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    Post Oak Savannah/Blackland Prairie Habitat Management

    Post Oak Savannah and Blackland Prairie Wildlife Management
    Historical Perspective



    Wildlife Division District 5 encompasses a 31 county area extending south from the Red River to Grimes, Brazos, Burleson and Milam Counties. The district is bordered by the Cross Timbers and Prairies Ecoregion to the west, and the Pineywoods Ecoregion to the east. The western 13 counties, or portions thereof (see Texas Ecoregion Map), fall within the Blackland Prairie Ecoregion. The remaining 18 counties fall within the Post Oak Savannah Ecoregion. Average annual rainfall ranges from approximately 35 inches in the western counties to 45 inches in the eastern counties. The terrain is nearly level to gently rolling with elevations ranging from 300 ft. above mean sea level in the south to 800 ft. in the north.


    There are 13 counties in the western portion of the district that are associated with the Blackland Prairie Ecoregion. Pre-settlement conditions of this region were that of a true prairie grassland community dominated by a diverse assortment perennial and annual grasses and forbs (weeds). Many early settlers who first encountered the Blackland prairie described it as a vast endless sea of grasses and wildflowers with sparsely scattered trees or mottes of oaks on uplands. Forested, or wooded areas were restricted to bottomlands along major rivers and streams, ravines, protected areas, or on certain soil types.

    The remaining 18 counties within the district are part of the Post Oak Savannah Ecoregion. As the name implies, the original plant community associated with this region was a savannah dominated by native bunch grasses and forbs with scattered clumps of trees, primarily post oaks. Forested areas were generally restricted to bottomlands along major rivers and creeks, or in areas protected from fire. Soils within the area are unique. Sands and sandy loams are predominantly found on upland sites, while clay or clay loams are typically associated with bottomlands. A dense clay pan, that is almost impervious to water, underlies all soil types within the region at depths of only a few feet.

    The Blackland prairie and Post Oak Savannah landscapes were formed and maintained by two major forces: frequent fire and grazing of bison. Recurrent fires ignited either by lightning or humans (American Indian) were the major force that molded the prairie and savannah landscapes. These fires were typically very large in scale and would traverse the countryside until they reached landforms or conditions that would contain them (rivers, creek bottoms, soil change, topographical change, climatic change, or fuel change). Fire maintained these plant communities by suppressing invading woody species and stimulating growth of prairie grasses and forbs. Large herds of bison, sometimes as large as 1,000 animals, ranged the prairies and savannahs, where they would consume large quantities of grasses, trample organic matter, and then distribute seed into the disturbed soil. The grazing pressure was not continuous, however, and the large herds would move on allowing the range time to recover.

    One of the earliest uses of the Blackland Prairies and Post Oak Savannah by early settlers was grazing livestock, primarily cattle and horses. Farming was also common but did not become a major use until the 1870’s. During this time, with the advancement of the railroads and improved market conditions for agriculture, the prairies were plowed under and cotton replaced ranching as the principle land use. The rich soils of the Blackland Prairie were ideal for growing cotton and in a relatively short time, a majority of the desirable land was cultivated, leaving only small remnants of the original prairie intact. In the Post Oak Savannah, the land was cleared and tilled by farmers and ranchers and the use of fire was all but eliminated. The result has been a high density of mostly smaller trees with a thick understory of yaupon. Farming is still a major land use in the Blackland Prairies region today, but a large portion of the previously farmed land has been converted to pastureland (mostly monocultures of Old World bluestems, bermudagrass, or bahaiagrass) for grazing livestock. Today, the Post Oak Savannah, much like the Blackland Prairie, has been converted into vast acreages of improved pastures consisting of Bermudagrass and/or Bahaia grass.

    The changes to the land that have occurred over the last 100 or so years, have dramatically altered the flora and fauna of these regions. The once diverse wildlife communities that occurred on the prairies and savannahs have been reduced dramatically, and continue to decline. With continued growth and urbanization within these regions, wildlife populations are at risk now more than ever. However, private landowners provide the key to securing the future of wildlife in these regions. With a sound, holistic approach to land management, the diversity of flora and fauna can be maintained or even enhanced over the coming decades. Aldo Leopold stated it best in his 1933 textbook Game Management. “…game can be restored by the creative use of the same tools which have heretofore destroyed it –ax, plow, cow, fire and gun.” Therefore, our task as land managers is to understand the basic principals that make our system function as a whole and to apply the necessary tools in the manner in which they are needed.

    Post Oak/Blackland Prairie Habitat Management

    All wildlife must have food, cover and water to meet their daily requirements for survival. Therefore, wildlife habitat management is the manipulation of vegetation to provide these basic needs in a space where the targeted species can use them. Aldo Leopold, in his classic text Wildlife Management, categorized wildlife habitat management into 5 basic tools:


    1. Cow,
    2. Plow,
    3. Axe,
    4. Fire, and
    5. Gun.

    By applying any, or all of these tools, the land manager can properly manipulate the habitat to generate the vegetative conditions required for the targeted wildlife species.


    Cow

    Livestock management operations are the single most important factor that effect wildlife populations in the Post Oak Savannah and Blackland Prairie regions. Fortunately wildlife and cattle management are compatible and easily integrated.

    Livestock should be stocked at the NRCS (formerly SCS) recommended rate, or at a rate determined from vegetative sampling in a comprehensive grazing plan. As a general rule, moderate to light stocking rates for well-managed pastures in this area are: one animal unit (cow with calf) per 8 - 15 acres on native grass; 3 - 6 acres on tame pastures (bermudagrass/bahia grass); 50 - 75 acres on wooded areas. These recommended stocking rates are general in nature and can vary depending on current range and soil conditions. Therefore, developing a grazing plan specific to the local range and soil conditions will greatly enhance livestock production and improve or maintain suitable wildlife habitat.

    Rotational Grazing: Rotating livestock through multiple pastures will allow each pasture a sufficient period of rest between grazing periods, will greatly improve pasture performance for livestock, and encourage the growth of important seed producing grasses and forbs for wildlife. Rotational grazing also maintains a certain amount grass and forb cover important to ground nesting birds and young fawns. Some methods of rational grazing are listed below


    Two pasture system- Graze first pasture 3 months. Graze second pasture 6 months. Graze first pasture 6 months. Graze second pasture 3 months.

    Three pasture one herd system- Rotate livestock every 3 months. This allows each pasture to receive 6 months of rest before being grazed again. Over a period of several years, pastures received rest during different seasons.

    Four pasture three herd- Three herds of livestock in three of the four pastures. One herd is moved every 4 months. This allows for a pasture to be grazed for 1 year and rested 4 months.

    Four pasture one herd system- Graze a pasture 2 months and then move livestock to adjacent pasture.

    HILF System (High intensity and low frequency) - A relatively high number of cattle (high intensity) are grazed through multiple pastures, and each pasture is allowed long periods of rest (low frequency).

    Regardless of the system used, the object is the same, each pasture should be rested for at least as long as it is grazed, or longer, and no pasture should be grazed during the same season in consecutive years. This will allow the pastures to gradually improve for cattle, deer, and upland game birds.

    Remember, a grazing system will fail if the range is overstocked with livestock. Therefore, the development of a comprehensive grazing plan that matches grazing intensity with available forage is highly recommended. Deer and exotic species need to be considered in the stocking as well as livestock.

    Excluding cattle from wooded areas: Broadleaf plants, commonly called forbs or weeds, are the most important food items in the diet of many wildlife species, especially deer. However, they are seasonal and not always available. Deer become more dependent on browse (leaves and stems of trees and shrubs such as greenbriar, rattan vine, hackberry, elm and oak) as forbs decrease in availability. Browse species are not as high in protein but they are available on a year round basis. Therefore, they play an important role in the deer’s diet.

    Cattle utilize many of the browse species that deer prefer. This competition can be reduced by fencing off wooded areas, especially bottomlands, to exclude cattle during times of the year when available forage is lacking (stress periods). The most important stress periods for the Post Oak Savannah and Blackland Prairie regions occur typically from June - August and January - February.

    If possible, plan rotation schedules so cattle are excluded from wooded tracts, especially bottomlands beginning in late August (when fruits on American beautyberry begin to ripen) on through February. This will eliminate the competition between deer and cattle for American beautyberry and other browse and forb species - greenbriar, elm, hackberry, yaupon, rattanvine, grape, tickseed clover, St. Andrews cross, cross-vine, Virginia creeper, etc. Conversely, livestock can be rotated through woodlands outside of the stress periods to utilize shade tolerant grasses, such as Virginia wild rye, and control rank understory vegetation. Rotaing livestock through woodlands in this manner is especially beneficial in stands that are kept thinned. However, allowing livestock to graze in woodlands should be used cautiously and cattle should kept out during periods where there may be direct competition between cattle and deer for food.

    Farmland Management


    Cropland, especially those planted with grain sorghum, corn, or wheat can be very beneficial wildlife, especially seed eating birds such as the bobwhite and mourning dove, if managed in a fashion suitable to thier needs. Birds such as bobwhites can thrive in cultivated areas where acreage is relatively small, irregular in shape, and is broken up by idle areas. Idle areas such as fencerows, ditches, and field borders that break up vast cultivated acreage's are very important to making the land suitable to bobwhites. Idle areas must consist of native vegetation, such as perennial bunch grasses, seed producing forbs, and brush. Idle areas planted or seeded with exotic grasses, such as bermudagrass are of no value to wildlife. Other practices that will make cultivated land more wildlife friendly include:

    1. Leaving a few rows on the outer edge of fields un-harvested.
    2. Avoid treating field borders and the outer few rows with chemicals.
    3. Reduce field size by leaving 15-30 ft. wide fallow strips throughout.
    4. Allow a few fields to lay fallow 1-2 years to provide good brooding habitat.
    5. Establish native grasses, forbs, and brush in erodable areas, field borders and along waterways.

    Cost share assistance is available to private landowners through the USDA's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), and the Texas Parks and Wildlife's Landowner Incentive Program (LIP) for establishing filter strips, riparian buffers, and grass waterways.

    Brush Control and Forest Management

    Half-cutting Mesquite

    In areas where mesquite is the dominate woody vegetation, cover requirements for bobwhite quail can be improved by half-cutting the trunks of multi-stemmed mesquite or other low growing forms of brush. To perform this technique, simply cut the trunks ½ way through, near ground level, and push them over until they touch the ground. This method allows the half-cut stems to continue to grow, providing good screening cover near the ground surface for quail when they are feeding and traveling.

    Creating supplemental cover for bobwhite quail will not be effective unless range management practices are conducted in a way that provides quail foods. Such range management practices include: prescribed burning, disking, reseeding tame pastures with native bunch grasses and forbs and rotational grazing of livestock.

    Forest Management

    Forest management is a very important part of any wildlife management program where forests make up a significant portion of the habitat. As a forest matures, tree canopies begin to close, reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the forest floor. Once the amount of sunlight penetrating the forest canopy becomes limited, the production of important forbs (weeds), grasses, and woody underbrush begin to decrease. Therefore, manipulating a forests structure can increase the production forbs, grasses and young woody vegetation important to wildlife.

    Thinning a forest stand will produce the best results when conducted during the fall and early winter (September – January). Conducting a thinning operation during this time will open the forest canopy, thus allowing more sunlight to reach the forest floor when spring green-up begins. This in turn will stimulate the production of important forbs and browse (young woody vegetation) for white-tailed deer and other wildlife.

    When thinning a forest stand to improve wildlife habitat, as a rule of thumb, the forest canopy should be opened up no more than 50 %. Increasing the amount of full sunlight reaching the forest floor from 8% to 45% will generally result increased leaf biomass and improve the palatability of the resulting forage. However, when thinning a forest on hillsides or steep slopes, the canopy should not be opened more that 30 to 40% to prevent, to reduce soil erosion. Habitat conditions are greatly influenced by the amount of sunlight penetration the forest canopy. Therefore, if you are managing for habitat conditions suitable to early succession grassland dependent species, such as bobwhite quail and wild turkey, the forest canopy should be relatively open. Additionally, if you are managing for habitat conditions suitable to mid succession species, such as white-tailed deer, the forest canopy should only open enough to create filtered sunlight. If you are managing to create optimal habitat conditions for multiple species, it is a good idea to provide a mosaic of open, savannah, woodland, and forest if the acreage under management is large enough to do so.

    Individual trees selected for removal should only be the ones that are suppressed (trees exhibiting poor growth because of competition) or have low value to wildlife. Such trees include: Eastern red cedar, elms, and any exotic species (species not indigenous to the local region). All mature mast producing trees, such as oaks and hickories, with well established crowns should be protected.

    Timing between thinning operations will vary depending on soil conditions, growth habits of the trees, and the habitat condition that you are trying to create. As a general rule of thumb, forest stands should be thinned every 5 to 7 years, or when the canopy begins to shade out 80% or more of the forest floor.

    Before carrying out any forest management activities, it is highly recommended to consult with a professional forester. Hiring the services of a consulting forester will help insure that your forest management goals are being met and the timber is being marketed to reputable timber buyers.

    Sendero's For Wildlife

    A winding network of cleared lanes, know as senderos, through woodlands branching from food plots, and/or natural clearings to the outer perimeters of a tract can serve many purposes which include:

    1. providing additional access throughout the property,
    2. planting of winter and/or summer food plots,
    3. establishment of native pasture seeded with a desirable mix of native plant species compatible to the soil type,
    4. allowing the re-establish into native pasture from the existing seed source present in the soil,
    5. creating fire breaks for annual prescribed burning,
    6. hunting and wildlife viewing lanes.

    Senderos can provide deer more access throughout the property and encourage the use of the acreage to a higher degree and with more uniformity for foraging, resting, fawning areas, and travel corridors.

    Senderos should wind and not be straight paths. This reduces the distance of visibility to suppress poaching from adjacent properties and encourage maximum deer utilization in these areas. Senderos should have a width of at least 75 feet to allow sunlight to reach the soil surface needed to dry and warm the soil and for plant growth.

    Senderos are normally cleared with a dozer. Remember, it is important to have all stumps removed to allow for future soil tilling and shredding. Be certain that all cleared plant material is piled in the center of the area cleared and away from the remaining woodland edges. This will allow for burning these brush piles at a later date. If trees are simply pushed against the treeline, prescribed burning these wooded areas will be difficult until this debris is decayed or removed.

    Fire


    In the long run, prescribed burning will do more to improve habitat for deer and numerous other wildlife than any other practice. Prescribed burning is also considered the "cheapest, most effective habitat management technique for the Post Oak Savannah region".

    As a general rule, about 20 percent of upland woodland sites should be prescribed burned during late November (after frost and leaf drop) through February (before green-up) on a rotational basis, burning each site every 5-6 years to remove old growth and stimulate new growth of browse and forbs (weeds and wildflowers). In order to have enough low level fuel to produce a hot fire, one or two years of cattle exclusion from wooded tracts may be necessary to allow growth of vegetation normally grazed by cattle. The best time to carry a fire through woodlands is shortly after leaf drop (while the leaves are still fluffed up with air space and before winter rains and time compact the litter). However, many landowners choose not to burn until the end of deer season. A postponement until mid January to March also allows wildlife to "clean-up" fallen acorns and other mast.

    About one-third of native grass openings should be prescribe burned each year, burning each site every three years, on a rotating basis. This will remove accumulated dead grass litter and control young, invasive woody species such as cedar, locust, and persimmon. Burning may also stimulate new growth of plants that may have become dormant due to the absense of fire. Pasture burn sites should be burned in late summer (late August through September), or ealy spring (March through April) for best results. Typically, burning during late summer will be more effective in controlling invading woody species, if that is a primary reason for burning.

    Additionally, reserach has shown that about seven times more insects are usually found in burned native grass areas compared to unburned areas, thus providing much more spring and summer high protein food for quail and turkey, especially for the young.
    General Instructions for Conducting a Prescribed Burn
    1. Prepare disked bare-ground fire guard around all sites before burning. Disked fire guards, which can include roads and right-of-ways, should be 15 to 20 feet wide (These disked areas can be planted to winter supplemental food plots between burn years).
    2. Humidity should be between 25 - 40 percent.
    3. Wind speed should be between 10 - 15 miles per hour.
    4. Always burn into the wind first (backfire) 50 yards into the woods or pasture then set fire with the wind (headfire).
    5. Initiate burns in the morning after 9 a.m.

    Consult with TPWD, NRCS, or Texas Forest Service and notify local volunteer fire department before conducting burns.

    Cattle should be excluded from burned areas for at least 3 months to allow regrowth of new tender vegetation.

    Deer Harvest Management and Predator Control

    To sustain ecosystem health, deer and livestock populations must be maintained at or below carrying capacity of the habitat. Carrying capacity is defined as the maximum number of individuals a population can support within local habiat conditions(food, water and cover). To accomplish this, programs are available for landowners and leaseholders to obtain permits to legally harvest antlerless deer in counties that prohibit the harvest of antlerless deer during the regular deer season. Such programs include,

    Managed Land Deer Permits (MLDP),

    Landowner Assisted Management Plans (LAMPS),
    Predator Control

    Native and introduced predators abound in the Post Oak Eco-region. Indigenous predators such as coyote and bobcat prey on many wildlife species including deer. Studies conducted in the Post Oak Eco-region indicate significant fawn losses due to coyote predation. Fecal sample analysis of coyotes found deer hair in droppings during every month of the year. Native predators, such as bobcats, coyotes, raccoons, skunks, foxes, and snakes, have an impact on birds, small mammals and herptofauna. While natural predators are an integral part of an ecosystem, it is sometimes desirable to control their numbers just as it is a deer population. Implementation of a predator control program may be an effective tool in protecting some wildlife species. The optimum time for coyote control to reduce impact on fawns is from January through March, before coyote pups and deer fawns are born.

    Non-native species that can be detrimental to wildlife populations are fire ants and feral hogs.

    Areas with high densities of fire ants can impact the survival of many wildlife species. Fire ants attack deer fawns, young birds, small mammals, and reptiles. Furthermore, fire ants compete with species such as Texas horned lizards and young quail for food. This limiting factor may be the most significant reason for the decline of these species.
    It is generally not practical or necessary to attempt to control fire ants on large land tracts, but it is often useful to attempt to establish some fire-ant free areas. The product Logic is one choice for fire ant control. Some studies have indicated that it works best when used in September because of the time lag. September use is reported to control fire ants through the bird nesting season the following spring. The County Agent may provide additional information on fire ant control.

    FERAL HOGS should be controlled by shooting, live trapping, and using dogs whenever possible. Most success at this usually occurs during the winter when feral hogs are having to travel more to find food. Besides rooting up pastures, feral hogs compete directly with deer, turkey and most other wildlife species that rely heavily on acorns and other hard and soft mast for winter food. Deer also tend to avoid areas when feral hogs are present.

    #2
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    Comment


      #3
      You know, looking at that map....Grayson and Kaufman aren't that far away. Some genetics from the region:

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      All wildlife must have food, cover and water to meet their daily requirements for survival. Therefore, wildlife habitat management is the manipulation of vegetation to provide these basic needs in a space where the targeted species can use them. Aldo Leopold, in his classic text Wildlife Management, categorized wildlife habitat management into 5 basic tools:


      1. Cow,
      2. Plow,
      3. Axe,
      4. Fire, and
      5. Gun.
      I think old Aldo missed an important management tool....

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