FireWise Plan
With the recent fire it is time to get moving on a firewise plan for the Niobrara River land.
On the east side there is the trailer/cabin site. This is about 3 acres where the open deer stand is and where we cleared out the boundary fence line on the east. Max was considering putting his trailer down there. It is about 70% forest cedars with enough oak for it to qualify for cost share. I think we can get a grant up to a maximum $1,350 per acres contract cost with the grant paying about $1,000 per acre. Going south up the hill is the township road. I think we may be able to get money to widen this as a fire break. It would add about .5 acres.
The neighbor to the east has all of the heavy equipment to do this work. He has two skid steers with mulching heads and an excavator with a mulching head. He should be motivated to do this because it would be a fire break for his forest. He has a homestead on the east side of his land. I am considering suggesting that he contract for the work with his payment being the amount of the grant. Probably would be about $3,500 to him. He also wants to put a gate at top of the hill which would be part of the deal. Sounds like a good plan to me.
We should consider a pump at the well site. Solar. We could run the water line down the road to cabin site. Our tenant on the pasture land wants to me to put in a solar pump on that land so it may be informative as to the cost.
Middle Tracts:
There is about 9 acres that is adjacent to the pump road. It is colored with two different colors to show the differences in the forest. The blue area is dense large cedars with very few oak. The yellow area is oak forest with a few forest cedars. The grant does not allow clear cutting, there must be forest remaining after the thinning is done. I initially thought of two different contractors but now think it will have to be one grant to qualify. I think we can justify taking the dense cedars because they are a ladder fuel that put the oaks at risk. We will have to see what the forester comes up with. She does the plan for the grant. I think there is mostly tall cedars on the east side of the road. Removing these would really make a good fire break. I will have to see what the contractor says. I am going to talk to MTS of Royal, Nebraska. He seems to have all of the equipment to do the job. See his Facebook site for all of the equipment and previous jobs.
I think there is two types of cedars, those that should just be shredded and those that are so large that they should logged. Bruce's operation may come into play for the second type. That is why I was thinking of two different contractors, but I bet the forester will say the two tracts need together in one tract to qualify.
Hunting this area would be greatly enhanced. There is only 250 yards between the Taj Mahal and the center blind. With the removal of the ladder cedar trees there would be a great view into forest oaks both from the center blind and from the Taj Mahal. My oak experts tell me that the mast crop will be unbelievable once the canopy is opened up. There is a deep canyon where the camera is going to be located which is and would be a travel route to the cropland, both blinds probably will have a good view of this route.
I think in this area there will be some good sites for small plots. I seeded around the camera tree and I am excited to see what has come up,
This was hoed and seeded during turkey season. It about 60 yards from center blind and maybe 200 yards from Taj Mahal. It is at the entrance of that deep canyon to the North.
West Firebreak;
On the west side is a firebreak that is 5 acres. The tract would run from the river to the pivot. I would want the cedar trees of all sizes to be grubbed out. Pull out with the roots. I would want it to then be seeded to some sort of hay. Something that could be harvested throughout the year. The point is to have it cut so that it is a fire break, not just dry grass. I am thinking the tenant on the pivot may be interested in doing this for us on a share crop basis. We would also allow him to cut the corners on shares. Also we should grub out the original food plot and hay it. We did have some clover in there at one time. MTS would be the contractor for the tree removal with the tenant during the seeding.
West Blind:
I would suggest we raise the west blind 4 to 6 feet. We do this by making an elevated tower just west of the current floor. The current floor would be a walkway to the new tower. 4 to 6 steps up. We would re-orient the blind because with the removal of trees and additional height I think you could shoot almost to the crop boundary. (Great caution would be needed shooting that direction.)
30/30 Program:
My cattle tenant was telling me about all of the anger among the ranchers against the government take over. I did not know what he was talking about. Last night, I watch a video of a town meeting, think lynch mob with Governor Ricketts leading the mob. Apparently, Biden has proposed taking 30% of the land and 30% of the water out of production by 2030. It is never going to happen, but there may be some money coming for CRP. The 46.5 acres of pivot land we just purchased to go with the river land may be a candidate for CRP if the price is right. Might make sense.
Open to input. Of course, always need help.
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