Don Reed (left), wildlife specialist with the LSU AgCenter, accepts a donation of $1,500 from Sandy Comeaux, president of the South Louisiana Branch of the Quality Deer Management Association. (Photo by Johnny Morgan)

News Release Distributed 04/12/10

The South Louisiana Branch of the Quality Deer Management Association recently donated $1,500 to the LSU AgCenter to help offset the cost of annual field days.

The AgCenter, in conjunction with QDMA and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, has been providing educational field days around the state for the past 10 years, said Don Reed, LSU AgCenter wildlife specialist.

“These field days, while dealing mostly with management issues for white-tailed deer, have also covered a variety of other wildlife-related topics,” Reed said.

An example was the 2010 program held in late February at the LSU AgCenter Bob R. Jones Idlewild Research Station, Reed said. The main presentation was a field-trapping demonstration dealing with several key nuisance wildlife animals, including beavers, raccoons, coyotes and feral hogs.

“Walter Cotton, a nuisance wildlife trapper with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services Agency, made the presentation to 142 individuals who attended the field day,” Reed said.

He explained that the expanding feral hog populations across Louisiana made this animal a prime concern.

“Our neighboring state of Texas has been dealing with the problem much longer than Louisiana, and that perspective was given by Dr. Billy Higginbotham, a wildlife extension professor with Texas A&M University,” he said.

Reed said the LSU AgCenter depends on many individuals and organizations to assist with providing speakers and educational programs that make field days a success.

“One area in which the AgCenter has received financial support on a regular basis in the past has been a donation by the deer management association to offset the costs associated with hosting these field days each year,” Reed said.

For additional information on wildlife management in Louisiana, contact Reed at 225-683-5848 or dreed@agcenter.lsu.edu.

Johnny Morgan