Arkansas farmers earn money by creating wildlife habitats

[depakid]

About 20 farmers and landowners heard about a program to attract wildlife to their less profitable land Feb. 18 at the Lonoke Community Center.

David Long, an agricultural liaison with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said farmers had a bad year because of the flooding and snow, and the Continuous Conservation Reserve Program brings an opportunity to provide stable income on land that is hard to farm.

According to Long, the program gives people money to create wildlife habitats on their farms and applies to row crop lands and certain types of pastures.

“It is based on soil type for croplands,” Long said.

He said farmers face high fuel and fertilizer prices, flooding, drought, insects and crop diseases, so the program offers farmers benefits for retiring marginally profitable cropland, such as receiving stable income through yearly rental payments, earning income from possible hunting leases after habitat improves and keeping soil on the farm.

Long said a farmer can put buffers on their field edges, which makes good nesting areas for habitat. Filter strips and riparian forest buffers can be used to increase income along field edges. Long said filter strips are cropland edges next to water bodies for filtering runoff. They can be installed next to cropland and are good for quail, rabbits, deer bedding and fawning areas. He said wildlife habitat for upland birds targets primarily quail and songbirds but has benefits for rabbits, turkey, deer and other wildlife.

More: http://www.cabotstarherald.com/articles/2010/03/04/carlisle_independent/features/fea01.txt

[DURHAM D]

1. And then the hunters come on your land and shot everything but

wildlife. They shot the signs, the windmill, the cow tank. the cows, the fences, the gates, the trees, the abandoned house, the plows, the tractors, the old barn, you name it - they shut it. And they don't ask permission to hunt - they just get out and start shooting.

And when they step in a prairie dog hole and kill themselves they sue you.

[depakid]

2. Hunting practices in your neck of the woods are strange

My sister lives out in Pittsboro, N.C. On a visit several years ago, there were indeed a lot of shot up things, but stranger still was the "wildlife corn" sold in the local gas stations minimarts.

It's basically a bag of feed used to bait animals onto people's property- where of course, they're shot (sometimes from little decks and sheds).

In the West, where I grew up- they'd call that poaching....

[DURHAM D]

3. Actually I don't know much about hunting habits in N.C. -

except during deer season I hear gun shots all of the time and I live in the city but back up to a forest. It is very unnerving.

My experience with hunters that I described is in the midwest - the family farm. In fact, just last week we increased insurance coverage because of the ever increasing disrespectful hunters. Not a single person (other than family) has ever been given permission to hunt on the land but that does not stop them.