WEST POINT, MS – It’s the time of year for planting spring food plots and one way to ensure a successful crop is proper seed bed preparation. Many planting failures can be attributed to poor seedling survival or lack of germination due to incorrect planting depth and poor seed bed prep.

“If you’re planting small seeds like clover, chicory, brassicas or alfalfa, it’s especially important to have the correct seed covering,” said Jesse Raley with Mossy Oak GameKeepers. “These seeds only need to be covered with about a quarter-inch of soil. Many times when small seeds are broadcast onto a very finely disked and fluffy seed bed, even a moderately heavy rain can cause them to be buried too deep resulting in an uneven stand.” Read more

Looking for an opportunity to get outside and give back to Michigan’s natural resources? On Saturday, May 3, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., volunteers will gather in Grayling to plant an acre of jack pine seedlings.

The jack pine forest provides the primary nesting habitat for the rarest member of the wood warbler family, the Kirtland’s warbler. Very restrictive habitat requirements result in nests in just a few counties in Michigan’s northern Lower and Upper peninsulas, in Wisconsin and the province of Ontario and, currently, nowhere else on Earth. Kirtland’s warblers are ground-nesters that prefer jack pine stands more than 80 acres in size, where the nest can be concealed in mixed vegetation of grasses and shrubs below the living branches of 5- to 20-year-old trees. Read more