Family-Outdoors

 Landowners and hunters interested in hearing a variety of topics related to the management of bobwhites and ring-necked pheasants are invited to attend a free Quail & Pheasant Field Day from 1 to 5 p.m. June 9 at Kaw Wildlife Management Area.     Representatives from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service and Quail Forever will talk about how prescribed grazing, prescribed burning and disking can be effective habitat enhancement practices when managing for upland game birds.     In addition, discussions regarding the use of food plots, the control of invasive plant species, and the importance of specific habitat components should be helpful to most landowners. An important part of the field day is the opportunity for attendees to see the results of these practices on the WMA and ask questions about any aspect of quail and pheasant management.     Hunters who visited Kaw WMA during the 2015-16 ...

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) . (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Monarch butterflies are struggling. Counts of the familiar orange-and-black insects, admired for their flights of up to 5,000 miles a year, are trending down so sharply that their migration is now under threat. That means fewer monarchs to pollinate crops, spread seeds and feed birds. So how can we help? One simple way is to follow the lead of Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Iowa and consider collecting and sowing milkweed seed. But don’t delay. In much of the country, milkweed pods are ripe for picking in early fall. Why milkweed? Milkweed is the host plant for monarchs—the lone plant on which the butterflies lay their eggs in spring and the only food source for monarch larvae. One reason monarchs are failing is that milkweed is disappearing from the American landscape. Scientists blame land-use practices such as farming with crops genetically modified to resist herbicides. The herbicides kill plants such as mil...