Natural Resources University

Latest Episodes:

#26 | Pond University - Cage match: Tips for growing fish in cages and other fish stocking advice Mar 16, 2021

Show notes

In this episode ft. Pond University, we talk with Bob Rode, the manager of Purdue's Aquaculture Research Laboratory. Bob has 30 years of experience in aquaculture and pond management. In this episode, Bob talks about the things to consider when stocking new fish into ponds, as well as some interesting ways to produce fish for food in your pond, including growing fish in cages. Also, please consider taking our anonymous listener survey so that we can improve the podcast and include topics that you are interested in.

Anonymous Listener Survey:

https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1IhSN3DPQpowBPU

Center for Great Lakes Literacy website:

https://www.cgll.org/

Lafayette Parks and Recreation Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/LafayetteParks

Bob's website:

https://ag.purdue.edu/fnr/Pages/Profile.aspx?strAlias=rrode&intDirDeptID=15

Purdue's Aquaculture Research Laboratory:

https://ag.purdue.edu/fnr/Pages/labaquaresearch.aspx

Indiana Department of Natural Resources Licensed Commercial Fish Suppliers List:

https://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/3607.htm

Purdue Extension Fish Stocking Publication:

https://mdc.itap.purdue.edu/item.asp?Item_Number=FNR-569&_ga=2.87976152.1342825268.1614807416-1847494118.1584900510

Southern Regional Aquaculture Center website:

https://srac.msstate.edu/

North Central Regional Aquaculture Center website:

https://www.ncrac.org/

Mitch's profile page:

https://ag.purdue.edu/fnr/Pages/Profile.aspx?strAlias=mzischke&intDirDeptID=15

Mitch's twitter:

https://twitter.com/TheAussieWahoo

Megan's profile page:

https://ag.purdue.edu/fnr/Pages/Profile.aspx?strAlias=mlgunn&intDirDeptID=15

Megan's twitter:

https://twitter.com/_TFFP

Pond and wildlife management website:

https://extension.purdue.edu/pondwildlife/

Natural Resources University website:

https://naturalresourcesuniversity.libsyn.com/

Purdue's Department of Forestry and Natural Resources website:

https://ag.purdue.edu/fnr/Pages/default.aspx

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant website:

https://iiseagrant.org/

https://extension.purdue.edu/pondwildlife/contact-us/

#25 | Habitat University - Aldo's tools: Balancing on an axe blade, ft. Jordan Nanney Mar 11, 2021

Show notes

How can the axe – or forestry – be used as a habitat management tool? Jarred talks with Jordan Nanney, a Wildlife Forester with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, about how he uses forestry to creatively manage wildlife habitat. As you'll learn in the episode it can really be a balancing axe {act}.

Habitat University Listener Feedback Survey >>

Resources discussed during the episode:

Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment - https://heeforeststudy.org/

Short-term response of breeding birds to oak regeneration treatments in upland hardwood forest

Managing your Woods for White-Tailed Deer

Creating a Wildlife Habitat Management Plan for Landowners

A Template for Your Wildlife Habitat Management Plan

Iowa's Forest Birds

#24 | Deer University - Contrasting deer management in South Texas and the Midwest, ft. Dr. Mick Hellickson Mar 09, 2021

Show notes

Dr. Mick Hellickson joins Deer University again to compare deer management in South Texas and the Midwest. Mick was born and raised in Iowa and grew up hunting in that agricultural environment, but then moved to South Texas for graduate school and now works there managing deer herds. Mick will review the most important limitations he faces managing deer in these very different environments.

#23 | Fire University - Tools and tips to getting started with prescribed fire, ft. John Stivers & John Gruchy Mar 02, 2021

Show notes

Taking the first steps into using prescribed fire can be daunting – Which tools are needed? How do you develop a plan? Where you can find help and consultation? Look no further!

In this week's episode of Fire University, Dr. Marcus Lashley sits down with John Stivers and John Gruchy, both with years of experience helping private land owners get started with using prescribed burning, to discuss the basic tools and resources landowners need to begin burning. From drip torches to ATVs to contractors and technique, this episode covers a wide array of information to help you get started with fire management.

#22 | Habitat University - Aldo's tools: What's good for the herd is good for the bird, ft. Marissa Ahlering Feb 23, 2021

Show notes

Everything from grasshoppers to a bison graze and can have drastic impacts on vegetation on which many other wildlife species depend. Unsurprisingly, many wildlife managers are therefore interested in understanding and using grazing animals to create the unique places where animals, or in the case of the blowout penstemon, unique plants, thrive. In this wide-ranging discussion, Adam talks to The Nature Conservancy's Marissa Ahlering about how grazing impacts wildlife and how we can creatively use grazing to manage wildlife habitat.

More on Marissa Ahlering: https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/who-we-are/our-people/marissa-ahlering/

Find Dr. Ahlering's research here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=86moVcEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Including her research on cattle grazing and grassland birds. - https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jwmg.1049

More on blowout penstemon - http://outdoornebraska.gov/blowoutpenstemon/

More on patch burn grazing from our friends at Fire U: https://fireuniversity.libsyn.com/episode-04-patch-burn-grazing-as-a-strategy-to-manage-grassland-communities

#21 | Pond University - Planning your spring pond management and insights from Oklahoma, ft. Amie Robison Feb 16, 2021

Show notes

In this episode of Pond University, we talk with Amie Robison, an Aquatic Ecologist from Robison Wildlife Solutions in Oklahoma. Amie, who is also known as "The Pond Lady", has over 20 years' experience helping landowners and homeowner communities manage their ponds. Amie provides invaluable advice on how to start planning now for management that you should consider in the spring. She discusses everything from dams and sediments, to vegetation and fish. She also shares some interesting stories and case studies from her work in Oklahoma, including a mysterious pond slime that can actually move on its own!

Anonymous feedback survey:

https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1IhSN3DPQpowBPU

Robison Wildlife Solutions website:

http://www.robisonwildlife.com/

Amie's social media:

https://twitter.com/The_Pond_Lady

www.instagram.com/the_pond_lady

www.facebook.com/OklahomaPondLady

www.youtube.com/channel/UCXKgHkxpE1bkgep39rb1nEA

Fish Nerds podcast:

https://www.fishnerdspodcast.com/

The Woman Angler and Adventurer podcast:

https://thewomanangler.com/

The Ologies podcast:

https://www.alieward.com/ologies

Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life, by Lulu Miller:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Why-Fish-Dont-Exist/Lulu-Miller/9781501160271

Mysterious pond slime in Nebraska:

https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/aquatic-ecologists-are-struggling-to-identify-this-bizarre-moving-goo/

Mitch's profile page:

https://ag.purdue.edu/fnr/Pages/Profile.aspx?strAlias=mzischke&intDirDeptID=15

Mitch's twitter:

https://twitter.com/TheAussieWahoo

Megan's profile page:

https://ag.purdue.edu/fnr/Pages/Profile.aspx?strAlias=mlgunn&intDirDeptID=15

Megan's twitter:

https://twitter.com/_TFFP

Pond and wildlife management website:

https://extension.purdue.edu/pondwildlife/

Natural Resources University website:

https://naturalresourcesuniversity.libsyn.com/

Purdue's Department of Forestry and Natural Resources website:

https://ag.purdue.edu/fnr/Pages/default.aspx

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant website:

https://iiseagrant.org/

https://extension.purdue.edu/pondwildlife/contact-us/

#20 | Deer University - Deer food plot forage selection, ft. Dr. Marcus Lashley & Jacob Dykes Feb 09, 2021

Show notes

We get asked all the time "what's the best food plot forage to plant for deer?" Well, as hunters and managers, we were interested in that question too. Bronson, Steve, and Marcus discuss a food plot forage selection project conducted by former graduate student, Jacob Dykes. Cereal grains, clovers, and brassicas all have different growth rates and maturation dates, making their quality and nutrient profile change over the hunting season. What's more, the availability of certain nutrients in the naturally occurring plants affect which food plot forages deer may favor, or avoid, and this depends on the time of year, and from place to place. So, what may be the most selected forage on your property, may be different a on property a few miles away.

Research video on the topic: https://youtu.be/WUKEAtW6pqs

#19 | Fire University - The role of fire in perpetuating oak dominance in upland hardwoods, ft. Dr. Heather Alexander & Dr. Steve Brewer Feb 02, 2021

Show notes

Fire was playing an important role in upland hardwood ecosystems when the current mature oaks germinated a century ago. While those mature oaks are still common in the overstory, the next generation of oaks to replace them are not present across much of the central hardwoods and Appalachian regions. Instead, fire exclusion over the last several decades allowed mesophytic (moisture-retaining) species like sweetgum and red maple to get established and begin a transition to non-oak dominance in these forests. In this week's episode of Fire University, Dr. Marcus Lashley sits down with Dr. Heather Alexander of Auburn University and Dr. Steve Brewer of the University of Mississippi to discuss the role of fire in ensuring oak forests continue to flourish into the next generation, how changes in fuels and flammability affect our ability to burn, and why the problem is more complex than just reintroducing fire.

Want more? Check out our video showing why the encroachment of non-oak species affects our ability to burn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sYbisKFdsI&ab_channel=UFDEERLabIFAS

Alexander et al. 2021. Mesophication of Oak Landscapes: Evidence, Knowledge Gaps, and Future Research. BioScience. https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biaa169/6117972

UF DEER Lab Twitter: https://twitter.com/UFDEERLab

UF DEER Lab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ufdeerlab

UF DEER Lab Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ufdeerlab/

UF DEER Lab YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5orPZezH2fNGe97ZHAb9Hg

#18 | Habitat University - Aldo's tools: Getting creative with prescribed fire, ft. Dr. Marcus Lashley Jan 26, 2021

Show notes

How can prescribed fire be used creatively to create and enhance habitat for wildlife? Dr. Marcus Lashley, Assistant Professor and Extension Wildlife Specialist at University of Florida and host of Fire University, joins the podcast to tackle this question, and we take a deep dive into prescribed fire as a habitat management tool.

Habitat University Listener Feedback Survey >>

Resources discussed in the episode

Fire University Episode 3 – Where to get information, experience, and collaborators to meet prescribed burning objectives - https://fireuniversity.libsyn.com/episode-03-where-to-get-information-experience-and-collaborators-to-meet-prescribed-burning-objectives

Fire University Episode 4 – Patch-Burn-Grazing as a strategy to manage grassland communities - https://fireuniversity.libsyn.com/episode-04-patch-burn-grazing-as-a-strategy-to-manage-grassland-communities

Natural Resources University - https://naturalresourcesuniversity.libsyn.com/

Southern Fire Exchange - https://southernfireexchange.org/

Coalition of Prescribed Fire Council - http://www.prescribedfire.net/

Prescribed Burn Associations - https://research.cnr.ncsu.edu/blogs/southeast-fire-update/prescribed-burn-associations/

#17 | Pond University - Building and maintaining your pond, ft. Scott Wagner Jan 19, 2021

Show notes

In this episode of Pond University, we talk with Scott Wagner, a Certified Agricultural Engineer with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Scott has worked on pond construction and maintenance (among many other things) for over 18 years. Scott discusses the importance of proper planning and permitting for pond construction, and conducting annual inspections for maintaining your pond. He also provides a bunch of useful information and resources for pond management, including potential financial assistance for conservation projects. So, if you are thinking about building a new pond, or need help fixing a leaking pond; hopefully, this episode can help you.

USDA-NRCS website:

http://www.in.nrcs.usda.gov

NRCS Ponds - Planning, Design, Construction Handbook:

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/16/stelprdb1246427.pdf

NRCS Field Office Technical Guide:

https://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/#/details

Web Soil Survey:

https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/

Indiana Soil and Water Conservation Districts:

http://wordpress.iaswcd.org

Indiana DNR Division of Water:

https://www.in.gov/dnr/water/