The 47,000 feet Planting Experience
Jim Litchfield    4/14/2011

The Phillips county chapter of Pheasants Forever had put together a habitat planting for the benefit of the State Council. Funds are needed for another youth trailer and to upgrade some of the equipment in the current one.

I arrived at the Phillips County fairgrounds campground in Holyoke at 5pm Thursday. I called the given number to get hookups and settled in. Friday morning I was at the site at 7:30am. I sat and watched two very large black dogs saunter from the north to the south and disappear over a hill in a cornfield south of the site. Shortly thereafter I watched a rooster cross one of the prepped rows. And then fly to the edge of some green wheat and walk across the road to the cornfield. At 7:55am I Jerry Miller the PF biologist in charge. He explained that He said the equipment was not ready and to meet at the fairgrounds at 10am. I took a nap and at 10 Jerry showed up at the same time as Stan Barthlama and Don Brown. Right behind were Stan and Donna Elmore. They started setting up their fifth wheels and I went back out to the site. There were more people there getting the tractors and poly fabric equipment ready. Jerry said they had planted everything on Thursday. One fabric machine had a flat tire and the other tractor was low on hydraulic fluid. Back to the fairgrounds and a new time of 12:30pm. The crew at the fairgrounds was done setting up and we went out to lunch.

12:30 at the site and it was a go. Two very small crews started, I grabbed my shovel and started covering up a beginning end. On these crews you like to have a tractor driver, a person riding the fabric machine cutting slits in the fabric everywhere there is a plant and pulling the plant out the slit. One or two people with shovels to cover up beginning and ends and any splices. Behind that is one or 2 people making sure the fabric is not going to abrade the plant and pushing foot long staples close to the plant to keep the fabric from billowing up and blowing free. That’s what you like to have but crews were small and I was the only one on mine with a shovel. I needed the exercise and had prepared somewhat by turning over my garden with a shovel but by 4:30 I was starting to hurt and was ready to quit when word came to quit. Thank You!

A lot of the talk after quitting was about the possible government shut down. If it happened, Jerry could not be at the site or even discuss it. He could not even be there as a volunteer. He could work on CDOW projects but nothing related to NRCS. He is a PF biologist and he is partially funded by PF and CDOW, but he works out of an NRCS office.

Back to the campground, Kirk Locker (Josh Cure) had furnished pork chops for dinner. Donna Elmore had salad and delicious potato salad. Stacey Litchfield showed up in time to eat. A little later Kevin Martin and Tom Kramer arrived and food was warmed up for them. Several of us took showers in the county building. It was nice not to have to crowd into my trailer shower. Kevin and Tom displaced the Elmore’s dogs so they could use the bunk beds. Just a matter of moving the cages from the dogs living area to the kitchen. I guess you could say that Tom and Kevin spent the night in the dog house.

7am and it was time for breakfast. Stan B. cooked the breakfast sausage (thanks Josh) and scrambled eggs (thanks PF) and Donna and Stan cooked hash browns. Don Brown made toast. After a breakfast like that it should have been time for a nap but no, out to the site. Things were already buzzing by the time we arrived. Stacey got out and Jerry pointed to a tractor and told him to follow it. I grabbed a shovel and asked him where he wanted me. He pointed to the other tractor. Stan Elmore joined me and off we went. Much easier with 2 people manning (peopling?) shovels. Don Brown was again on this tractor. Stan Barthlama was told to shuffle water and cookies between the two crews. Donna Elmore was glad that we had plenty of help and decided to sit in their pickup and read. Kevin Martin and Tom Kramer put staples in next to the plants. One time when the two crews were meeting everybody stopped and cookies and water were handed out and Stan B. took pictures. Sometime later both crews were meeting head on and the other crew pulled out and around and we finished up. It was about 12:30pm when we arrived back at the assembly area. A steak fry had been planned for Saturday night at the campground but since we were done it was time for food and refreshments. 20 some people gathered between my trailer and Stan B’s. An hour and a half later the only ones left were the people in the three trailers. Stacey and I left about 4pm for Vanango, NE to see if Tom Olson was home. He had just finished a long day of burning a CRP field and some brush around his house. After a short visit we returned to Holyoke to eat.

That night it started raining. I was afraid that we were going to have to put down camp in the rain but no it had stopped by 7am. Perfect! Get everything planted and weed fabric put down and it rains to water the plants. Couldn’t be any better, Stan B. said his rain gauge showed ¼ inch. He really does carry everything in his fifth wheel. The only real problem was when I was brushing my teeth and Stacey was doing something inside. EARTHQUAKE!
No, just the trailer falling forward off the jack support. I had asked Stacey to remove the left wheel blocks and he had removed all of them. I asked him why he had removed all of them and he said “they were loose”. It only took two people on the back of the pickup to lower the hitch enough to hook up. All in all a very good weekend although I was disappointed that there were not more youth helping. Planting is an excellent opportunity to show what is needed to plant habitat for them and there are things they can do to help. The first planting I was ever involved in, an eighty year old tractor driver said to my 13 year old son and friend that he wasn’t doing it for himself but for them because at his age he would never be able to enjoy it.

Be aware there will be an opportunity for one or two more next April. Be prepared.

Tree Planting 2006

The tree planting activities for 2006 for NoCPF has wrapped up. We have replaced 480 evergreens and 500 shrubs. In general the planting conditions were very good and we have high hopes for a good survival. Due to the harsh conditions and resulting poorer survival we have experienced at the Grover location for the last several years, the replanting was focused in that area. With good progress the last 2 years I expect we will be able to complete the replant activities at both the Stoneham and Grover locations in 2007.

On a very positive note, the landowner reported that the sharptail grouse populations are recovering after the devastating hailstorm of 2004 and there was a confirmed sighting of a small group of sharptails by the tree planting crew on Saturday.

A Well Deserved Thanks goes out to all the participants for their efforts on this project.

Food and Cover Plots
There are some very good opportunities through the USDA for landowners to receive payments for leaving unharvested crops in the field or by leaving taller than normal wheat stubble. When these areas are available it can dramatically increase young bird survival. If you know of any landowners in the area that have an interest please have them contact me.

In Drew Larson's most recent newsletter, he recommended an April 15 tour of pheasant habitat. This is when the amount of cover is near it's minimum and is just before the start of the nesting season. We often see these fields in the fall and much of the more marginal cover looks pretty good at that time so looking at habitat only at that time can give a very optimistic view of the situation. Accurate assessment of the situation will help us plan for the best possible results. It is a great time of year to get out and have a discussison with our landowner freinds and partners about things we can do to build our habitat resources.

Think Habitat!
Dean Grundman