Pushmataha Field Tour enhances landowner management choices

Friday, September 6, 2013

Landowners looking to get the most out of their natural resources should plan now to attend the Fire, Wildlife, Timber and Cattle Grazing Annual Fall Field Tour on Oct. 8 at the Pushmataha Wildlife Management Area.

The tour will take place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. There is no cost to attend. The Pushmataha Management Area headquarters is located two miles south of Clayton off State Highway 271, approximately three miles west on a county road. Signs will be visible.

“American Indians have managed this country with fire for more than 10,000 years, and to great benefit to people, plants and animals,” said Terry Bidwell, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension rangeland management specialist. “Our scientific inquiries are helping to rediscover the extent of those benefits. The application of science-based management can and has helped provide for sustainable, healthy ecosystems.”

Participants will gain a better understanding of how to use prescribed fire, timber harvest and cattle grazing to meet land management objectives; integrated timber, livestock and wildfire management; stocking rate and carrying capacity considerations for running cattle; and ways to maintain and promote overall forest health.

Also included will be a history of the Pushmataha Wildlife Management Area and some of the many land use and efficiency insights and benefits that research on its 19,000 acres has yielded.

Sessions will be led by Bidwell; Jack Waymire, senior biologist and Pushmataha site manager; and John Weir, research associate with the OSU department of natural resource ecology and management.

“Nobody had any idea that the on-site studies started back in 1982 would still be yielding valuable insights today, or that they would generate such beneficial additional areas of research,” Bidwell said. “It has been quite the land-management detective story.”

The tour is being sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, OSU Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, and the Oklahoma Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.

Anyone seeking additional information about the Pushmataha Wildlife Management Area Annual Fall Field Tour should contact Waymire by email at pushwma@hughes.net or by phone at 918-569-4239, or Bidwell by email at terry.bidwell@okstate.edu  or by phone at 405-744-9618.