Native Warm Season Grass – Scenic Rivers Farm & Forest Consulting LLC

If you grew up in a region that had snow, you might remember a few things as I do. Snow is cold, and the air that helps form it is COLD! Brisk wind blowing across my face made my cheeks cold and often numb. I remember feeling vulnerable at times, imagining life without the clothes provided for me, and thankful that they were. If you had as much snow as I remember, I often made tunnels and such in the snow. One thing I remember very well about tunneling in the snow, was just how warm it was in there, and how wonderfully quiet and serine the earth was around me. I loved it! I understood the result as a child, but didn’t understand the science behind it, but I experienced clearly that snow was a good insulator as long as the snow wasn’t touching my skin. The snow only aided in keeping me warm if I had good clothes on.

The earth is similar in this way, in that the earth surface can keep warmer, and become more inhabitable if it has “good clothes” ( Matt 6:28-29 ) on between it and the snow, and the COLD air above it. The better the clothes, the more hospitable the ground is for important soil biology and the wildlife that make their living at ground level (rabbits, quail, etc.)
The snow is nothing to fear when you have good clothes ( Prov 31:20-21 ).

Observe the difference in this picture (1/27/21) and note that where you can see plenty of brown above the snow in the Native Warm Season Grass field, there is a network of void space in and under the canopy of grass bunches. In the food plot which is primarily clover this year (not designed for cover) the snow is in close proximity to the soil surface and not a place for small game and wildlife to find refuge and warmth.

Consider putting some clothes on your open land, some good clothes. Your land and the wildlife that use it will benefit.

This video from 2019 shows when the food plot had a good stand of cold hardy brassicas in it and still provided food in winter, but as it transitioned and clover became the primary food source, so went the deep winter food. BUT, the video showcases the voids under the snow, the winter clothing if you will.

Sometime, usually in early September, the first noticeable “cold” front of the year bringing a slight chill to the air and the beginning of the end of summer. Its hard to describe how it approaches and even harder to predict the exact moment it sneaks up on me, but it always does.

I don’t think its merely a temperature change, but also the combination of associated smells and feelings that pave the way. None the less, thoughts and anticipations of hunting season and all the trimmings sneak their way in. Trimmings? Yes, thoughts of even cooler frosty mornings, quieter evenings in a tree stand, longer views through the woods, chili & cornbread suppers, pumpkin pie and another log on the fire start to sound wonderful at the end of a busy hot summer.

Hopefully you’ve spent a few of the last hot summer days preparing, doing habitat work and planting your fall food plots.

Now is the time to take an easy walk, surveying your work, dreaming of that big buck, and your magic moment.

Join me as I survey habitat, my labor of love on the first day of Autumn.

Testimonials

Tag: Native Warm Season Grass

Observations of snow, snow-clothes, wildlife, and how God made the world.

Consider putting some clothes on your open land, some good clothes. Your land and the wildlife that use it will benefit.

Fall is here!

Sometime, usually in early September, the first noticeable “cold” front of the year bringing a slight chill to the air and the beginning of the end of summer. Its hard to describe how it approaches and even harder to predict the exact moment it sneaks up on me, but it always does.