Scratch Another Off The List

Eric Patterson

Eric Patterson

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Got up at 4 a.m. to hunt a swamp I've not hunted in two years hoping there would be a few woodies and maybe a gadwall or mallard. This is the same swamp where Thomas shot his first duck (see my avatar) and I killed a banded mallard there too and it has produced a few black ducks as well. I made the walk from the river's edge along my old trail that was in decent shaped once I found it's start. The river bank has caked off and dense privet is growing making the trail difficult to pick up but once on it I went straight to the spot. When I got there I knew the hunt was over. Aquatic vegetation has become so dense that even though the water is at least knee deep there is zero visible water.

I don't know about the rest of the country but urbanization and wetlands draining isn't costing me any hunting spots. It's damn unwanted vegetation that has ruined nearly every tupelo swamp I've found that produced. It's getting to the point I have to wait for a flood to find the swampy habitat I prefer to hunt. The lake is unaffected by alligator weed and water primrose but I just can't get excited about hunting it like I do tupelo bottoms which tantalize my waterfowling soul. I like small quarters with a captive winged audience rather than a large body with ducks rafting the middle.

Below is a picture from 2007 before aquatic weeds ruined it. I didn't think to take a picture this morning and probably never will. I think I stepped foot there for the last time and sadly in the past few years that has happened with most of my favorite backwater spots. There just aren't many productive tupelo bottoms left on TVA and those that are left will probably succumb to aquatic vegetation too. It's a crying shame.

SwampRuined.jpg

 
Wow, what a beautiful spot Eric. Sorry to hear it is no longer viable. Why the big increase in vegatation? Invasive species?
 
Eric~

Sorry to hear this news. Your photo shows the kind of spot I've long dreamed of.

My last role as NYSDEC was Director of the Invasive Species Office. Sadly, it's hard to be optimistic once many of these species have gotten a foothold here - there a few situations in which eradication or restoration is viable.

All the best,

SJS
 
Invasive species and ideal conditions for it are the cause. Beavers dam a creek in lowlands, some trees die while others survive (tupes, sweetgum, and red maple to name a few). This seems to let enough light penetrate the water for the invasive weeds to take off. Smartweed can be a problem as well. The invasive vegetation outcompete everything forming dense mats in just a few years. I think if we still had trapping going on the beavers would be removed letting trees grow again and the cycle repeat. But with little trapping these swamps stay wet year round for decades and all it takes is one node or seed and the aquatic weeds spread like wildfire.
 
Steve

You undoubtedly have real word experience with this stuff. The places I see that are not affected so much are those places where good water control is practiced. TVA backwaters lack water control and beaver populations are high with no downtrend on the horizon as trapping isn't really economically feasible anymore. So we lose prime hunting grounds and habitat. There is still plenty of good habitat privately managed but on public lands once these weeds take hold little can be done.

Eric
 
Eric, I don't know your local situation, how the hydrology of the bottomland swamps has changed, or what invasive species may be an issue, so your situation may be totally different from mine.

But it's hard for me to believe that beavers are a major factor in habitat loss except at the very local and short-term scale. Ducks and beavers coexisted for many years before Europeans developed a taste for beaver hats and we removed most of North America's beaver population. They can surely do so again.

In a very different landscape and climate, I see changes in trout streams from beaver activity--some beneficial, some not, depending on how the local habitat is altered. Whether the changes are good or bad, they tend to be pretty shortlived, as the beavers consume most of the high quality food (aspen and alders up here) and move on to another site. Up here the cycle seems to be about a decade, but that's based on pure casual observation, not data.

I have one favorite beaver pond that, if accessed within about 2 years of the dam being re-established, provides fantastic trout fishing. A few years later the consumed trees lead to loss of shade that warms the water and the fishing will decline (though the fish you can still find will be larger for lack of competition) and a while after that we'll start seeing beavers chewing things like red maple and oak that are lower value food.

That's the beginning of the end. They'll move on to another site and the abandoned dam will wash out, with the former pond forming a meadow that quickly gets colonized by alders and poplars, and about the time those grow big enough be be good woodcock cover, a new crop of beavers will discover the old dam site and make themselves a home.

Over 30 years, I've watched this site through that cycle twice. It's in the woodcock phase now--so I am hoping to get in at least one more "new dam" cycle of good trout fishing before my time is done.
 
What a gorgeous spot Eric. Maybe someday I'll find as nice of a spot. Sorry to hear it is being crossed off the list


Mark W
 
Jeff

Maybe I overstated the beavers as a major contributor. For sure the problem is year round water, 12" - 36" depth, nutrient rich bottom, substantial sunlight (which a depleted canopy allows), and invasive introduction from who knows where.

Our beaver habits and habitat may be a little different than yours. I've not seen too many beaver ponds abandoned by beavers due to lack of food. What they tend to do around here is is build layer after layer of dams and ever increase the pond size. So rather than eat all the food and leave, they just expand the pond. Obviously things vary from pond to pond so I'm talking in general, not absolutes. Thinking back a bit, I can only think of one maybe two places that used to be a beaver pond but now aren't. In both cases the beavers were destroyed and dams blown. A lot of the swamps I've observed have had active beaver families for the 20+ years I've been watching them. I know one place has been occupied since the early 70s, probably longer. That prolonged period seems to result in invasive vegetation finding it's way and taking hold.

Just my observations...
 
Eric: That is indeed beautiful. Here in upstate New York we had a state WMA which was flooded in the early 70s, about 7k acres, and provided waterfowl hunting that can only be compared to the 19th century. Was excellent for more than 20 years, but after the standing timber fell and the vegetation took over with dense floating mats, all but unhuntable now. State could not spend the money necessary to maintain it. Very sad. Some day when time is available, would like to do a post as it was so remarkable.
 
Jeff

Maybe I overstated the beavers as a major contributor. For sure the problem is year round water, 12" - 36" depth, nutrient rich bottom, substantial sunlight (which a depleted canopy allows), and invasive introduction from who knows where.

Our beaver habits and habitat may be a little different than yours. I've not seen too many beaver ponds abandoned by beavers due to lack of food. What they tend to do around here is is build layer after layer of dams and ever increase the pond size. So rather than eat all the food and leave, they just expand the pond. Obviously things vary from pond to pond so I'm talking in general, not absolutes. Thinking back a bit, I can only think of one maybe two places that used to be a beaver pond but now aren't. In both cases the beavers were destroyed and dams blown. A lot of the swamps I've observed have had active beaver families for the 20+ years I've been watching them. I know one place has been occupied since the early 70s, probably longer. That prolonged period seems to result in invasive vegetation finding it's way and taking hold.

Just my observations...
Click to expand...

Didn't mean to jump on you. Just re-read my post and it sounds a bit preachy. Guilty as charged.

Some differences for you guys I think. One is that it looks (based on quick googling) like both alligatorweed and water primrose are invasive plants. If the beaver disturbance facilitates invasion by a non-native plant, that's a very different dynamic that we see. Second is that I suspect your topography is a bit flatter than most of our beaver habitat, so the flooded areas are larger. Third, you don't have big spring snowmelt run-off. For us, an abandoned beaver dam doesn't last long because the spring flood takes it out. I bet the dynamic is very different down your way--and I'm damned glad we don't have water primrose to deal with. Sounds like nasty stuff.
 
Eric - your post kills me... we are losing way too many areas to these weeds (some in plain sight.. over the 35 causeway for example). I remember hunting that area on the youth season when I was 14yrs old. We didn't kill squat because of location but it was unbelievable the number of mallards we saw that day and I had friends nearby who came home with limits. We do have a promising wildlife biologist working the area now who has a lot of good ideas. I hope he can receive the funding and support to make a difference.
 
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