Considering starting a Facebook group entitled "Indiana Landowner Wildlife Habitat Enthusiast Network". Group is intended to promote sharing of experience and information among Indiana landowners relative to conservation, restoration, and creation of wildlife habitat while respecting private landowner rights. Focus should be on evidence-based wildlife habitat improvement rather than ideology-based preachy rhetoric. All are welcome that share this intent.

Any thoughts or recommendations on this? I have never created a group before but could not find an existing one like this. I am hoping to attract folks like those that participate here, and of course refer folks here for all things related to ponds.

Interesting idea. Any particular reason you are limiting the group to Indiana? I would think you would get more diverse and still pertinent interaction by maybe substituting "Midwest" for "Indiana" in the title of the group.

Just a thought...

Good idea! I will do that.

Drafted a "pinned post". Input welcome:

"Midwest Landowner Wildlife Habitat Enthusiast Network: We have spent the last quarter century converting former cropland, pasture, and timberland into wildlife habitat. This has included installing ponds, wetlands, prairieland, and planting many thousands of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants on our central Indiana land. Invasive plant control is an ongoing challenge. I am an avid deer hunter and we have a robust herd. Turkeys and bobcats are still sparse, but populations are growing. My wife has operated a market garden for over 25 years employing modern high-tech methods. Advocating for sustainably producing high yields on less acres to preserve and increase wildlife habitat is a personal passion of mine. I am hoping this group with help like-minded folks improve their efforts to improve native wildlife habitat, especially on private land that they control whether ¼ acre or thousands of acres."

RAH, I like it!

RAH, good idea. I'll participate.

In the 80's I bought a 7 acre piece along the Snake in sw Idaho and spent 15 years converting burned out farm ground into wildlife habitat. Quail, pheasants, deer, and eventually turkeys moved in. Innumerable songbirds visited.

Presently I'm working on the same ideas in sw Colorado. As this is pinyon/juniper forest land, the techniques and end results differ. However, the concepts are at least parallel.

Great! I'll be sure to post a link once I get this up and running (with my daughter's help). Hopefully, this will also increase membership on this forum.

I think it sounds like a very cool endeavor. I am no wildlife expert or one on starting web groups so, take my comments as things to consider rather than any type of criticism.

The title is very well descriptive, but long and lacks a good acronym..."MLWHEN". I am having difficulty coming up with a better suggestion, but it's something to think about. "Wildlife Habitat Enthusiast's Network" kinda works..."WHEN" and is not region specific. Notice the possessive form of "Enthusiast" too, I think that is important as it lends itself to the members having some ownership.

Home page saying..."Welcome to W.H.E.N. and the way it used to be!"

Why exclude those outside the Midwest? I'm sure that there are plenty of topics that would apply from coast to coast that could be shared and benefited by all. My example would be..what if I started a group that was focused on my town that revolved around classic cars? The site might be overlooked by those in neighboring cities and states thinking that the focus was more on the small region rather than the cars.

Can the group be broken into regions for specific topics? I don't know the answer to this, but forums certainly can be. Here is a map from the US Fish and Wildlife Services that break the country into, what appears to be, areas of like terrain and climate...



Maybe I am imagining a FB "group" to be more like a forum by suggesting a break down of regions. If so, I would need to know more about how these groups function and the goals of such. I am not a FB member. My mind also takes me down a path that wants to segregate topics too like...tree planting, evasive plant control, animal population management, etc. I don't know, you tell me if this is even possible or a goal.

At any rate, it sounds like a fun thing to do and I might have to sign up to FB to be a part of your group.

Thank you for the input! I am a fairly recent member of Facebook and would likely not attempt this without my daughter's help. Both my kids are now IT professionals. My daughter recently helped me transition from a flip phone to a smartphone:) As far as scope, I was originally thinking of limiting to just Indiana but, as this thread indicates, was convinced to expand to the Midwest. There is always a balance between inclusion and exclusion. While I envision discussion appropriate to the Midwest, I certainly would not exclude anyone from anywhere else. When looking for a group to join, this is where I felt there was a gap. I also do not want things to spin out of control such that I cannot give the group adequate attention. Maybe this is wishful thinking... I am hoping to foster a comradery among members like I see here. This would be a hobby project for me with no commercial interest on my part. If it fails to attract folks, it may tell me why such a group does not yet exist. Been sequestered in the house recovering from surgery, so maybe I am overthinking things?

P.S. Trying to make this interactive as well, rather than also developing a repository of information like available on this forum.

I find this a very interesting idea! I often wonder how many people there out there involved in this. I ask myself How many are doing what I like to do and do they have anything I should know or can I offer some of my info. Really! a great idea!

If my daughter arrives early enough on Thanksgiving, I will try to get the Facebook group page up and running. If it allows me to post useful links, I'll put one in to this forum (don't have any other sites to recommend at this time). This new Facebook group page is not commercially motivated, but I am hopeful that added traffic on the Pond Boss site will only help vendors who advertise here. I have thought about trying to author an article for the Pond Boss magazine, but my experience is limited to papers in scientific journals, so I am not sure I have the skill to write a more popular-press piece. My closest experience is in "The Scientist" magazine, and the editors helped me with that one. I do not subscribe to any magazine or hard-copy journal. That is simply not how I prefer to access information. I am not a person who embraces technology for technology's sake, but I find the net to be a great resource. I am also not a businessperson, so I cannot offer much on that subject either. I do love science, especially biology, and I think that my passion for wildlife has allowed me to learn a great deal from folks in the Pond Boss community. I will try to also emulate the culture fostered on this site when the Facebook page gets going.

RAH, I think this is a great idea. I will follow your post and join the group once it is up and running.

New Facebook group up and running (Midwest Landowner Wildlife Habitat Enthusiast Network)!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/442011656723370/

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks for this, RAH. I just joined.

Great! Daughter helped me get the group going!

Anyone know if there is a place to put useful links on a Facebook group page? I would like to direct folks to Pond Boss for pond-related discussion on my newly created group page.

I asked to join.. Knowing me I wouldn't allow me, I'm bad news..:-))

Funny - We actually made the group public, but it still asks me to approve new members? Thanks for joining!

Well I created a Facebook account today so now you have one more potential member begging for acceptance into the group!

Looks like I'm in! I will take copious amounts of dandelion pics in the spring and post them!

Glad you joined! I will try to post with pics at least once a week and hope others will share their efforts on their places. Of course, pond related stuff is better discussed here. Really glad my neighbor got the 4 beavers out of our main pond and am hoping they are all out! They did "thin out" some trees around the pond and cut back the water lily beds...

I'm on! I like it.

Thanks to those that joined! Hoping this new Facebook group will bring more folks to Pond Boss as well. The landowner/wildlife Facebook group is meant to compliment Pond Boss on non-pond wildlife habitat projects.

Daughter got settings on group page such that those on Facebook for at least 3 months are automatically accepted. Apparently, this prevents "bots" from joining. Its a new world out there!