Archive
Farming for Wildlife Video
Southeastern Prairie Symposium
May 14-17, 2012
Starkville, Mississippi
Invasive Plants in Southern Forests
“USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) Director Jim Reaves today announced that gardeners, foresters, landowners and others concerned about nonnative invasive plants in the South can now request free copies of “A Field Guide for the Identification of Invasive Plants in Southern Forests“. The long-awaited book is an update of the very popular “Nonnative Invasive Plants of Southern Forests: A Field Guide for Identification and Control“, published by the Station in 2003.”
Prairie Restoration “Tricks of the Trade”
Conservation Maven points out a great article about what works and what doesn’t when restoring native prairie.
Planting Wildlife Food Plots
MSUCares has a updated guide for Supplemental Wildlife Food Planting in the Southeast.
Bobwhite Restoration Project
My colleagues just completed a multi-state northern bobwhite research initiative. The final report was just published by NRCS and is available online. It summarizes a suite of research projects that will improve conservation on farms. A quote from the Foreward should pique your interest – “You will find clear, concise recommendations and the kind of conservation practices to use on your farm or recommend to others for quail restoration. Much of the bobwhite’s needs are supported by farm bill programs approved by Congress and administered by USDA NRCS.” – L. Pete Heard
Managing Invasive Species
Southern Forests Network has compiled some great resources about identifying and managing invasive species HERE. The resources include:
Invasive Plants of the United States: Identification, Biology and Control provides identification, ecology, and control information for invasive plants in the United States occurring in aquatic, wetland, forest, rangeland, desert, or prairie habitats.
Invasive Plants Field and Reference Guide: An Ecological Perspective of Plant Invaders of Forests and Woodlands gives a scientific synthesis of what is known about the behavior of such species in managed, disturbed, and pristine forested systems in addition to key information for accurate identification.
Landscape Agro-ecology
Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog thinks that landscape agro-ecology – the study of agriculture and its biodiversity beyond the field scale – is coming of age. I agree with them.
Field Borders for Wildlife
Missouri Extension has published a great guide for installing field borders (herbaceous strips of vegetation replacing crops at field edges) entitled Field borders for agronomic, economic and wildlife benefits. The document illustrates some important principles of corridor design that we focus on in my course, but that are not incorporated (intentionally!) into farm plans nearly enough. The document is b/w, but color versions of the pictures can be viewed on the html version HERE.
