WILDLIFE SEED DISTRIBUTION PROJECT

Wildlife Seed Currently Available

In the spring, the NCWHF will have a variety of wildlife seeds available for planting as wildlife food plots. Corn, Milo, and Sunflower seed will be available to the general public for the cost of shipping.

For more information, call (336)851-9367 or (336)375-4994.

More on the project. . .

Wildlife Gardening: NCWHF, National Wild Turkey Federation join forces to provide wildlife food crops

By WALTER TAYLOR
Special to the News & Record
(As appeared in the NCWHF Progress Report, Spring-Summer, 1998)

More Hunters are planting food crops this season. Conservationists of the North Carolina Wildlife Habitat Foundation and the state chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation provided more than 120,000 pounds of corn, milo, and sunflower seeds. They gave away three tractor-trailer loads of seed to sportsmen from all over the state.

All that seed should plant about 12,000 acres, according to supervising biologist Harlan Hall of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

The food plots will help, but more is needed, he said. While the deer and wild turkey populations continue to grow, the future is uncertain for small game.

“We are hurting for small game all over the Southeast, not just in North Carolina," Hall said. "This is a step in the right direction to fill one of the habitat needs for small game, but there is no magic bean. We need more land that is not covered up with asphalt or housing developments.”

Greensboro sportsman Jim Bennett serves as chairman of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. He attended all nine wildlife districts for winter publice hearings to learn the concerns of sportsmen.

Hunters from all regions agreed that the decline of quail and other small game is the number one wildlife management problem in North Carolina, he said.

“Our resources are better than they have ever been except for quail,” Bennett said. “That concerns a lot of folks. Everybody recognizes that the quail population has dwindled. Quail do not have the habitat they once had.”

Recently retired wildlife management division chief Hal Atkinson also heard from hunters at public hearings. Despite the success of the deer and wild turkey programs, he said, small game hunters feel left out.

“We know a lot of it is habitat realated," Atkinson said. "The problem is asphalt and fescue. We have to make a conversion if we are going to keep these small game species. It is not simple, but a big land management deal.”

Food crops help wildlife but will not meet all their life needs. Wildlife managers plant on gamelands to concentrate animals so they can be harvested by hunters. Cover is important. Wildlife needs forested areas, grassy fields, and briar patches.

Sunflowers and milo can be planted in rows or with a grain drill after careful soil preperation. Herbicide is used to kill competing weeds.

Plant after the last frost, usually in May. Both game birds and song birds will thrive on the natural birdseed provided by sunflowers and milo.

All game loves corn and it is easier to grow. While weeds are not allowed in cash crops, game keepers do not care how many bushels of corn an acre can produce.

“No need to plant corn in careful rows,” Harlan Hall said. “Don’t worry about weeds. Weed seeds are just as valuable for wildlife food as corn. Stunted corn stalks with medium sized ears are plenty good for wildlife.”

Eddie Bridges of the North Carolina Wildlife Habitat Foundation had talked with state officers of the National Wild Turkey Federation about a joint project for years, then the seed came along. Though the seed was free, the Habitat Foundation paid more than $7,000 to ship it to McLeansville. Volunteers unloaded the seed with a tractor and strong backs.

Bridges, a former wildlife commissioner from Greensboro, founded the North Carolina Wildlife Habitat Foundation several years ago. Members make a one-time donation to an endowment fund that is now more than $500,000.

So far, more than $70,000 in interest has paid for several innovative habitat projects, including the seed program.

“The response is overwhelming," Bridges said. "We had people come from both ends of the state. They say we are doinga worthwhile job and many have offered to help. One fellow offered to pay for twice as much seed if we could distribute it. This first time is a learning process. Next time we will do it better.”

More than 150 sportsmen from the mountains to the sea came to McLeansville for seed. The 50-pound sacks were free to Habitat Foundation and Turkey Federation members.

James Lee from Raleigh picked up 20 sacks of seed for his hunting club. He plans to sow fields and old logging roads on 7,000 acres leased from a paper company.

“I think this seed program is great for hunters and for the community,” Lee said. James Long, from Summerfield, an active turkey federation member, and former state president, picked up corn and milo to plant on his hunting land. Deer will feed on the corn while the milo should help the few quail that are left, he said.

“I am not a farmer by any means but I am planting a wildlife garden this year,” he said. “I hope to have better luck than I did with the regular garden last year.”

State chapters of the National Wild Turkey Federation have worked since the 1970s to restore the prized game bird in North Carolina.

Best known for trapping out-of-state birds for relocation in North Carolina, more than 5,000 turkey federation members also implemented habitat improvement projects, according to state president Ed Andrews.

“We may do this again for winter wheat in the fall.” Andrews said.

“It could turn into an annual thing. This is a way we can reach out to conservationists across the state and really help wildlife. This may be the largest habitat project we have ever taken on.”