Im so pissed off right now.... USFW mississippi Flyway

Dave Shady Larsen

Dave Shady Larsen

Well-known member
I got this from a friend about what happend. I am not leaving his name on the email to protect the innocent who is not happy....

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You need to call Ed Britton and ask him why they waited
until last Thursday to burn off the Prairie area at Potters. I'm so mad
it would just turn into a huge swearing deal by me and we wouldn't get
anywhere. You could see ducks standing around in the ashes, I supposed
by their nests, after the burn. I understand the need to burn prairie
but not during prime nesting time for waterfowl. They burnt off the
Spring Lake levees during the past couple of weeks also. Maybe we need
to send a letter to that Don Hauptman?? in Minnesota. You wonder what
the sense of all the conservation groups doing anything at all when you
have nuts like the F&WS burning during prime waterfowl nesting time, not
to mention the turkeys.

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I'll work on a letter today. Why does this idiot who is in charge
of protecting our waterfowl do stupid stuff like this? Why could they
not burn in March or April? ********** told me Sunday that when he came
to this office he told the barber who owns The *************** to get
his goose nest off the river because they are not biodegradable. He had
about 50 units that he took care of himself. He also mentioned that F&W
tore down a duck blind his kids did not use anymore in the Elk River
area. What is the FW passion for making hunters miserable and taking
down possible nest sites that are above flood level? This area is so
far from the public eye, it's not hurting anything to just leave them
there.


Maybe we should be looking over the burnt area and taking some
digital pictures for recording nest destruction. If I destroyed a nest
and FW found out I would be paying a fine.
what do you think Guys? Gals?

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Anyone else a lil ****ed?
 
Give us all of the information on this subject you can.

I expect to see all of the conservation groups we all support get something done here. I want to see heads roll.

-D
 
I don't know the guy, nor am I defending his actions. But, did you ask them why they were burning when and where they were? How many acres did they burn at once? How many other prairie acres does he manage? It could be possible he was trying to control encroaching woody vegetation or something and needed to do a growing season burn to get a good kill. Sometimes a growing season burn is a necessary evil for maintaining quality habitat. On the bright side, there is still plenty of time for the displaced ducks to renest. Just some things to think about before you start condemning folks and cutting off heads.
 
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I have to agree with Kevin on this one. I'd need a lot more info before I'd get too upset. It could be invasive plants, poor conditions for burning in the past, trying to get a certain plant to regenerate or just not enough time to do all that is scheduled. I just hope it wasn't because he could and nothing else.

It is plenty early yet for ducks. We have a large area flooding in SD right now and I'm sure a lot of early nesters were flooded but in the long run I think they will be much better off.

I have no idea about the goose nest other then I know in some areas they can be very tough on non-biodegradable stuff on areas they control.

Tim
 
Boy I would have to say they had better be damn good reasons, otherwise....! I have all ready seen geese swimming with their goslings in Duluth, and I saw duck eggs over easter in KS. Early or not, just plain stupid in my eyes.
 
Letter being submitted to USFW by our Chapter Chairman. *********************************************

Ed Britton Refuge Manager
US Fish & Wildlife
7071 Riverview Rd.
Thomson IL 61285

Dear Mr. Britton.

I was contacted by a person who lives near the prairies near Potters. He asked me to contact you because he was very upset on the late burning of the area. He said you could see ducks standing around in the ashes. He assumed they had located their nest site after the burn. He understands the need to burn. But why the late timing? We have turkeys starting to nest now and we know a lot of local nesting ducks depend on these expanses of grasses to nest in. We know there are a lot of safety factors that have to be looked at and wind conditions. Maybe the burn dates have been delayed because of windy days. I believe the burn plan should be abandoned if it cannot be done in earlier months.

This is the second time this person witnessed a late burn that destroyed duck nests. The last time he said ducks was circling the area looking for their nest. We expect an agency that is in charge of our ducks to do better by them. I wish you were an agency who would bring in extra help to put a slice of hay the top of a duck blind than bring in help to educate refuge users with a fine when they tagged a blind site a minute early.

Our ducks are under a lot of pressure with long seasons and high bag limits. Ducks are losing ground with private development. Farmers are eager to get crops in every corner of their land. With corn prices rising we are likely to see landowners discontinue enrolling their ground into the CRP program. The ducks need good management now more than ever. Again, please consider burning earlier to prevent nesting losses.


Sincerely,


Ron Kaufman, chairman
Mississippi Flyway ch
Waterfowl USA. ***************************************************
 
When I was working for an environmental firm last year they were getting all jiggy about burning in April and even May and I was incredulous. My thoughts fell on deaf ears.

It is very common for environmentalists to lose sight of the objective in my opinion. Frankly, woody encroachment and invasives can be controlled long after nesting season is over. Herbicide application may not be as cheap as a good old fashioned burn but it may be more appropriate many instances.
 
You guys don't even want to hear my opinion of some of those F&WS managers. Quite a few are nothing more than $*@&#$$(!&*). How about managing 7 refuges with only one full time warden and all the desk jockies they want.
 
Letter being submitted to USFW by our Chapter Chairman. *********************************************

Ed Britton Refuge Manager
US Fish & Wildlife
7071 Riverview Rd.
Thomson IL 61285

Dear Mr. Britton.

I was contacted by a person who lives near the prairies near Potters. He asked me to contact you because he was very upset on the late burning of the area. He said you could see ducks standing around in the ashes. He assumed they had located their nest site after the burn. He understands the need to burn. But why the late timing? We have turkeys starting to nest now and we know a lot of local nesting ducks depend on these expanses of grasses to nest in. We know there are a lot of safety factors that have to be looked at and wind conditions. Maybe the burn dates have been delayed because of windy days. I believe the burn plan should be abandoned if it cannot be done in earlier months.

This is the second time this person witnessed a late burn that destroyed duck nests. The last time he said ducks was circling the area looking for their nest. We expect an agency that is in charge of our ducks to do better by them. I wish you were an agency who would bring in extra help to put a slice of hay the top of a duck blind than bring in help to educate refuge users with a fine when they tagged a blind site a minute early.

Our ducks are under a lot of pressure with long seasons and high bag limits. Ducks are losing ground with private development. Farmers are eager to get crops in every corner of their land. With corn prices rising we are likely to see landowners discontinue enrolling their ground into the CRP program. The ducks need good management now more than ever. Again, please consider burning earlier to prevent nesting losses.


Sincerely,


Ron Kaufman, chairman
Mississippi Flyway ch
Waterfowl USA. ***************************************************
Click to expand...


The letter starts off OK but goes downhill in the second and third paragraphs, I'd recommend removing them. Keep it to a single paragraph and try to make positive suggestions or else you risk causing more harm than good. As suggested there may be good reasons the burn was late, and throwing gas on the fire won't help at this point.
 
This is a TYPED copy of the letter sent my Ed Brittion to Ron Kaufman on 05-16-2007
Dear Ron:
Thank you for your letter of concern about our recent prescribed burning of the Thomson Sand Prairie
And its impacts upon nesting waterfowl. I fully understand and appreciate your concern that burning prairies in May is not the best timing for nesting birds. I too, would have preferred to burn this prairie sooner. However, weather conditions prevented earlier attempts to burn this area prior to May 4. We can only burn at Thomson Prairie with an east wind, otherwise we potentially smoke out the city of Thomson and create a driving hazard on Hwy 84. Snowfall and rain caused unsuitable burning conditions during much of April. We burned the Thomson Prairie on the only day that all factors of the Burn Plan were in prescription having an east wind with dry conditions and a full fire crew available- after trying for more than 3 weeks.


On May 4, 2007 we burned 110 acres out of a total of 355 acres at the Thomson Prairie. A post-burn survey identified a total of 12 duck nests within the burn are that included: 41 total eggs were present but 8 eggs were found outside of the nests apparently displaced by predators; 2 nests had no eggs and the 10 active nests contained a total of 33 eggs. These birds will have time to re-nest and there is sufficient adjacent habitat available (245 acres) at the Thomson Prairie for re-nesting.


I believe the benefits of this prescribed burn outweighed the impacts on the relatively small number of nesting birds in this area, knowing that they have time to re-nest. The purpose of the Thomson Prairie burn was to control woody encroachment and the spread of sweet clover. Although a nesting season burn was not the initially planned, and would have been avoided if possible, it’s the best time for controlling woody growth and sweet clover. In addition, prescribed fire is more efficient and economical for the control of woody growth and sweet clover than either chemical or mowing. Prior to 2007, the last time that we burned this part of Thomson Prairie was May of 1996 when similar conditions delayed the burning.


Refuge management programs focus on habitat restoration efforts to increase waterfowl production. In recent years, we have made the restoration of the parries a priority. Within the Savanna District, we manage about 5000 acres of prairie. In 2007, less than 300 acres were prescribed burned. Within the last 2 years, we have reclaimed about 300 acres of prairie through various methods including : the removal of old fence lines and tree rows; the removal of the cedar, pine, locust, bush honeysuckle, Russian olive and other woody encroachment; the removal of infrastructure at the Lost Mound unit (rail lines, utility lines, buildings) and: the reseeding of these areas with native grasses and forbs that were harvested from our high quality parries.

Other refugemanagemnt programs have included wetland restoration with the primary focus on the providing good quality habitat for waterfowl. An early May brood count was conducted within the Spring Lake , Frog Pond and Duck Foot Marsh units with limited visibility (due to vegetation) the survey identified 78 pairs of Canada geese with 99 goslings present. This early breeding season production rate is a good sign that quality habitat is available within these management units. The spring lake and duck foot Marsh units were also Prescribed burned this year to control woody encroachment.

Again Thank you for your continued interest in the Refuge and our Management programs. We try hard to conduct habitat management programs that are the best for the resource, including nesting waterfowl. We plan for long term benefits of habitat restoration that sometimes outweigh the short term impacts upon nesting birds within a small acreage, knowing that they have tome to Re-nest. Please
Let me know if I can provide additional information about our management program. You can contact me at the above address or Telephone 815-273-2732 ext 11.

Sincerely,

Ed
Ed Britton
District Manager

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A quick comment on the goose production. I would like to know how many GOOSE nests were built on top of the wooden blinds that will not be there in 2009? That might skew the quality of nesting habitat as stated.

I gotta go just wanted to re-post the response, i had to type the entire document... ugh
 
I have no idea where that place is. But, based on the reply letter it sounds like he did the best he could with what he had to work with on the fire issue.
 
It appears to be a well thought out response that attempts to explain the reason for the timing of the action and the effects of the action. It also displays that the effect to nesting birds was considered and the managers felt the effect was at an acceptable level considering the timing and long-term benefit of the habitat manipulation.

Dave, if you truly feel that the loss of the nesting structures on the blinds will result in an appreciable population level effect to geese on the refuge then you and your affiliates should attempt to work with the refuge to address it. I would recommend that you thoroughly review the refuge management plan and find ways within the parameters of the plan that your group can assist the refuge staff in addressing the issue. Perhaps there are some habitat restoration projects that you could take part in that will provide long-term, year-round benefits to geese.

Kevin W., thank you for the eloquent expression of you opinion on the people of the USFWS. I'm sure that your many years of education and experience as a fish and wildlife biologist, as well as your understanding of the various mandates, laws, regulations and policies related to the management of our nations public lands and wildlife make you immensely qualified to conclude that work of the USFWS is *&(%^%&^$&$#.
 
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Ed Britton and most of the others that work in Savanna are well known anti hunters.
Remember when he closed down most of the pool to Scull boat hunters about 5 years ago
and didn't reopen it till they made him.
Remember when several hunters had to complain to his boss in Rochester about harassing
hunters.
They don't want any hunters in the Army depot so they can keep it for their education area.
All antihunters don't just work for PETA
 
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