A Visit with Stewardship Landowners

Have you ever wondered how other forest stewardship landowners manage their lands for wildlife, timber, recreation, soil conservation and water quality? We visited Tom and Carlene Croft, who manage 100 acres of forest land in Madison County, to learn about their management practices. Initially, they viewed their land as a real estate investment, but they began to feel like it would be a place where they would enjoy both hard work and relaxation, and where they could help nature rebuild rich communities of plants and animals. Now the Croft's main objective is to enhance habitat conditions for game and non-game wildlife combined with timber management. As Carlene says they are now, "Living in the elements in God's country".

Friendly and helpful neighbors have told the Crofts a bit about the past uses of this land. The entire tract was homesteaded back in 1840. The original pine house burned down in a lighting strike in 1940. More recently, pines were planted in many of the areas that were once cultivated fields and pastures. Slash pine was planted on about 50 acres in 1974 and loblolly pine was planted on another 23 acres in 1981. The slash pine was clear-cut before the Crofts purchased the land.

Now, the Crofts' are working to reintroduce native plants that were displaced by cultivated crops, pasture, and dense pine plantations. As Tom puts it, they are "...trying to get everything started back that was supposed to be here".

Timber management is one of Tom and Carlene's goals. Initially, the Croft's purchase did not include the planted pine timber. However, after the previous owner harvested the pines, Tom had the logging debris pushed into piles and the land bedded. He chose not to use herbicides or fire in preparing the site, instead, the piles of logging debris were left to create more habitat diversity. In January, 1996, about forty acres were planted with bare root longleaf pine seedlings. Almost a year after planting, survival was about 80%.

Tom will burn the new plantation this winter while the longleaf are still in the grass stage to encourage height growth. Once the young pines are well established, he plans to burn each part of the stand on a two year cycle. The land where the longleaf pine are planted ranges from well-drained uplands to areas where there is seasonal standing water on the surface of the soil. Due to this site diversity, different plant communities will develop in different parts of the stand.

Mr. Croft envisions several thinnings and eventual harvest of mature timber a few small patches at a time, all while continuing regular prescribed burns. This regime would encourage rich plant and animal communities to develop in the pine stands and adjoining hammocks and swamp forests. The barrier that they will have to overcome is the difficulty in finding a buyer and a decent price for partial harvests on a fairly small acreage. Small-scale, highly-mobile logging operations will be necessary for thinning on ownerships such as the Crofts.

Wildlife habitat enhancement is also a goal of the Croft's stewardship plan. They have adorned and enriched the edges of the "camp" area where their house is with many kinds of plants, mostly native shrubs that attract butterflies, other insects, hummingbirds, songbirds, and deer.

They have set aside three wildlife food plots totaling about six acres. An area of about an acre was disced and sown with wild game maize, Alice clover, hairy indigo, Florida beggarweed, oats, wheat, and rye. Tom has allowed some volunteer persimmon trees to grow in the food plot because he knows that sweet, fleshy fruit is valued by many wildlife species.Another food plot is mainly aschynomene, a perennial legume that reseeds itself. Tom just disks it when the seed is mature.

The property lends itself well to Tom and Carlene's wish to encourage diversity. The areas that were clear-cut in 1994 wrap in and around areas of hardwood and cypress swamps, upland hardwood areas, and the loblolly plantation, such that no spot in the cleared areas is more than about 300 ft. from an area of wooded cover. This piece of land has a lot of "edge", the transition zones between open and wooded areas and between different forest types. Lots of "edge" can encourage animal and plant diversity.

The Croft's Stewardship Management plan includes several specific projects to help them meet their overall objectives of wildlife habitat and timber management. Tom and Carlene are well on their way towards putting all these ideas into practice:

• Manage the replanted cut over area and the area now in loblolly for wildlife habitat and timber production.
• Leave undisturbed the four areas of hardwood hammock and the three areas of cypress and hardwood swamp for wildlife cover and mast production.
• Maintain at least two clearings for wildlife food plots.
• Install wood duck boxes and houses for cavity nesting birds.
• Enhance recreation by adding a boardwalk through one of the cypress areas where the wildlife viewing platform was areas. Use the firebreaks for walking trails and access.
• Plant pond cypress in suitable locations near the existing swamp forest. Plant swamp chestnut oak in suitable locations to increase and diversify hard mast.
• Use prescribed fire in the pine stands to control the understory and encourage new growth of wildlife food plants.
• Establish and maintain a system of firebreaks so that only selected areas can be prescribe burned.
• Plant native trees, shrubs, and plants that were probably once present on this land.
• In favorable locations, experiment with planting native species from other areas of north and central Florida.

Tom and Carlene come up to their forest land from their home in Sumter Co. as often as they can and stay as long as they can, whatever the season. Their children and grandchildren join them several times each winter, but avoid the hot weather. Carlene enjoys bicycle rides with the grandchildren along quiet county roads near the property. Carlene has long been a bird watcher and, thanks to her, Tom is one now too. One of the great strengths of the Croft's stewardship is that they both love to engage in hard work, like brushing out a property line though thick underbrush, or slower-paced pursuits such as birdwatching. It's all recreation to them!