Deer and Fish Committee is looking for member support.
The importance of the food plots and their performance across the entire property has been a topic of conversation for years at Weller. Weller was one of the first Adirondack hunting clubs to prioritize and perfect the use of food plots to support deer management and buck growth. This program takes significant amounts of time, resources and funding to be successful. With 18,500 acres, Weller has over 28 established food plots of varying size and shapes.
With 2022 here and the memories of the past hunting season still fresh in everyone’s mind, the Deer and Fish committee wants to make the food plots and their performance a higher priority this year and they would like to recruit more member support to help make this a reality.
Support comes in many ways: volunteer time, equipment, funding and expertise, all are needed and appreciated. If members want to get involved, the deer and fish committee wants to know. The committee is looking for financial donations throughout the year, for seed, fertilizer, herbicide, and fuel. If members want to volunteer time and/or equipment to help spray, prepare soil, pull soil test, document and catalogue food plot information (preferably on GIS or other mapping software), seed and even pick rocks, the group will send out times throughout the year for when these activities will occur. Some activities happen in early summer, some throughout the year. If there are any ideas or suggestions for any of the food plots with regard to seed mix, time of planting or other changes, let the committee know.
If members want to take on the challenge of managing a food plot, experimenting or trying new things on their own or with a group, the club is trying a new Food Plot Sponsorship program this year.
- Under the guidance of the Board of directors and Caretaker a number of predesigned food plots will be open to the membership to sponsor and maintain for the year. The name of the sponsoring members will be identified on the large wall map in the main lodge.
- Sponsorships can take different approaches:
- Individuals or Groups of members teaming up to take designated food plots and go from start to finish. The Individual/group would be responsible for the labor, equipment and materials (pre-approved by the board) for growing food plot.
- If members want to donate all the funding for a specific plot, but don’t have the time, resources or equipment to execute let the board know.
- Guidelines: Food plots would be approved by the Board from the existing 28+- food plots. Approved seed mixes and fertilizers would be used. (Buying in bulk by club would be recommended). Record keeping on each site would be required using provided forms.
- The club wants to grow not only food plots and Big Bucks, but more expertise throughout the membership on how the food plots work, what seed mixes work best and where, when to plant, etc.
Members/groups would submit a formal request to the Board for participation. The request would include:
- Food plot # and location
- Soil test may be needed if no recent test has been conducted. Soil tests save time and money on fertilizer, lime and can aid with overall performance. Test results would be included with the food plot information, based on number of tests/site and across club this may be cheaper to collect and have them all done under one order by the club.
- Herbicide application, proposed times and or need for material.
- Type of seed mix proposed and Supplier. Fertilizer needs and/or soil treatment (lime) requirement.
- Seed mixes need to be reviewed to ensure quality and also reduce risk of invasive species in the seed mixes.
- Personal Equipment to be used and timeline for planting.
- As with any equipment coming on the property, we ask members to clean thoroughly to prevent the transmission of invasive species like wild parsnip, hog weed, frailties, etc.
The Club is thankful for all the help we can get regarding this important Project.
Food plot maps will be at the lodge