As mentioned before, we had a short, complementary management plan from the NC Forest Service that served to assure our tax basis as agriculture.  Technically we are a Timber Farm. We are farmers! Exciting, but believe me when I say that we are glad we don’t have to make a living from this. While this plan was very useful, in our minds it didn’t offer much direction for general habitat improvement directed at all the native flora and fauna.  This is where the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) in general, and Graham Hanson in particular came to the rescue.

Gobbler in full strut

Due to the special interest in the Longleaf Pine ecosystem coupled with its importance in the life of the Eastern Wild Turkey, the NWTF has joined forces with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to  “Save the habitat, Save the Hunt“. Fortunately I was a card-carrying member of the NWTF. What this meant for us was that we qualified for a free, comprehensive wildlife habitat management plan!  This plan was in-depth and involved much more than just timber health for timber profit sake alone.  Lucky us once again!  This plan provides us with some desperately needed direction.  Habitat/land management with a blueprint.  Future posts will focus on some of our efforts to follow through with “The Plan”.