Shiawassee Kid

update from butch on the annual SFCHA pre-season work day.

Hi All

Guess you could say this is a special edition of my reports on the SRSGA

Today 08-28-2010 was the Shiawassee Flats Citizens and Hunters Assoc. Work day on the Shiawassee River State Game Area.
At 9 am we were all to meet at the Ott Farm on Prior Rd. as I pulled what a pleasant surprise the parking area had at least 15 vehicles in it with at least 40 people there to help with preparing the SRSGA for the up coming hunting season.

SFCHA work day

Brian Siess took a crew of people and Mowed ,with the SFCHA DR Mower ,all the pull over sites and then he directed a crew to cut willows at different sites with SFCHA  Sthil weed cutter, that have saw blades on them , and a lot more willows hit the ground.

SFCHA work day

Phil Karow took a group of people and installed crossing boards on all pull overs they also made a new set of board for the pull over on Hulien parking lot pull over.

SFCHA work day

I had the tough job, as you’ll note in the attached picture, of painting pull over post  yellow so they can be seen in the dark. Now in the attached pictures, please note how hard I had to work ,but luckly a couple 12 year olds came to my rescue, and I have to apologize to a couple mothers, for some paint on their clothing.and also I had the 60′s (South Prior) to post zone signs in and again I had a couple guys come to my rescue (That Post Pounder is Heavy).

All and all a great time was had by all and it was really awesome to see Brian Siess with about 6 or 7 guys cutting willow in the North East Refuge. Thank you again to all the volunteers that came to help today

Regards  Butch

fell a week behind on updates, this should catch us up to current.

willow work in the refuges

Hi All

well another busy week with a lot of movement from Vic’s crew

First off I’d like you all to take a look at the 2 pictures I have attached pic. 1555 is a picture of willows growing in the north east refuge on Prior rd. Brian Siess and John Bakos have spent the last month cutting these willows, it doesn’t take long for willows to choke out a marsh, and this marsh is very critical to holding birds for the flats,Brian has made this a pet project for 30 years now, in various marshes through out the area. thanks to Brain our marshes have provided very good habitat for waterfowl. the sad part is he has had very little help doing this he was out there by himself this past weekend and except for a limited few he has had little help. This Saturday the 28 th SFCHA will have a work det. on the area. Projects will include preparing  the pull overs cutting the grass(weeds) and putting out the boards on the pullovers also I’ll be there with paint and brushes to paint all pullover post. so if you can spare a couple hours Sat morning we will meet at the Ott farm on Prior Rd. at 9 am. WE NEED YOUR HELP

Monday: we started the day moving equipment off the Spillway project we completed last week. After getting the excavator up to the B-2 pump (north end of 6 thru 14 ) we dug out the Swan Creek side of the pump gate ( we put a coffer damn in there couple weeks ago) to see why it was leaking so badly , it turned out that the tapered locks on the gate had broken, so Vic ordered new ones, so we should be putting those on next weeks , then we can start putting more water in Wahl Rd. marsh.  Also Monday our rented equipment finally showed up so we spent the rest of the morning moving it in place, we received an end loader, off road dump truck and a 60 ft reach excavator. Ray got to working on the B-2 sump right away , removing sledge that has built up in there, Vic,Glenn,Gary and myself started the project in 1 thru 5 area, what we are doing there ,is filling the low area north of zone one, with the dirt from the outskirts of this area, the spoils from 10-15 yrs ago when the ditches we dug in this area, this will allow aprox 10 -12 acres of farm land added that previously could not be farmed.

Tuesday: Vic, Gary and Barry Sova (Tech from Crow Island on loan to help us move dirt) were moving dirt in zones 1-5 , Ray got back to cleaning out the B-2 sump and Glenn and I got back on our project of coring the 6 thru 14 dike.

Wednesday: Again same as Tuesday

Thursday:  Again same as Wednesday

Note: Waterfowl season is not far off . Crop wise it is the best I’ve seen in years with the band on spinning wing decoys and the crop condition I predict  a banner season.  Wednesday the Shiawassee National  Refuge manager Steve Kahl  gave the SFCHA  a guided tour of the Shia Nat’l Refuge, he showed us the Moist soil project we invested $10,000 in,  it is coming along very nicely he also showed us all the moist soil units and gave us incite to his plans for them, and he assured us he would be having water moving on the units that are ready by Sept 15, this is something that has not happened in quite some time due to water levels and pump and gate problems,but he has repaired everything and is ready to proceed . I don’t minded telling everyone this has really adversely affected our waterfowl population in recent years, especially in the Fed Marsh (Turner marsh) area. and river blinds. as well as the area.
Steve also took us on the new ,in progress, road tour which will open in 2011, I’m sure it will be very well used by many people, it runs though the refuge area for 7 1/2 miles and will be open to public traffic.

Note: SFCHA fund raising banquet is set for Sept 9 at Albie Township hall on M-13 ,south of Saginaw, dinner tickets are $ 40  you can order tickets on the Shiawasseeflats.com web site    they are limited to 150 and are going fast so don’t hesitate get yours now ,help us out , Dinner , raffle tables, auction and open bar included. always a very good time.

Thats it for this week

Regards  Butch

willow work in the refuges

couple updates

i All

Well another very busy week again here goes

Monday: Vic,Glenn,Ray, Gary and myself got back to working on lowering the woods dike spillway,after lowering a section of the spillway 2 feet deeper by 100 yards long and approx 30 yards wide ,we hauled the dirt to upgrade the dike going out to Ryan Rd.. If I was an estimator I would guess we hauled between 800 to 1000 yards of dirt. anyway we move a lot of dirt , after lowering the dirt we replace a foot of rock on the drive portion .

Tuesday: we finished removing the dirt from the spillway and proceeded to bring in rock from the Ott farm where it had be stored earlier this year.

Wednesday: we finished hauling rock by mid afternoon and started to haul Stone Crete, for the drive portion of the spillway, also from storage at the Ott farm

Thursday: we finished covering the drive portion of the spillway with Stone Crete and Seeded the dirt portion   Spillway Completed, another fine job done by Vic and his crew.  This portion of the spillway will be at the same level as the top of the radial gates ,when they are in the closed position, which will help protect the woods dike system in times of high water. the balance of the day Ray and myself spent some time improving the Hulien parking lot pull over site, as I reported earlier a second post was installed on the woods side to allow less congestion for the rush of morning hunters, so we lowered a portion of that area , if you go to Shiawasseekid.com you will see a vedio of this being done along with pictures when it was completed.(Dan was in North Dakota last weekend so he added this weeks pictures to last weeks report)(if you want an up to date report on ducks in ND check it out)

Note: picture attached is of spillway with half of the rock completed (I forgot to take a completed pictures)

Note: SFCHA  WORK PARTY  AUGUST 28TH  SATURDAY MEET AT OTT FARM AT 9 AM  main objective will be pull over boards to be built and installed on all pull overs

Note: Steve Kahl will be conducting our (sfcha) annual SNWR tour on Wednesday August 25th at 6:00 pm. The tour will begin from the refuge headquarters. All SFCHA members are invited, so please spread the word. The refuge moist soil project construction which the SFCHA helped to fund is moving along and we will see the work on our tour.

Note: Tomorrow Brian Siess will be back at his willow elimination project in the north east refuge again, this will be the last time for this year. Brian and John Bakos need some help so if you got a chain saw or weed wipe with saw blade they sure could use some help.  We get it all the time people offering to help but so far no response, so if you can meet them at the Ott Farm on  Prior rd.  at 9:00 am

Note: Banquet is not far off so please if you plan on attending get your dinner tickets ordered, again you can order it on the SFCHA web site Shiawasseeflats.com   WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT

Note: in my general observation of conditions on the area, we are starting to get a lot of waterfowl activity on the area. The rain we had last week really help the Buckwheat in the 40′s . the water levels in the marsh have improved a lot . rain also help the farmers bean to develop a lot , corn in general is outstanding , Great height and density (even zones4&5 and 66 although the ears on those fields are some what smaller due to replanting and deer damage) all and all I think it is going to be an outstanding season coming at us.

well hope I didn’t forget anything this week..

Regards

Butch

dike work

another update from butch

Hi All

It was a very busy week on the flats as usual

Monday: First thing Monday we closed the radial gates, to allow the water level to rise in the woods so we can put more water in the marshes that are very low due to such a dry summer. Then we proceeded to move the equipment off the 6 thru 14 project, which is almost 75% done, to the spill way just down from the radial gates. A major project on the radial gate area will be happening soon on the outward bound area,so the gates will be closed for that project and it has been a concern that the spillway area for about 300 ft. needs to be lowered to just above the radial gate level when they are in the closed position to help protect the woods dike system. After spending all morning moving equipment we proceeded to remove and store the existing riprap to be reinstall once we lower that area. all the dirt removed is being put on top of the rookery dike to help secure it.

Tuesday: The water level was up enough in the woods where we could start to put water in the marshes, we opened up the Triangle gate and proceeded to Prior Rd and started pumping the north and south refuges, also started the pumping  the Rookery marsh.
Then Vic,Glenn, Ray, Gary and myself proceeded to work on the spillway project. Glen took a couple pictures of me on top of the dirt pile that Ray had pushed together they are attached, Vic and Glenn shuttled dump trucks with dirt and Gary leveled them on the Rookery dike top while Ray pushed dirt around me on top of the pile.

butch in the excavator

Wednesday: another day same as Tuesday lot of dirt to move.

Thursday: Well we needed rain and we got it , after raising the radial gates up about 6 in. we proceeded to check water levels with in the area. This is typical of a summer shower , our rain gauge in the 30′s had 2 1/2 inches in it , then up to north end of miller rd (6 thru 14) that rain gauge had only 1 1/4 inch of rain so we proceeded to Prior Rd. and the rain gauge there had 3 1/2 inches in it . It was totally amazing so much difference with all gauges being approx a mile apart, and oh yes my rain gauge at home showed a little over 4 inches.  The ground soaked all that water really fast so there was no standing water at all. Thank You. Because of the rain we were unable to haul dirt. Glenn stayed at the office working equipment while Ray and I proceeded to install gates on Prior Rd that had been stolen and replaced some tubes to prevent driving on Prior Rd dikes when the outer gate is left open for hunter access. Then we proceeded back to the office to do so more maintenance with Glenn.

Butch on the excavator

Friday:  I know I usually do not work on Fridays cause I have my week in by then, but we needed to do water control and that’s my specialty, after lifting the radial gates water was being let out of the woods, so I needed to shut off the pumps and close gates. Rookery was raised approximately  6 inches ,Triangle marsh was up 14″ ( which it really needed and will need more) and the Prior refuge were raised well over 8 inches , this is all a good start but all will need more water before season, and it is planned to get the pump motor over to the Fed marsh some time soon, cause it needs water also.

hulien road pullover re-worked (east side of dike)

Note: this year waterfowl regs are out as of today. Season Dates as follows.   North and Middle zones will open Oct  2nd with North Zone (UP) closing Nov. 30th and Middle zone will have a split season closing Nov 28 th and going again Jan. 1- 2 – 2011 South zone will open Oct 9 to Dec 5th and also Jan.  1 – 2, 2011. Early goose season dates for Saginaw,Tuscola and Huron  Counties are Sept 1st  thru Sept 10th with a daily bag limit of 5 geese. Regular goose season for South zone will be  Oct 9 to Nov. 14th and Dec 4th  to Dec. 11th  with a Daily bag limit of 2   Daily Bag Limits for ducks  will be 6 ducks which may include no more than 4 mallards (no more than 1 of which may be a female),3 wood ducks, 2 redheads, 2 scaup,  2 pintails, 1 black duck, and 1 canvasback. Besure to check you waterfowl laws before heading to the marsh.

hulien road pullover re-work (west side of the dike)

Guess that’s it for this week

Regards  Butch