HUMBOLDT — In the shadow of a towering ash tree, leafless at mid-winter and a few feet from the Neosho River, David Gant spoke passionately about his love of the outdoors and its wildlife.
“Today’s kids say they can’t find anything to do. When I was a kid there wasn’t enough daylight for me to do all I wanted to do,” said Gant, 53.
All of his youthful activities started and ended outdoors, often centered on a cane fishing pole or a .22 rifle with iron sights.
Being hands-on owner of D&D Propane here puts demands on his time, but Gant still slips away, often to a paradise he is developing northwest of town.
He and wife Carrie will be recognized with the Wildlife Conservation Award Wednesday evening at the Allen County Soil Conservation District annual meeting.
HIS 330-ACRE farm, except for a field planted to corn last year, is a wildlife refuge.
The crop field has 35 acres of wetland on three sides, with individual swales surrounded by native grass. Seed from the grass is highly favored by wildlife, and provides nourishment, Gant said, “much better than any fescue you could plant.”
Gant isn’t a fescue fancier. He thinks it is the bane of quail and likens the popular lawn grass, in forage value, to a bottle of whiskey: “It has no nutritional value, just makes you feel good.”
The native grass also filters water flowing from the fertilized crop ground.
“That holds down on the chemicals that get into the wetland,” and some that eventually might flow into the nearby river, he said.
“I don’t know that the chemicals kill fish but I do think they have a (negative) effect on their reproduction,” Gant said. “When I was a kid you could catch crappie out of the river. Not now.”
Later, standing on a river bank, he pointed to brush at stream’s edge.
“Used to be with a cane poles you could tie on a jig, drop it down by that brush in February and pretty soon have a good string of crappie,” he said. “Now, you could dangle a jig in there all day and be lucky to catch one.”
GANT ALSO has 80 acres of timber surrounding a patch set aside in the Conservation Reserve Program. The CRP also is native grass and, at shoulder-high, usually shelters a snoozing deer or two and other wildlife.
“It’s not unusual to be here and hear the grass rustling when a deer sneaks off to the other side,” Gant said just moments before an armadillo scampered out.
Before he purchased the farm five years ago, hardwood trees, mainly walnut, were cut from the timber. That left the area with a proliferation of hackberry, ash and an occasional birch.
