Objectives for this program include meeting basic wildlife needs for food, shelter, and cover. Preservation and restoration of the existing soil base is also an important objective. Many of our open areas are planted in soil-building legumes to help control erosion in the predominantly sandy soils of the Refuge. The staff and cooperative farmers also plant some of our fields in crops beneficial to wildlife species. In many cases, food crops are planted in strips along the edge or in the center of these fields to maintain cover and shelter for smaller mammals and ground nesting birds.
Typical crops planted to benefit waterfowl include grain sorghum, corn, duckwheat, and millet.
These crops provide foods high in nutritional value during the coldest, most stressful periods in the winter. Green browse in the form of wheat, ryegrass, and clover meet the less stringent nutritional requirements for waterfowl. A few Refuge fields are annually planted with a mixture of crops preferred by mourning doves, including black sunflower, brown-top millet, sorghum, Japanese millet, and switchgrass. More than 900 acres of perennials, such as bicolor lespedeza, have been established on the Refuge to provide food and cover for bobwhite quail. Annual plantings of beggarweed, patridge pea, sorghum, millet, and sunflowers provide excellent food sources for this species.