Barren Rod and Gun casts off tonight

By JOEL WILSON

GLASGOW — Anyone wanting to obtain a hunter education card is reminded of the hunter ed course coming up this weekend.

The 10 hour course is being offered Feb. 4, 5 and 6 at the Immanuel Baptist Church on Western Hills Road in Glasgow.

Veteran educator Ed Rigdon will be instructing the course that includes firearm identification and safety, hunting ethics, wildlife identification, proper use of ammunition and other hunting related subjects.

Classes will begin at 6 p.m. on Thursday (tonight) and Friday nights, Feb. 4 and 5, and will end at 9 .m. The class will conclude on Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon and will include graduation and awarding hunter education certificates to those who successfully complete the course.

Effective March 1, 1991, all hunters born on or after Jan. 1, 1975, must carry a valid hunter education course completion card in addition to the appropriate Kentucky hunting license while in the field. A bow hunter not in possession of a firearm may carry a “National Bowhunter Education Program” course completion card in lieu of the hunter education card.

This weekend’s class is free and you can contact Ed at (270) 773-3800.

The Barren River Rod and Gun Club will attempt to start it’s new year tonight at the clubhouse at 7 p.m. with a potluck meal. The January membership meeting was cancelled because of the weather.

The level at Barren Lake stood at 538 Wednesday morning, still 13 feet above winter pool but is falling at the rate of about a foot a day. The threat of more rain this weekend my sent the level up again but a few hearty fishermen are still catching some cold water crappie.

This weekend’s Kentucky Afield TV show will have a segment on Kentucky’s attempt at quail restoration with some Quail Unlimited folks in Webster County. Also on the program, host Tim Farmer meets with Jackie Tynes in Hardin Countyto show the importance of edge habitat for rabbits and rabbit hunting and Randall Gibson puts Farmer onto big smallmouth at Dale Hollow.

As usual the show airs Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and repeats Sunday at 3 p.m. on KET.

And lastly this week, The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Kentucky is now accepting applications for the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP).

The Wetlands Reserve Program offers landowners the opportunity to protect, restore and enhance wetlands on their property. Through this voluntary program, NRCS has provided Kentucky landowners with over $29 million to restore more than 17,000 acres of cropland, pastureland and other altered lands to their original wetland conditions.

The compensation portion of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (also known as the 2008 Farm Bill) for WRP may be of special interest to local landowners. The 2008 Farm Bill authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to pay as compensation for an easement the fair market value of the land, as determined by an appraisal or an area-wide market analysis or survey. The amount paid is limited to a geographic cap or the landowner offer, whichever is less.

Landowners can enroll their land under a permanent easement option for a lump sum easement payment and up to 100 percent of the wetland restoration costs. Eligible lands include farmed wetlands, prior converted cropland, farmed wetland pasture, farmland that floods from rivers, farmland with somewhat poorly drained soils, and current or abandoned cropland with tile lines, drainage ditches, dikes or other similar alterations.

See your local district conservationist to determine if your land qualifies.

Upcoming application ranking cut-off dates are March 15, May 1, June 15 and July 31. Wetland Reserve Program applications are continually accepted; those applications received after the cut-off dates will be deferred until the next ranking cycle.