Thanks!

[Scotty]

A big thanks to whomever manages the WPA's, 3/4 of the section holds no pheasants this year but I am sure pasturing to nothing will produce waterfowl:

The same 1/4 section has been pastured the last 3 years but this year they expanded. On the remaining CRP I did kick up 3 roosters this morning but none close enough to knock down with steel. I still had a great time walking the dog.
I thought this was interesting to find on a non-toxic shot WPA:

It was the only trash I found, alot better than some other public areas.

[luvsitall]

Originally Posted by Scotty

A big thanks to whomever manages the WPA's, 3/4 of the section holds no pheasants this year but I am sure pasturing to nothing will produce waterfowl:

The same 1/4 section has been pastured the last 3 years but this year they expanded. On the remaining CRP I did kick up 3 roosters this morning but none close enough to knock down with steel. I still had a great time walking the dog.
I thought this was interesting to find on a non-toxic shot WPA:

It was the only trash I found, alot better than some other public areas.

That spot looks like a good crane spot. Doesn't surorise me one bit! Thank you picking up the trash.

[south of 41]

[DiggerDog]

Originally Posted by south of 41

Ditto

I would love to hear an explanation, from the NGPC, for this and other lands just like it.

[10 90 J2]

Originally Posted by DiggerDog

Ditto

I would love to hear an explanation, from the NGPC, for this and other lands just like it.

I doubt it you're going to get one here, but if you know where that land is, why don't you call the wildlife manager at the district office that covers it and ask.

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission - Contact Resources Page

Let us know what you find out.

[jbrooks44]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but if its a WPA (waterfowl production area) then its federal, and not managed by the NGPC. Secondly, considering its a WPA, it is supposed to be managed primarily for waterfowl, sounds like you still got some pheasants, thats a good thing. Although it may seem a waste to you, in the grand scheme of things some areas should be managed for a specific species.

[snowgoose100]

I think the G&P still controls them.Managed primarly for waterfowl is ok.But I think ducks like grass to breed in.That looks more like it was managed for cattle to me.

[MICHAEL WEST]

we have a couple walk in down here around unadilla and they look a little better than that but not much, they are 99% brome which does nothing for pheasants, any way I sent the game and parks upland specialist a little e mail last year wondering why they thought it was OK to have there walkin areas be completly worthless and just let them go to brome like they have,, He sent me back a long sharp e mail basically saying that its the farmers responsibility!!!!!!

[Sorny]

Originally Posted by snowgoose100

But I think ducks like grass to breed in.

Nebraska doesn't raise much in the way of ducks, out side of the sand hills. WPA's would be managed to provided a resting place for waterfowl on their migrations. When used right grazing is a very good management tool. Is this the first year this place has looked like this?

[elkstalkr]

Originally Posted by luvsitall

Thank you picking up the trash.

Who said he picked it up? He just said he found it!

[snowgoose100]

I never said NE raised any ducks but w waterfowl PRODUCTION areas like that its no wonder.

[dicon23]

Here’s an opinion from a landowner. It appears that the majority of the guys commenting on this post probably do not own land. The whole “walk in program” is to provide guys that either don’t have places to hunt or chose not to lease any. (Or you could be the guys caught on the trail cam in a previous post)
The NGFP offers the landowner roughly $2-$3 an acre to open its land up for the public. I own nearly 200 acres and for $400 bucks I would have to let every Tom, Dick and Harry parade thru my land (leaving shot gun shell boxes and other trash not to mention the misnomer of walk in.) The kind of “free for all” is not worth it to me.
The average farmer uses his land for his livelihood or business. The FSA administers the CRP program for the Federal Govt. and allows the use of CRP for grazing or haying during certain seasons and times of year.
The fault lies in the lack of communication between the NGFP and Fed. Govt. The landowner has done nothing wrong.
If you want better than average places to hunt, it’s sad to say but you going to have to start paying for it.

[Patrick Olson]

There are a couple of points here that are necessary to make.

First, I find it ironic that folks are arguing or debating about managing lands for an introduced species (aka feral). IMO, although no upland guru, that looks like great grouse habitat to me. Go native. Screw pheasants.

Second, basins are (or were, I should say) a very unique area. They were on the boundary of short to long grass prairie (i.e. mixed grass). It has been shown through studies that generally around the wetland habitats, short grass prairie was the dominant ecosystem (which is why you can see hundreds of prairie chickens on some WPA/WMAs) due to the encoraged amount of grazing brought forth by the water supply. Moreover, the windblown sediment hills (i.e. the upland habitats on current WPA/WMAs) created when the basins were formed (seriously, look at the southern and eastern sides of the basins and you can see the lunettes created by windscouring when the basins were formed) were more than likely dominated by short grass species, especially as you moved westward, largely because of the arid conditions on the wind blown hillsides and easy soil drainage into the wetland. This decreased as you continue eastward through the basins.

Third, WPAs are managed strictly by the USFWS. The NGPC has absolutely NO (or extremely little) pull or part in managing them. This gap has been further emphasized over the past 10 years between. IMO, the state managed lands do a slightly better job of managing over the feds. Then again, they use the same management principles and 5 years ago folks were wining about areas that were grazed to dirt and now are shooting roosters.

Fourth, the WPAs and basin WMAs are managed as spring staging areas. That is 90% of their importance. Believe it or not, stop over points play a HUGE role in waterfowl PRODUCTION. Look at why the snow goose population has exploded--they now have a gigantic staging area in MO, NE, and Dakotas filled with grain that was not there before. There is little question why the snow goose population has expanded. It is because their ability to take advantage of a staging area to increase their productivity during migration and when they reach the breeding grounds.

Fifth, the main advantages for grazing for both waterfowl and upland occur in the years following grazing. Waterfowl in the (NOT open water!) form of encouraged moist soil vegitation over invasive, choking plants, and upland in the form of encouraged upland plant diversity (MICHAEL WEST pointed to this argument earlier--brome). May I also point out that the basins collectively have some of the best pheasant hunting in the state (Why does the pumpkin army flock there every year?) because of the management (and I can point to multiple areas which were grazed 3-5 years ago which have excellent upland habitat today, but what are case studies worth...). People are short sighted and can find room to ***** about an upland that is grazed this year, but will forget it in 3 years when they are walking through waste high forbes and warm season grasses.

In the end, folks think that the basin WPAs should be managed for hunters, as places to hunt. They are not, and should not be, managed with that intent as a priority. In other words, their importance, both historically and today, lies far outside the niave love affair made between a man with a gun and a pretty bird with a long tail.

PO

[thumpper]

CRP is the way to go if you have land.. Pending on county your in you get a certain dollar value per acre. I can't find where but I thought it was between 20-60 per acre.

Then if you have it in CRP you collect your 200.00 from the govt. and then lease it out and collect another 200.00 for that too.

The farmer does need to maintain it and also I believe initially plant it. Coworker has some land and he needed to cut down the trees that started to grow it.

[bwese]

Thumper,

I'm not clear on the figures you quote in your post on crp. Could you please explain with greater clarity for me and perhaps others.

Thanks

[Pat Berggren]

This thread is completely worthless, there are probably hundreds of people on this forum who do not agree on how certain areas are managed. However, they do not have a clue on how to manage areas for certain things. I do realize that these agencies are stretched pretty thin, so occasionally a place will get over grazed, or abused by a leasee, it happens. I do understand that this is a public forum, and it is a place to voice concerns, but it is getting rediculous, most started posts are extremely negative. I hope in the next week to post some pics of a ngpc area that has had some habitat work done, if I procrastinate in doing it please call me on it. I wish I had before and after pics, they are doing a good job.

[Waterfowler84]

[holdemplyer]

I wouldn't say this thread is worthless. I learned some things I didn't know because of it.

You wanna see negativity, go read a husker football forum! Those guys know how to gripe!

[laughingwatr]

How much personnel does the Fish&Wildlife Service even have in Nebraska? It seems that people have a hard time distinguishing between the Fed. and the NGPC. If anybody has ever been on one of the hundreds of WPA's in North Dakota you would realize they have little if any management including no noxious weed control. The WPA's have been created mainly to keep them from being drained and farmed. It is much easier and cheaper to manage with a teneant than actually have to send people in.

[grainmaker181]

sorry the wpa's are mismanaged, another government alphabet organization (usps, usfws, dot, etc etc) that doesnt work how it was intended, ive heard and read all the arguments for both sides, my response is to compare what du has done with the verona project in less than 5 yrs, and see what the usfws has done with wpa's in clay county in 20+ years. du with a little bit of management has done way more for migratory staging, as well as upland feral hunting, and big game hunting, if you disagree come out this way some day and i will take you around to prove my point. anyone that has hunted both knows the same thing i do about management practices between du and usfws