As a child, Mary Abraham helped her father and uncle pick up pine knots from their property in northern George County as they cut timber. Her father bought the land from a timber company in the 1950’s. He raised cattle and grew soybeans until the late 70’s when he then decided to plant and manage pine trees until his death in 1988.
The land sat idle for a few years until Mrs. Abraham’s son decided to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and clear the land, in order to start a pine straw business. But in 2005, Hurricane Karina struck South Mississippi and caused a large of amount of damage to the timber production.
At that time, Mrs. Abraham struggled to find someone to manage the property and apply proper forestry management practices.
“When Katrina hit, a lot of the trees were on the ground,” said Abraham. “There were a lot of problems. We didn’t make the right contacts. We just had a situation that we didn’t really deal with for a couple years.”
As a result of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, the property became overgrown with undesirable and invasive species. Ineffective or nonexistent prescribed burns, herbaceous weed control, thinning, and forest stand improvement practices had detrimental effects on the property.
NRCS’s Lucedale Field Office staff met with Mrs. Abraham to discuss her overall objectives for the property. Her goals were to maximize production, have a well-managed timber stand, and create a wildlife friendly environment.
Mary Abraham reached out to NRCS for assistance after Hurricane Katrina.
“Mrs. Mary’s overall goal was to bring the land back to where it was when her father was managing it and to look out for her children and grandchildren’s generation,” said Chad Waldrup, Supervisory District Conservationist in George County.
“We came in and looked at a long-term conservation plan together,” said Waldrup.
She then began to apply for conservation assistance through USDA Farm Bill programs, such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, to help her accomplish her goals. After Mrs. Abraham qualified for assistance, she hired a local private forester to help her implement the conservation practices recommended by NRCS. She has participated in the Longleaf Pine Initiative and the Working Lands for Wildlife program
“We’ve done a lot of forestland improvement on the property and also a lot of rotational burning, which have been a tremendous benefit for wildlife habitat, the local ecosystem, and the forestland itself,” said Waldrup.
With the help of the private forester and working closely with the NRCS Field Office in Lucedale, Mrs. Abraham began to see the possibility of achieving her overall objective.
Restoring the timber stand was a goal for
Mrs. Abraham.
Jim Barnes, Area 3 Forester (r) and Chad Waldrup, Supervisory District Conservationist (l) assisted Mrs. Abraham with meeting her conservation goals.
When NRCS first looked at the property, 90% was covered with Cogon Grass, an invasive grass specific and was populated by other undesirable species in the understory. The property now has less than 10% invasive species (Cogon Grass) and undesirables, and the understory is at a minimum tolerance level.
“Due to the three to four year layover, when nothing was done, there was an overgrown understory and invasive species that were taking over the property. Now, we have a very well-managed stand on the property,” said Waldrup.
Mrs. Abraham states that she could not have accomplished these goals without the assistance of NRCS and the Lucedale Field Office Staff.
“NRCS has been valuable. They came in; they knew what to do. They’ve done prescribed burning and they have just taken care of it. I have been very thankful for them,” said Abraham.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.
Cogon Grass has been combated on the land through prescribed burning, herbaceous weed control and forestland improvement.
Original source can be found here.
