Community cooperation and generosity like that demonstrated by M & H Construction is making the second season of the RRG&SA deer forage project another  success. Thanks to a unique partnership involving local companies and several community and club volunteers, several new area forage plots have been added for a second season. These plots will provide food for deer, as well as bear, turkey, grouse, and over 50 species of song birds. The plots are expected to last for five years.

“Our aim is to ward off winter starvation of deer,” says Marcia Baker, RRG&SA Chair of the Wildlife Forage Program.  “There has been a severe decline of deer due to several factors, including harsh winters, loss of winter habitat, and predation. . .  The high-protein forage is hoped to add an extra layer of fat, so deer will have better winter endurance.”

Although providing deer food plots is common in many states, the RRG&SA project faced a unique challenge in that the normal grains and legumes needed for high protein forage will not grow in the acidic soil found in western Maine’s timberland.

“Our timberland soil was never farmed, and is extremely acidic,” Baker explains. “No matter how fertile the soil is, our seeds would not have germinated unless the soil was sweetened. One option is to prepare the soil with lime, which is extremely expensive. The challenge was to somehow match the cost of the conservation seeds used by the logging companies on similar plots in the past with an economical blend for our soil conditions.”

RRG&SA volunteers are using empty sites offered by Seven Islands and Wagner  logging companies to grow a specially designed “Rangeley Seed Mix” developed by the RRG&SA and Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Biologist Bob Cordess. Site preparation is a multi-step, labor intensive process.   M & H coordinates with Wagner and Seven Islands to prepare the empty sites by scraping any unwanted debris and vegetation off the site to prepare ground for ash and seeding.  Clean wood ash is donated by Boralex Stratton Energy, which acts as a natural fertilizer to sweeten the soil even better than lime. The wood ash is delivered in dump trucks to the logging sites by M & H Construction and Cupsuptic Welding Fabrication. Another company, Maine Environmental , a beneficial reuse company, coordinates dump truck delivery to the prepared site.  The ash is spread on the soil, club volunteers  use an ATV-driven drag  and/or manually rake the ash into the soil. This year  club member Dave Borman and retired minister, Bill Carter,  spread the ash using  their Kabota tractors.  Volunteers then seed with hand-operated seed  spreaders, or RRG&SA member Rick Baker uses an ATV-driven seed spreader.  The seed spreader is jointly owned by other land-owners interested in seeding their private food plots.

The whole process is shown on Baker’s educational blog with this link:    http://deerandwildlifeforageproject.blogspot.com/   The blog also gives information for the small land-owner who wants to get started on his own property.

Wildlife use will continue to be  monitored by RRG&SA Volunteers.  According to Baker, club members have collected evidence that deer and moose have been feeding on the first season’s plots.  In fact, one plot was grazed so severely that it looked like a mowed lawn. It has been shown that the Rangeley seed mix is also excellent for erosion.

Seven Islands and Wagner logging companies are now purchasing the new hardy Rangeley forage mix and using it in addition to erosion seed-mix.