It takes a lot of gumbo to bury a
17,125-pound, four-wheel-drive John Deere 7730 tractor.
Yet that's
just what happened when the 9,021-acre Mosquito Creek
Wildlife Area staff attempted to till the ground this spring.
As a result, prepping this area's
popular dove-hunting fields was almost all but abandoned. Only a
light salting of wheat planted last fall is maturing in spite of
the seemingly constant onslaught of heavy rains.
In some extreme
Northeast Ohio locales rains fell for 16 consecutive days between
late June and early July.
In turn, prospective dove hunters won't
find either much grain or hiding cover at Mosquito.
“We've had to pull out of the mud all
of our tractors at one time or another,” said an exasperated Lou
Orosz, the area's manager.
The situation is marginally better to
the west at the 7,453-acre Grand River Wildlife Area. Here, wheat has
emerged and which will provide some grain as dove food at two of the
area's three designated dove-hunting fields.
“The fields off Stroup-Norton Road
should be best, and we'll kill off the weeds and wheat there with an
herbicide and then burn it just before the dove season starts,”
said Ron Ferenchak, the area's manager. “You don't want to burn too
early because the doves will eat all the grain before opening day.”
Elsewhere in Wildlife District Three
(northeast Ohio) better dove-hunting conditions are expected at the
justly popular 2,265-acre Highlandtown Wildlife Area.
And if this area's manager, Jeff Janosik, has anything to say then he and his two-person staff has created some of the finest dove-hunting fields anywhere in Ohio.
"The corn, the millet, the sunflowers; everything is excellent this year," Janosik says. "It's going to be a heck of a draw for the birds and the hunters."
Janosik says also that is terrific news since Highlandtown draws dove hunters from far and near, magnetizing interest from gunners living in Youngstown, Akron, and Cleveland.
"We even have hunters from as far away as Sandusky," Janosik says..
All that being said, one uncertainty still remains, That being, this year's dove season opener – September 1 –
not only falls on a Sunday but on a holiday Sunday as well.
Consequently, with a holiday weekend
start coupled with fewer successfully planted fields, more than a few
Northeast Ohio dove hunters may find themselves boxed in more tightly
than usual.
That's not so much the case elsewhere
around the state, though. Largely, only a scattering of the Wildlife
Division's 37 wildlife areas with one of more managed dove-hunting
fields also have experienced crop-damaging heavy rains.
In Wildlife District One – Central
Ohio – are found four wildlife areas that have managed dove-hunting
fields.
District One wildlife biologist Donna
Daniel says for the most part, two or three of the designated
wildlife areas are showing good dove-attracting crop maturation.
That
thumbs-up includes the manicured sites at the 8,662-acre Deer Creek
Wildlife Area. This area arguably is one of the most
popular locations in the state for dove hunters, says Daniel.
So attractive are Deer Creek's managed
dove-hunting plots, in fact, that hunters are known to stake a claim
the night before the season opener, sleeping on the ground until Zero
Hour, says Daniel.
“It's only 45 minutes south of
Columbus,” Daniel said of Deer Creek's near-urban setting. “We
should be in pretty good shape in spite of all the rains and some
flooding we've seen there.”
On the downside, however, are the
managed plots at the 7,018-acre Delaware Wildlife Area.
“Delaware traditionally doesn't see a
lot of doves or dove hunters,” she said. "And half of the fields have been flooded out."
A question mark, though, says Daniel, is
the 5,722-acre Big Island Wildlife Area.
“That's a real tough place to farm,”
Daniel says. “The sunflowers did not do well but the wheat is looking good."
Even so, says Daniel, hunters can't just look at how well the dove-attracting crops fared this growing season. No less important is ensuring that the designated sites have bare ground upon which doves can forage along with trees for roosting and water nearby for when they're thirsty, Daniel says.
Moving northwest into Wildlife District
Two, this farming-rich section may wind up wearing the crown as the
best location to hunt doves in Ohio this year.
John Windau, the district's media
relations spokesman, says the region's five wildlife areas with
managed dove-hunting fields are in “generally good shape.”
“In some cases they are the
best-looking that some of the managers have ever seen,” Windau
says.
Prime locations come this dove season
opener include the 2,272-acre Resthaven Wildlife Area as well as the
3,200-acre Pickerel Creek Wildlife Area.
Which is a little bit of a surprise.
The reason being northwest Ohio has experienced erratic weather
patterns that sometimes poured out its wrath in the form of heavy
rain showers over these two locations.
“There were issues with growing
sunflowers at first when some of the fields became too wet so the
crews replanted with buckwheat, and that did come up,” Windau said.
“We also left the corn standing from last year, and we'll chop that
and then burn it all along with the wheat that was planted.”
Tucked in the extreme northwest part of
the state sits the 2,430-acre Lake La Su An Wildlife Area.
Here, says Windau, may exist some of the
finest emerging grains found at any of the state's wildlife areas. Highlandtown, excepting perhaps.
“The corn, the wheat, the buckwheat
and the millet are all doing well there,” Windau says.
In Wildlife District Four (southeast
Ohio), the conditions dove hunters will see as a result of this
rain-soaked growing year should be better than what they encountered
during the 2012 drought-deprivation growing season.
“But not by much,” said District
Four wildlife biologist Chris Smith.
At some of District Four's nine wildlife
areas with managed dove-hunting fields the Wildlife Division might
even have to fine-tune the crops. This work could involve going back
in, planting some fast-growing millet and hope it matures in time for
at least a portion of the state's dove-hunting season, Smith says.
“Most of the area managers are
confident about what they've planted, so while the crops won't be a
bust they won't be ideal, either,” Smith said.
The district's two most popular
wildlife areas with managed plots include the 12,000-acre Salt Fork
Wildlife Area and the 19,050-acre Woodbury Wildlife Area, says Smith.
Normally Wildlife District Five
(southwest Ohio) collects the most bravos from dove hunters.
Alas, there could be fewer of those
accolades coming forth from there at the start of this dove-hunting season.
“We've had some of the same heavy
rain issues seen up in northeast Ohio,” says Brett Beatty, District
Four's wildlife management supervisor. “Fortunately down here we
do have a larger margin for error in planting.”
Thus, while Orosz and Farenchak were
forced to endure not only a cool spring but a wet one with
snow falling as late as April 29, their southwest Ohio-located
counterparts saw acceptable farming conditions stretched over a
longer time frame.
“At our (1,174-acre) Rush Run
Wildlife Area some of the planted sunflowers haven't done well and
the millet's been just mediocre, but the wheat's been very good,”
Beatty said.
Having issues, too, is the grain
production at the 1,382-acre Fallsville Wildlife Area's managed
dove-hunting fields, says Beatty.
“Especially in the low-lying areas,”
he said.
Better news exists for the dove-hunting
fields found at the district's 842-acre Spring Valley Wildlife Area,
the 10,186-acre Caesar Creek Wildlife Area, and the 11,024-acre Paint
Creek Wildlife Area.
The latter because of exceptional
drainage that helps feed growing things but doesn't allow so much
standing water that the emerging plants die, Beatty says.
“Most years we don't have an issue
with too much water, except for (1,799-acre) Indian Creek, which is
always bad there,” Beatty said.
Beatty said as well that the special
dove-hunting lottery drawings for Fallsville, Spring Valley, the St.
Marys Fish Hatchery, Rush Run, and Indian Creek are still a “go.”
And yet one uncertainty remains regardless at which point on the compass an Ohio dove hunter look. That being, this year's dove season opener – September 1 – not only falls on a Sunday but on a holiday Sunday as well.
Consequently, with a holiday weekend start coupled with fewer successfully planted fields, more than a few dove hunters may find themselves boxed in more tightly than usual.
Even so, says Daniel, hunters can do more than just throw up their hands in surrender because of possibly marginal grain production and elbow-to-elbow hunting traffic jams.
As much as anything, says Daniel, is ensuring that a chosen designated site has bare ground upon which doves can forage along with adjacent trees for roosting and water nearby for when the birds are thirsty, Daniel says.
Likewise, hunters are encouraged to
visit the Wildlife Division's web site (
www.ohiodnr.com)
and then connect to the dove-hunting link where maps of each wildlife
area can be downloaded.
Similarly, the dove-hunting link
includes a portal to Google Earth where topographical photographic
views of each wildlife area and associated dove fields and which are
available for downloading as well.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
