote at the SportDOG™ contest page on their website: www.sportdog.com/FFF.
Voting for Operation Outdoors enhances conservation and natural resource education for young adults by bringing them into the outdoors for a practical, hands-on research and education experience at Tall Timbers. The intent of the project is to foster the integration of hunting and game management into education. The ultimate goal of this project is to conserve and protect upland and grassland ecosystems, the species inhabiting them, and retaining the hunting legacy. Students will leave the program as effective upland bird biologists, well-versed in habitat management, and the ability to educate others on these topics. We believe this will have a cascading effect such that our culture of upland hunting will be preserved for future generations. PLEASE vote for Operation Outdoors!
Why did SportDOG™ have a contest?
SportDOG™ and their families enjoy many of the same hunting opportunities and outdoor activities as their customers. As a result, they recognize the importance of wise conservation and habitat-enhancement initiatives. SportDOG supports conservation efforts by contributing time and funding to projects that ensure hunters will have wild places to hunt wild game for generations to come. From habitat-enhancement projects at the local level to partnerships with some of the most proactive and respected national conservation organizations, SportDOG is proud to contribute.
The M-CORES program, which includes the proposed Suncoast Connector Toll Road in Jefferson County, passed through the Florida Legislature at breakneck speed with little review or analysis. Tall Timbers has a number of concerns given the potential for significant and wide spread impacts. These include fragmenting public and private conservation lands, robbing business from Main Street Monticello, impacting our rivers and other water resources, and making prescribed fire more difficult and costly.
Join us in asking the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners to OPPOSE the Suncoast Connector toll road and its path through Jefferson County.
Take action now with our easy email form.
Send an email to all five Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners with one click!
Burn prioritization modeling seminars and fire modeling tools are supported by Wildland Fire Science to train managers in the important planning stages of prescribed fires.
Educating and guiding the next generation of fire researchers and managers is a key goal of Wildland Fire Science and a resource for testing new ideas in fire research.
Tall Timbers hosts the premier fire technology transfer organization—the Southern Fire Exchange. This JFSP funded effort helps connect research to management through webinars, workshops, and support of the Prescribed Fire Science Consortium.
Working with partners in the Prescribed Fire Science Consortium, the program is building nexgen 3-D fuel beds using terrestrial LiDAR and novel sampling techniques to power new fire behavior models for prescribed fire managers. This work links to Tall Timbers work in wildlife habitat usage and ecological forestry.
The Longleaf Legacy landscape prescribed fire burn team arm of Wildland Fire Science works directly with landowners and partners to effectively put fire on the ground and promote prescribed fire throughout the region.
Tall Timbers is leading an effort to map fire regimes at the landscape scale. Staff work with numerous agencies to evaluate fire records and satellite imagery to build this critical conservation database. https://skfb.ly/6DqOY
Tall Timbers hosts the Prescribed Fire Science Consortium, a national network of researchers and managers who promote integrated research and management to advance next generation tools for fire practitioners. https://arcg.is/1DSjDT
We are linking physics and field observations to understand the fluid dynamics of fire behavior surface fire regimes. Our work combines field observations using advanced thermal imaging techniques, laboratory studies, and coupled fire-atmospheric modeling to help managers improve outcomes of managed fire regimes.
Selected Publications authored by Wildland Fire Science staff.
Staff and researchers support Federal fire training by serving as a cadre for NWCG training courses, ranging from basic wildland fire to advanced fire effects.
(PFTC) specializes in training fire fighters the principles and techniques of prescribed fire through practical hands-on experience. https://www.fws.gov/fire/pftc/
Private land owners are the largest source of prescribed fire in the country. These land owners and the culture of fire that was maintained by them during decades of suppression are a part of why Tall Timbers is a world-wide center for prescribed fire science. Workshops and fire training are a critical focus of the Longleaf Legacy Landscape Burn Team and our support of the Georgia Forestry Commission Prescribed Fire Center in Marion County.
The conserved lands of the Greater Red Hills region are found on working, income-producing properties that support agriculture, forestry, and recreational hunting. These properties contribute $272 million annually to local economies and support 2,300 jobs. [link to Planning & Advocacy section] The landowners’ strong stewardship ethic preserves their working lands while replenishing drinking water supplies, protecting water quality, and providing wildlife habitat for dozens of rare and endangered species. Tall Timbers’ conservation easements on these working properties encourage landowners to retain their traditional livelihood by keeping farms in family ownership.
Home to world-class wild quail populations, the Greater Red Hills region contains the largest concentration of gamebird preserves in the United States. These preserves also support the largest community of Red-cockaded woodpeckers on private lands. Indicators of high quality habitat found here include the gopher tortoise, Bachman’s sparrow, fox squirrel, and many amphibians. Tall Timbers’ conservation easements identify and protect the critical habitats of these species.
The region also boasts outstanding aquatic resources. Large river systems, like the Flint/Apalachicola, Ochlockonee, and Aucilla, flow from Georgia and feed into the Gulf of Mexico to support some of the world’s most productive estuaries. Large disappearing sinkhole lakes, like Iamonia, Miccosukee, and Jackson, provide habitat for an array of aquatic species and migratory birds. Tall Timbers’ conservation easements protect these vital watersheds and wetlands that are the lifeblood for the ecological health of the region.
Once dominated by longleaf pine, our pine woodlands support abundant wildlife and local economies. These forests need prescribed fire to stay healthy. Herbert L. Stoddard and his associates Ed and Roy Komarek were pioneers in this emerging scientific field during the mid-20th century. Tall Timbers continues that legacy with applied research on prescribed fire and land management. Today, there is a tremendous need to expand prescribed fire use beyond the Red Hills to ensure ecosystem health and reduce wildfire risk. Additionally, Tall Timbers uses conservation easements to permanently protect private woodlands while balancing the need for economic return from selective timbering.
