Pond Boss

The Illinois Soil and Water Conservation District is sponsoring a workshop South of Brownstown Illinois the last Saturday of September, September 26, 2009. The gathering will be at Fred Bingaman's farm and a nearby farm. Bing and Mongo (Dave Sefton) are working with the state folks to facilitate the meeting. The attendees will be divided into two groups and there will be identical tours for both groups, AM & PM. One session will be at my (Fred's) place and will consist of a tour of our 130 acres which consist of 77 acres of CRP ten year old direct seeding timber, older recently harvested timberland and two ponds. Some of the discussion will highlight the electrofishing survey Bob Lusk made of my 3 acre pond back in May of this year. The other session will consist of Dave taking half of the group by farm wagon about one mile down the road and conduct a two hour session on three ponds he manages. There is an older pond, a pond Dave recently renovated and a brand new waterfowl pond. That property also is a CRP area, primarily in grasslands.

The agenda includes “in the field” discussions of:
• Direct seeding technique of tree planting
• Fisheries management
• Habitat management in woodland and grasslands
• Pond construction
• Timber stand improvement (including common invasive species)
• Timber harvest
Following is a link to the SWCD website for more information and registration. Advanced registration is recommended. There is a $15.00 fee which also covers lunch and many attendance prizes.

http://www.fayettecountyswcd.com/Woodland%20and%20Pond%20Management%20Workshop.htm

Bing & Mongo

Wow! Looks great... If I was in Il, I'd be attending. Very nice of you guys to host it!

What is the drop dead date for pre-registration? I would love to go but have been so busy this summer with maintaining my new place as well as my old place (for sale) while still moving my junk collection that I already feel a little guilty indulging myself with the Brason conference. Mowing grass 4 days a week is getting old.

DJT, I expect you can walk in on Conference morning and register. Come if you can.

Dave: You are right, you can come even if you don't register. They like to get advanced reservations to get some idea of how much food to buy and how many wagons will be needed. However they always add a factor to account for people who just show up.

Even if you register early you don't pay until you get there.

We expect around 100 attendees.

Bing

I've been trying to come up with a good way to "bump" this topic.

how about this:

Bump

Bing

I'll concede that might work.

You might want to put this in a different section. Q&O seems to get the most traffic even though many of the topics there would be better suited in other sections. News and announcements would be good also.

How did it go? Sadly it my turn to cover the weekend at work so I wasn't able to go. I would have loved to have seen Bing's place for the second time and Mongo's for the first.

I wanted to go; but had conflicts too. I hope it turned out well.

DJT/Rangersedge. Thanks for asking, I am sorry you could not make it. I believe the seminar was a huge success. We only had about 50 or so paid attendees and were hoping for more, but it seems everyone who came had a purpose for attending and enjoyed it. We put the attendees in farm wagons with hay bales to sit on and toured one of our ponds as well as existing 20 acres of old growth forest and 77 acres of CRP new, ten year old, hardwood forest. Mongo and I did a session on pond management; discussing aeration, selective harvest, invasive plant control, supplemental feeding, winter drawdown, etc. The discussion was well received, and although many there were pond owners they seemed to not be aware of many of our standard pond management practices. Virtually no one had ever seen a feeder like our Sweeney's and didn't know you could do multiple automatic feedings, etc. Mongo had a great discussion on pond construction and did a fine job of serving as the Ambassador for Pond Boss. We then toured the old timber, discussed harvest, TSI, (timber stand improvement), timber evaluation and sale, etc. Then we broke for Pork Burgers and trimmings for lunch. After lunch we took the farm wagons about a mile down the road to a grasslands CRP plot of a neighbor, I'd say around 200 acres. Mongo did a great job of discussing prairie grass and other habitat friendly cover. Until the lighting, rain, and threatened hail cut the afternoon short, he showed off the two old ponds he had restored and the wildfowl shallow pond in the borrow area of one of the old ponds he created. Great day, perfect weather until the rains came and I believe everyone learned and left happy.

Bing

And where are the photos???

Indeed it was a very informative field day at the Bingaman's tree farm. Bing told the history behind his lake & the management practices he has implemented to get his lake to the high quality he enjoys today. It truly has been a labor of love for Bing to reach the goals he has obtained. The attendees were treated to a peek inside Pond Boss magazine. Expect to see some new names coming onboard soon. Here's some photos I would like to share with you all --

Attendees on wagons for tour


Getting ready for tour ride


Bing's guided tour


Presentation on 20 acres aged hardwood


Listening to presentation along tour route


Hornet Nest


Drove under hornet's nest


Ken & team planted stand of now 10 yr old trees


Forrester Mary giving her presentation on TSI


Forrester Mary & her gear


Getting lunch


Lunch time gathering - good food & great company


Will post more pictures as others pass them to me.

Mongo

Ahh, how different it would be if JHAP and Brettski had coordinated.
"Photo 6: Drove under a Hornet's nest"
"Photo 7: Watched Brettski poke nest with a stick"
"Photo 8: JHAP puts wagon in road gear to escape hornets"
"Photo 9: Guests fall off the wagon"
"Photo 10: Spontaneous presentation on anaphylactic shock"

Well done guys !!! I did note the hair color (or lack thereof) of most of the people in attendence.

A lot of us are blond.

Bing

Yes I noted that Ken and Mary were blond and young. What about all the rest.

That's a cheap shot. You're leaving out the details to make me sound like some kinda toopid city boy. Tell it right. I jammed the stick directly into the hole to suffocate them.

Jeez Theo, throw Brettski and I under the bus why don't you.

Besides it was all Bski's fault, I told him that hornets nests are like a good martini, they should be shaken and not stirred.

Plus I've always wanted to see what really happens when folks fall off the wagon.

Next Brettski and I are going to test the Turnip Truck theory.

I can't blame Sunil and FMcB for everything.

JHAP and Brettski go to White Castle

I can see that on Fattay, but nobody has a problem with blaming Sunil---few even doubt the blame!