It is a busy week for our Salkehatchie Branch. We had our first educational event this past Saturday, and now we have our monthly business meeting tonight at Roebuck Plantation in Garnett.

The meeting is at 6:30pm, and we will be working on the plans for our first banquet to be held at the County Line restaurant on August 9th. If anyone is interested in helping us, please call or email me for directions. And even if you can’t make the meeting but are interested in helping us, please call or email as well. There are plenty of things to be taken care of, so there are lots of ways to assist.

Speaking of our branch’s plans, I am still amazed at how well our deer management workshop went on Saturday. Like I told everyone in my post yesterday, all of our speakers did an outstanding job of educating everyone there while all of our volunteers made sure that the day ran smoothly, our reference material binders were packed full of great stuff and that lunch was served fresh, hot and tasty. I just can’t tell everyone how pleased we all were. And that makes the time everyone invested putting it together all the more worthwhile.

And in my “news” post yesterday about the event, I know I told everybody exactly what we did. However the one thing that I didn’t mention was all of the personal interaction that went on. By that I mean all of great conversations about deer management and hunting that we all had among ourselves in between the speakers, during lunch and while on trucks touring the food plots. It is always just wonderful to have an opportunity to speak with so many fanatic deer hunters/managers, whether they are veterans in the field or just starting out. And you can just imagine the stories that were swapped with that many hunters together!

I also have to share a story with my fellow outdoor bloggers… One of the many hunters that I had a chance to hang out with was Robin from my cousin’s Lightsey Hunting Club for Ladies. She periodically sends me emails with pictures and updates on their successes, but I had never met her in person, so it was great to finally get to meet her. And during lunch, she said something that cracked me up - that she felt like she totally knew me from reading this site every day. I just thought that was fantastic, since having people check out this site every day is one of the goals, and obviously I include A LOT about myself and my family in my writings so I hope that many of my readers feel that way too. I know that style is not for everyone, but I feel like people need to know exactly who I am to truly believe what I am writing about. However I also felt like I had to apologize since I know that I can be completely annoying sometimes with my “expertise”, making “really knowing me” not always a great thing. LOL

One more time, I would like to thank everyone that attended, spoke and/or helped put the day together!

Jeff

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The SCDNR and QDMA Salkehatchie Branch’s quality deer management workshop held this past Saturday at the Webb Wildlife Center here in Garnett was a complete success! We had about 45 attendees including 24 registered guests and 10 branch board members as well as quite a few employees from the South Carolina DNR, law enforcement and forestry commission.

Our three main speakers were Dr. Guynn, professor of Wildlife and Forestry from Clemson University, Charles Ruth, SCDNR deer project supervisor, and Marion Barnes, our county’s Clemson extension agent. The workshop started at 10am and ran to 5pm, and in that time we listened to each speaker address their area of expertise, ate lunch and toured several food plots on Webb. Dr. Guynn spoke about the four pillars of quality deer management, Charles Ruth covered trends in South Carolina hunting such as baiting and the use of tracking dogs and Marion Barnes addressed food plot and orchard planting. Webb biologist Jay Cantrell also covered how to keep deer out of your food plot while they are being established (a real problem here in the South) as well as helped Webb technician Ted Rainwater show how to plant food plots with various farming tools running the gamut from an ATV with a spreader to a tractor with a grain drill.

Everyone came away from the day with lots of new knowledge and a renewed excitement about quality deer management. We even handed out a anonymous survey at the end of the day to assess how well the day went along with the quality of our speakers… and much to our pleasant surprise, we had almost unanimous agreement that it was well worth a whole Saturday!

It is through efforts like this that will allow hunting to flourish as our true great American past time in the 21st Century. I truly want to thank everyone that attended, helped with the preparations and spoke at the workshop!

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Last October, a group of us here in lowcountry started the Salkehatchie Branch of the Quality Deer Management Association to promote the organization as well as provide educational opportunities to aspiring deer/land managers. We now have one of those events ready to go! Please read our press release about this exciting day and all that is included… I hope to see you there.

The Salkehatchie Branch of the Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) will be conducting a one-day Deer Management Workshop on Saturday, May 31. The workshop will be held at the Webb Wildlife Center in Garnett, SC. The workshop will feature seminars, presentations and field demonstrations given by wildlife biologists, foresters and agricultural specialists. Guest speakers include:

Charles Ruth, SCDNR Deer Project Supervisor
Dave Guynn, Professor of Wildlife and Forestry, Clemson University
Marion Barnes, Clemson Extension Agent
Jay Cantrell, Wildlife Biologist and Webb Center Manager

Presentations and field demonstrations during the day will cover topics including: soil testing, food plot management, tree and shrub plantings, enhancing native vegetation, timber management, harvest strategies and herd management.

Hunters, landowners and others interested in managing deer are invited to attend. The workshop will begin at 10 a.m. and will run until 4 p.m. Lunch will be provided for all participants. The workshop will be limited to 30 participants to ensure a quality experience and opportunities for discussion. The cost is: $15/person. Anyone interested in attending must pre-register by no later than May 28.

Contact Jay Cantrell or April Graves at the Webb Wildlife Center: (803) 625-3569 or
cantrellj@dnr.sc.gov or gravesa@dnr.sc.gov for further questions or registration.

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QDMA hit a major milestone the other day when it’s 50,000th member signed up. This great accomplishment is due to all of the hard work and time its members have contributed to promote the organization and quality deer management.

As a member and a founding board member of a local branch, I would like to say THANK YOU to everyone that has joined the organization, donated to its cause or implemented its practices. And to give everyone some perspective on the group’s growth, there were just 10,000 members in 2000, and local branches have grown from 30 to 275 in the last four years alone.

QDM is the “management philosophy/practice that unites landowners, hunters, and managers in a common goal of producing biologically and socially balanced deer herds within existing environmental, social, and legal constraints. This approach typically involves the protection of young bucks (yearlings and some 2.5 year-olds) combined with an adequate harvest of female deer to maintain a healthy population in balance with existing habitat conditions and landowner desires. This level of deer management involves the production of quality deer (bucks, does, and fawns), quality habitat, quality hunting experiences, and, most importantly, quality hunters.

You can read the full press release as well as learn all about the organization and its recommended practices on the QDMA website.

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The Salkehatchie Branch of the Quality Deer Management Association will be holding its monthly meeting Wednesday April 2nd at 6:30pm at the Webb Center in Garnett. We will be working on our plans for our May 31st food plot seminar and our August 9th REACH banquet.

Anyone that is interested in learning more about managing their deer herd or helping with our projects is encouraged to attend. We will be having some good food and great company, so you don’t want to miss it. Call me at 803-842-1155 if you have any questions about the organization, our branch or the meeting.

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Some of you may subscribe to the Buckmasters Tip of the day, so you might have seen the tip this morning in your email that deals with scrape hunting.

Tip of the Week: Don’t Give Up On A Good Scrape

Most hunters like to hunt near fresh buck sign, and what could be better than a hot scrape? Unfortunately, hunting a scrape can be a real hit-or-miss proposition. After all, it’s a good possibility that the buck is checking/refreshing its scrapes at night. Rather than spending day after unproductive day on stand or (and more likely) spending one or two days and then giving up and moving somewhere else, get into the buck’s head.

Help the buck make that daylight mistake by juicing up the scrape and staying with it. Sprinkle in some buck urine and some hot doe pee as well. Make him think he’s really missing something throughout the day. Watch the scrape carefully to make sure the buck is still refreshing it. If he’s not, then it’s time to move.

Well, while most of their tips are usually pretty good, this one just totally irks me. After all of this time, don’t they know that more than one buck uses a scrape! This Buckmasters tip basically says that whatever buck you finally see while sitting over a scrape is going to be the ONE that made it and the only ONE that is going to check it. Therefore if you are after a big buck, they suggest changing stands if a young buck comes by since that is the only buck you are going to see there.

Maybe Jackie should do Buckmasters a favor and join the Quality Deer Management Association. Then his staff would have seen the article in the new issue of Quality Whitetails, the QDMA magazine, that talks about all of the studies that PROVE more than one buck uses a scrape.

Or, if they were really wanted to learn about hunting, the would read all of the Outdoor Bloggers Summit member’s blogs including this one. Then they would have seen this post where I show at least 4 different bucks using one scrape or this post where I documented 10 bucks using the same scrape in just a few days time.

I am sorry to rant this morning, but holding uninformed beliefs about deer and deer hunting is just one of those things that drives me crazy! I talk to a lot of hunters, and it never ceases to amaze me how many of them still hang on to the many wive’s tales that abound. Those same hunters then can’t believe that they did not see a deer this season, much less kill a monster.

And since I have highlighted one great article in Quality Whitetails, let me tell you what else you are missing in their magazine if you are not a member… Some of the other great articles in this month include how to use a chainsaw to create better habitat for deer, how a whitetail research round up is done, how to buy, calibrate and use a sprayer, and how to keep deer from overgrazing your food warm-season food plots. And in the last few issues, they have had great articles on deer diseases, coyote impact on deer herds and aging deer on the hoof. You can also check out the QDMA website for lots of great articles from past issues including some on harvest data collection, deer biology, herd management and hunter management.

I doubt that you will see anything like these articles in ANY of the other hunting magazines or websites out there. Chances are they will be rehashing what brand camo to wear or what sponsor of theirs you should be purchasing it from.

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I apologize for not posting anything since Thursday, but it has been a busy last few days.

My mom arrived Friday morning for a visit, and we had great time with her until she left yesterday. Also, along with a couple of our QDMA Salkehatchie Branch board members, I attended the Savannah River Branch’s REACH banquet Thursday night at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum in Pooler.

Everyone had a great time talking about deer management, eating wonderful food and enjoying the raffles and auctions. Randy Bowden is pictured at the podium kicking the banquet off while QDMA founder Joe Hamilton is seen waving to the crowd when he was introduced. The other pictures show Dale the auctioneer getting everyone pumped up over all of the great items that were available while a young man and his mom show off the rifle he won in one of the big raffles.

Like I said, everyone had an amazing time, and the event raised a great deal of money for the QDMA organization as well as the local branch. That money will be used to fund many of the educational and research programs that QDMA supports .

I encourage everyone to check out the QDMA website to find out about all of the great work the organization does!

I also wanted to let everyone know that I have not forgotten about my worst hog hunting story. That is coming this week along with some great new quail hunting pictures. And I just put out the trailcam again, so I will have some of those ready by next Monday!

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Deer Management pioneer and Quality Deer Management Association founder Joe Hamilton visited our Salkehatchie Branch meeting Thursday night and spoke for over an hour about the creation of our organization. It was a very special treat for the 26 in attendance, and everyone loved getting a chance to either meet him or catch up on old times. Joe worked at the Webb Center many years ago and did much of his early research there, so he knew almost half of everyone there. That included QDMA founding life member Mr. “Tombo” Rhodes, a life-long forester and land manager who owns the 4,000 acre Oak Grove Plantation in Luray.

Joe talked about the early days of QDMA and how it all came together right here in our small community as well as the obstacles they faced when they first started. These included lack of scientific research to base new management policies on, does being the sacred cows of deer hunting and the resistance to stop shooting young bucks. He also talked about how committed everyone was to changing the status quo of deer management in the early days. As and example, he told the story about the originator of quality deer management, Al brothers, driving all the way from Texas to speak to one of their first meetings - with a broken back from a helicopter accident that happened during a deer herd census!

Joe then went on to talk about the many long-held beliefs that QDMA had helped debunk such as a spike will always be a spike and that mature bucks do all of the breeding (even in a herd with a good age structure, up to 30% of all does will be breed by yearling bucks!). He also cited the research that helped prove that it was lack of good nutrition and age, and not genetics, that was keeping our Southern deer from producing big antlers.

Joe finished by talking about how successful quality deer management has become as well as how far our organization has come since its inception - from just a few hunters/land managers getting together in 1988 to over 40,000 members today. He also highlighted a very important number - 3%. That is the amount of QDMA’s yearly budget that gets spent on actually running the organization. The other 97% goes right in to research and the education of quality deer management. There is no other conservation group that even comes close to matching this tight-fisted approach to handling the needed bureaucracy any organization has.

I would like to thank Joe for coming over and speaking with us as well as everyone who attended. And of course it wouldn’t have happened without all of the work our board members contributed or the food which was provided by Danny Harrell of Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge and Mike Casstevens who works for land manager Wise Batten, Inc.

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Our newly formed Salkehatchie branch of the Quality Deer Management Association will hold its monthly meeting on January 10th at 6:30 pm at the Webb Wildlife Center in Garnett. Anyone interested in learning about how to better manage their deer herd should attend. In addition, we are looking for more members to join us and help with the two major projects we are working on - a spring food plot seminar and our August banquet.

It will also be an extra-special meeting since QDMA’s founder, Joe Hamilton, will be attending to speak about QDMA’s REACH program. And for those of you not familiar with the program or Joe, I have included the following from the QDMA website.

REACH is an aggressive national education and outreach program from the Quality Deer Management Association that benefits hunters, landowners and deer managers in several ways. REACH is the acronym for Research, Educate, Advocate, Certify and Hunt. The program specifically addresses all of the QDMA’s core mission elements:

• Research – Fund whitetail research projects related to Quality Deer Management.
• Educate – Expand educational activities for QDMA members and the general public.
• Advocate – Increase the QDMA’s involvement in whitetail hunting and management issues.
• Certify – The QDMA’s individual and property QDM certification programs.
• Hunt – The QDMA’s National Mentoring and Hunting program.

 

Joe Hamilton – Certified Wildlife Biologist and QDMA Founder Joe Hamilton is the QDMA’s Director of Education and Outreach/Southern U.S., coordinating the REACH program in that region.

The Deer Committee of the Southeastern Section of The Wildlife Society honored Hamilton in 2000 with its Deer Management Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to deer management in the southeastern U.S. He is the fifth of only seven all-time honorees. 

Everyone is encouraged to attend and there is no fee. Please call me if you need directions or more information.

Jeff

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