Need To Plant Food Plots?

Anyone who has ever spent an afternoon overlooking a food plot will certainly have a deep appreciation for wildlife plantings. Even the wildlife photographer, who maneuvers silently through a stand of pines into an opening that was planted in winter wheat, benefits from wildlife plantings.

Food plots are very attractive to wildlife because they can supplement their daily nutritional needs. Such plots can be established and maintained at a relatively low cost. These plots can be designed to serve as a source of food and sometimes cover. Well-managed food plots have the potential to increase numbers of wildlife, quality of health and observability.

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THE SKY LAKE BOARDWALK
with Clarke Reed

When our ancestors first arrived in the Lower Mississippi River Valley they were awestruck by the giant cypress that had thrived here for centuries. As they cleared the fertile land, no one in the entire Valley thought to preserve a stand, or even one, of these spectacular trees. They are all gone…or so we thought! Providence and a remote swamp spared the site that contains “some of the largest and oldest baldcypress trees that remain on earth,” according to Dr. David Stahle, Director of the Tree Ring Laboratory at the University of Arkansas.

Sky Lake Wildlife Management Area is located approximately 8 miles north of Belzoni. With our encouragement, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks acquired the 773-acre site that will soon be enlarged to approximately 4,000 acres.

It is imperative that we protect these trees of national and international significance, and provide access for scientists, writers, photographers, wildlife enthusiasts and a host of the rest of us. Consultants tell us to expect thousands of visitors annually.

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Conservation Corner
(For the week of July 14, 2008)
The Water Cycle
by James L. Cummins

Water covers three-fourths of the earth’s surface. There are many forms of water – ice, snow, rain, hail, dew, fog and steam. The majority of this life source is sea water. It is from our oceans that most of our precipitation comes, although cleaned of its salt and minerals. So, how does this happen? Water moves from land to clouds to land and back to the ocean in an on-going cycle. This cycle is known as the water cycle, or the hydrologic cycle. Let's take a closer look at it.

Every year about 95,000 cubic miles of water evaporates from the oceans and land. This water evaporates into the atmosphere, leaving impurities behind. This evaporated moisture moves across the earth in the form of water vapor. A small portion of this water vapor is visible to us as fog, mist or low-lying clouds. The water vapor then condenses, filling the clouds and then releasing back to the earth in one of the various forms of water depending on region, climate, season and topography.

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