Wetland Improvement Time

[anthony m coons sr]

Planting food in wet lands is another big deal for me. I always felt if you could get some fresh new food out there that it had to help. Every year on the Hudson River the ice takes down all kinds of plants and their roots. So I try to raise a little money from Sportsmen Clubs to buy different types of food, Food like Wild Rice, Duck potatoes , Sago Pond Weed, Wild Celery, just to name a few. I always try to read up on what is natural for where ever I plant it. On the River its tough because of all the boat traffic. But I have had success more times then not getting some of the stuff to grow. And it does make a difference on holding Ducks. Swamps and ponds are lots easier to get stuff to grow. But if everything was easy we probably wouldn't do it.View attachment IMAG1595.jpg

 

[Chuck Thompson]

May I suggest that you try smartweed. It will provide food all season long, even above shallow water ice. You will see how much the birds like smartweed when you see them walking on 3-4? of ice to feed on it above the ice. The FWS biologists rank smartweed as the top waterfowl food that can be planted to benefit the birds the most because it lasts all through the season when the birds need it most. It grows best on habitats that are dry during the summer growing season that floods or along the shoreline when the birds arrive. Smartweed will hold birds longer than any other food source unless you put too much pressure on them, like migrating eagles or sky blasting hunters.

Congratulations on your lifetime effort to make a difference in what?s left for the birds as they strive to make it in this world that?s overcrowded with all kinds of humans that seem to only take. The native peoples of this land understood that we are caretakers of this world that one should never take more than you use and to always to give back more to continue the circle of life.

 

[RLLigman]

Those rootstocks and rhizomes are not lost to the river drainage; simply displaced and moved downstream, often reattaching in slow current areas. Since all aquatic plants have flowers above the water's surface, this transport plays a significant role in genetic exchange during pollination. Ship traffic passage mediated water movement via their displacement exacerbates the impact.

 

[anthony m coons sr]

Chuck

Myself and a small group of sportsmen have been doing this for forty years. Some of them even more then that. We have failed many of times. Mother nature has hurt us and of course helped us through the years. But we keep trying and do our little part to give back. So many people outside of the hunters and fishermen don't understand. That putting back helps everyone and everything That lives near or has to go to the river for food or drink. The food we plant helps all kinds of animals ,fish, etc. People think if you put a wood duck box or a mallard nest up. Your there with a shotgun to shoot them soon as the eggs are hatched. They don't understand that my birds become their birds and fly to become your birds. Thank you so much for the nice words. But there are many man and women on this site and around the world that care. Of course you never hear about us. Because we are the good, and its seems like we only hear about whats bad. My son and his family given back.
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