August 1st – San Jacinto Wildlife Area Volunteer Clean Up / Brush Up Work Day

fish dog

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Apr 28, 2015
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Johnson City, TN
Tom Trakes, from San Jacinto Wildlife Area, advised that the first volunteer work day for the upcoming season at San Jacinto Wildlife Area will be Saturday, August 1st. This work day will be primarily for cleaning up the hunting area, to start brushing up the area’s blinds, and to build a few new blinds for the coming season...

Info here... https://socalhunt.wordpress.com/202...fe-area-volunteer-clean-up-brush-up-work-day/

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OK all you newbies (& vets)....Here's a great way to get to know and help at the local wildlife area...You will meet a lot of like minded guys and it's a really fun day with a feeling of giving back.

See you there.

ps....The Mexican palm fronds are great for the blinds...Just need to cut the spines off, while they're green...Leave a couple feet of stem to weave into hog wire.

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OK all you newbies (& vets)....Here's a great way to get to know and help at the local wildlife area...You will meet a lot of like minded guys and it's a really fun day with a feeling of giving back.

See you there.

ps....The Mexican palm fronds are great for the blinds...Just need to cut the spines off, while they're green...Leave a couple feet of stem to weave into hog wire.

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Ugh.what we'll do fer some silly lil quackers
 
Are they looking to add new blinds or rebuild old ones? If they are adding new blinds, where are they thinking of placing them?
 
Are they looking to add new blinds or rebuild old ones? If they are adding new blinds, where are they thinking of placing them?

Jon,

Talked with Tom recently and I think he mentioned there would be some new blinds and hunting opportunities over by the 21 Gun Club (Bridge St.)...I looked at the area yesterday and it is really over grown in a long of areas...Tom said, if I'm not mistaken, he only has 3 workers and he's on the mower...Lots of feed was observed...My suggestion was/is, is don't plant anything new (millet)...Work on clearing out ponds and making them more decoy friendly IMO would be the top priority with so little man power...Mystic still has a lot of water...So, the hunting blinds there should still be available this year.

I just hope the area is open this season...Fingers crossed
 
Jon,

Talked with Tom recently and I think he mentioned there would be some new blinds and hunting opportunities over by the 21 Gun Club (Bridge St.)...I looked at the area yesterday and it is really over grown in a long of areas...Tom said, if I'm not mistaken, he only has 3 workers and he's on the mower...Lots of feed was observed...My suggestion was/is, is don't plant anything new (millet)...Work on clearing out ponds and making them more decoy friendly IMO would be the top priority with so little man power...Mystic still has a lot of water...So, the hunting blinds there should still be available this year.

I just hope the area is open this season...Fingers crossed

Yeah, they're fighting a losing battle in some of those ponds. I think last year I noticed they had mowed the reeds down on this one particular pond and about a month or so later I saw it and they had all grown back. Some of those ponds are so overgrown there's not much water and I'd be afraid to shoot a duck in some of them because there's more than a 50/50 chance you'd lose it in the reeds. I'm not criticizing or blaming the SJ Staff or Tom at all. That's just the way it is and the nature of how the reeds grow. They're way short-handed so I don't know how they'd solve this since the damn things grow so fast. If they mow them down they're back in like a month as soon as they start getting water. They need some kind of safe "agent orange" type stuff that will actually kill them but I don't know if that even exists.
 
Glad to hear there is work going on at the old 21 gun club we definitely need more areas to hunt
 
Yeah, they're fighting a losing battle in some of those ponds. I think last year I noticed they had mowed the reeds down on this one particular pond and about a month or so later I saw it and they had all grown back. Some of those ponds are so overgrown there's not much water and I'd be afraid to shoot a duck in some of them because there's more than a 50/50 chance you'd lose it in the reeds. I'm not criticizing or blaming the SJ Staff or Tom at all. That's just the way it is and the nature of how the reeds grow. They're way short-handed so I don't know how they'd solve this since the damn things grow so fast. If they mow them down they're back in like a month as soon as they start getting water. They need some kind of safe "agent orange" type stuff that will actually kill them but I don't know if that even exists.

Eric,

Tulies grow as soon as you put water on them...Tom starts watering the fields well before the season opens...Hence, overgrown by the opener...Tulies need to be deep disked, then burnt...Which Tom is not allowed to do...And I have no idea why not...Disking and burning has been a part of refuge/wildlife area management for years.

That's why I've suggested, mowing fields that don't have tulies and not seeding any open water with millet...The ponds are getting choked off with both...A number of the ponds still have water...Mow what's dry and open......There's also small tule patches that can be removed with a skip loaded...Dig them up and place them on the edge of thick tulies...Pretty simple and cost effective...Leave the rest.

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Thanks for the reply Steve. Its funny but I have grown kinda fond of SJ. Im really excited about all the work at Im hearing about and seeing at wister. They are burning again and the CWA work down south looks awesome from what I have seen on the CWA website.
 
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Folks this is a really fun and worthwhile day...Learn the wildlife area and meet a bunch of like minded people...If you do decide to come...Try and bring some palm fronds...Mexican palms work just fine, when the spikes are cut off (see above), and are very common.

ps...It's going to be pretty warm...Light colored long sleeve shirts, boots, good gloves, water, and bug spray are good to have.

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Unfortunately, I have family coming into town this weekend and cant make it. I hope to go to the next one.
 

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