Spaulding Outdoors
By Jack Spaulding

Hoosier hunters will want to make note of new regulations for the upcoming fall wild turkey hunting season. The changes will be in effect for the 2010 fall wild turkey season, and will add 16 new counties to the fall firearms turkey season while opening all counties for the fall archery turkey season.

Other changes include: adding seven days to the early archery portion of the fall turkey season; adding a second (late) archery turkey season to coincide with the late deer archery season (they are at the same time); and expanding the fall turkey firearms season in the south for seven more days (12 days total – including the two weekends).

The season dates and locations are as follows: An individual can hunt a wild turkey with archery equipment, including crossbows, statewide, from Oct. 1–31 and from Dec. 4, 2010–January 1, 2011.

An individual can hunt wild turkeys with legal firearms from Oct. 20–24 in the following counties only: DeKalb, LaGrange, Laborite, Marshall, St. Joseph, Starke and Steuben.

An individual can hunt wild turkeys with legal firearms from Oct. 20–31 in the following counties only: Bartholomew, Brown, Clark, Clay, Crawford, Daviess, Dearborn, Dubois, Fayette, Floyd, Fountain, Franklin, Gibson, Greene, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Knox, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Morgan, Ohio, Orange, Owen, Parke, Perry, Pike, Posey, Putnam, Ripley, Scott, Spencer, Sullivan, Switzerland, Union, Vanderburgh, Vermillion, Vigo, Warren, Warrick and Washington.

Any individual who hunts wild turkeys from Dec. 4-19 must wear hunter orange.

For more information on hunting wild turkeys, including license and tagging requirements and legal equipment, go to www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/2343.htm

Brown County gets largest state nature preserve
The Indiana Natural Resources Commission has authorized establishment of the largest nature preserve in the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) system – the Ten O’Clock Line Nature Preserve at Brown County State Park.

“Recreation and resource protection are key elements of the state park mission,” said Dan Bortner, director of the DNR Division of State Parks and Reservoirs. “Brown County has great opportunities for recreation, with wonderful trails for a variety of riders. This addition will guarantee that future generations will benefit from the natural resources found there as well.”

The 3,339 acres feature a large, intact block of upland and floodplain forest providing habitat for many species dependent on forest interiors, including the cerulean warbler, whip-poor-will, broad-winged hawk, timber rattlesnake and red bat.

“This nature preserve provides permanent protection for some of the rarest wildlife in Indiana, as well as one of the rarest trees in the state, the yellowwood. It also preserves one of the largest unfragmented forests remaining in Indiana,” said John Bacone, director of the DNR Division of Nature Preserves.

As part of a state park, the land already was protected by property regulations. Nature preserve status represents an additional commitment by the Division of State Parks and Reservoirs, ensuring the land will stay natural – meaning there won’t be a lodge, picnic shelter, new parking lot or other development in the acreage.

Horse trails located in the Ten O’Clock Line Nature Preserve will remain open to equestrian riders, and hikers can access the preserve from Trail 9.

The history of the new nature preserve’s name dates back to 1809, when the Treaty of Fort Wayne was negotiated between William Henry Harrison, then governor of the Indiana Territory, and Little Turtle, a Miami chief.

The secondary name for the treaty line, the “Ten O’Clock Line” – which became Indiana’s northern boundary at statehood in 1816 – remains today. The treaty line passes through the heart of the new nature preserve.

The next-largest DNR nature preserves are Rocky Hollow-Falls Canyon in Turkey Run State Park, at 1,608 acres, and Dunes Nature Preserve at Indiana Dunes State Park, at 1,530 acres. There are 233 nature preserve sites in Indiana, encompassing nearly 39,000 acres.

Yellowwood Lake dredging resumes, to finish in 2011
The DNR has resumed work on a dredging project at Yellowwood Lake designed to extend the lake’s useful life and improve access for boating and fishing.

The project on the 130-acre lake in Yellowwood State Forest near Nashville, Ind., began in 2008 when the DNR conducted a dry-dredging operation. Since the lake’s construction in 1938 by the Works Project Administration, the upper end of the lake has been filling with sediment, a condition susceptible to most manmade lakes.

Approximately five acres of 10-feet-thick sediment was removed from the lakebed and placed on the shore. Many acres remain to be treated. Most of the sediment from the project is being moved across the road to a clearing.

Once the sediment is removed and dried, workers will begin grading and shaping the surface to restore lakeside recreation.

Operations were suspended in 2009 because of extremely wet weather. DNR plans to complete this year’s removal of silt from the lakebed by Nov. 1. The overall project should be completed by the fall of 2011, if conditions allow.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Jack Spaulding may contact him by e-mail at jackspaulding@hughes.net or by writing to him in care of this publication.