Natural Resources University Collaboration of land-grant universities

Native warm season plant communities provide valuable food and cover for many wildlife species, and are often missing from properties that are managed for wildlife. Join us as we discuss the process of restoring native warm season grasses and forbs to your property.
Dr. Joe Gerken and Dr. Drew Ricketts are extension specialists and faculty members in the Wildlife and Outdoor Enterprise Management Program at Kansas State University. Find out more about the program at https://hnr.k-state.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/wildlife-outdoor-management.html

Dr. Bronson Strickland, co-director of the MSU Deer Lab and founder of the Deer University podcast, joins us to explain regenerative agriculture and break down their new experiment testing the differences in nutrient density and deer use between conventional and regenerative food plots. 
 
Deer University Podcast
Food plot experiment (Jacob Dykes)
Ryegrass is not good
 
Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund 
 
Dr. Bronson Strickland Website, Publications, @MSUDeerLab, @MSUDeerLabTV
Dr. Marcus Lashley @DrDisturbance, Publications
Dr. Will Gulsby @dr_will_gulsby, Publications
Turkeys for Tomorrow @turkeysfortomorrow 
UF DEER Lab @ufdeerlab, YouTube
 
Please help us by taking our (QUICK) listener survey - Thank you! 
Check out the NEW DrDisturbance YouTube channel! DrDisturbance YouTube
Watch these podcasts on YouTube
Leave a podcast rating for a chance to win free gear!
 
This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org. 
Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family. 
 
Music by Artlist.io
Produced & edited by Charlotte Nowak
 

In Western Missouri there is a lake that doesn’t follow the standard private pond formula. Lake Deanna is a larger private lake with unique habitat, unusual depth, and an experimental fish community. The deep lake has been stocked with largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleye, and sunfish. Bluegill and Redear Sunfish are already pushing a pound, and bass have exceeded 8 pounds in just 4 years! However, the lake is not without its issues. In this episode, Wes discusses Lake Deanna with the Pond Boss, Bob Lusk, and the lake’s owner and visionary, Greg Graves. We’ll take you from inception and construction, through the development of the fishery, and even prescribe management for the future. So grab a beverage and join in, you don’t want to miss it!
Do you have questions or comments? Follow the Fish University Facebook community and chat with Wes or suggest future episodes!

This episode we are joined by Dr. Morgan Varner from the Tall Timbers Land Trust and Research Center. Dr. Varner discusses the benefits of fire on the landscape, a brief history of utilizing prescribed fire in the US south, and the consequences of using and not using prescribed fire to manage forests.
For questions or comments, email us at timberuniversity@gmail.com
For more, follow NRU on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.

Dr. Ben Sikes, Associate Professor of Microbial Ecology at the University of Kansas, joins us to shed light on the fascinating relationships between fungi and fire. Learn of the interconnection between plants created by mycorrhizal networks (AKA the “wood wide web”), how fire regimes drive changes in fungal communities, the mechanisms of carrying out fungal research, and much more.
 
Bond, W. J., & Keeley, J. E. (2005). Fire as a global ‘herbivore’: the ecology and evolution of flammable ecosystems. Trends in ecology & evolution, 20(7), 387-394.
Hopkins, J. R., et al. (2021). Fungal community structure and seasonal trajectories respond similarly to fire across pyrophilic ecosystems. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 97(1), fiaa219.
Hopkins, J. R., et al. (2020). Frequent fire slows microbial decomposition of newly deposited fine fuels in a pyrophilic ecosystem. Oecologia, 193, 631-643.
Hansen, P. M., et al. (2019). Recurrent fires do not affect the abundance of soil fungi in a frequently burned pine savanna. Fungal ecology, 42, 100852.
Fox, S., et al. (2022). Fire as a driver of fungal diversity—A synthesis of current knowledge. Mycologia, 114(2), 215-241.
Dao, V. Q., et al. (2022). Substrate and low intensity fires influence bacterial communities in longleaf pine savanna. Scientific reports, 12(1), 20904.



Dr. Ben Sikes Contact/Website, Academic Profile
Dr. Carolina Baruzzi wildlandmgmt, Academic Profile
Dr. Marcus Lashley DrDisturbance, Academic Profile
 
Have suggestions for future episodes? Send us your feedback! (here)
Check out our newest podcast, Wild Turkey Science!
Enroll now in our free, online fire course. Available to all.
This podcast is supported by listener donations - thank you for being a part of this effort.
For more information, follow UF DEER Lab on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.
 
Music by Dr. David Mason and Artlist.io
Produced and edited by Charlotte Nowak
 

After much feedback from our latest episode, we sit down to review through recent episodes and lay out the available data known to us. Covering season timing and reproduction to the predator-habitat complex, there’s no tiptoeing around the controversy in this one. 
 
Isabelle, J. L., et al. (2018). Considerations for timing of spring wild turkey hunting seasons in the southeastern United States. Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, 5, 106-113.
Kurzejeski, Eric W., and L. D. Vangilder. "Population management." The wild turkey: biology and management. Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA (1992): 165-184.
Londe, David W., et al. "Review of range‐wide vital rates quantifies eastern wild Turkey population trajectory." Ecology and Evolution 13.2 (2023): e9830.
(Preprint) Quehl, J., et al. (2024). Assessing the relationship between spring wild turkey hunting season dates and wild turkey productivity.
Vangilder, Larry D., and Eric W. Kurzejeski. "Population ecology of the eastern wild turkey in northern Missouri." Wildlife Monographs (1995): 3-50.
Watts, C. R., & Stokes, A. W. (1971). The social order of turkeys. Scientific American, 224(6), 112-119.
 
Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund 
 
Dr. Marcus Lashley @DrDisturbance, Publications
Dr. Will Gulsby @dr_will_gulsby, Publications
Turkeys for Tomorrow @turkeysfortomorrow 
UF DEER Lab @ufdeerlab, YouTube
 
Please help us by taking our (QUICK) listener survey - Thank you! 
Check out the NEW DrDisturbance YouTube channel! DrDisturbance YouTube
Watch these podcasts on YouTube
Leave a podcast rating for a chance to win free gear!
 
This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org. 
Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family. 
 
Music by Artlist.io
Produced & edited by Charlotte Nowak