First of all, I refuse to let the QDMA have a monopoly on the idea of QDM and what it stands for.
Second of all, everyone who posts in these forums (here, habitat-talk, and QDMA) has inspired me in some way.
This thread is about how it all got started for you personally. I've obviously done a lot of thinking about this stuff over the last few days. It's hard not to sit back and ask "why is this topic (and community) so important to me?"
For me it starts with my father and his father. They were (and my father continues to be) great stewards of the land. My grandfather, Bop, bought roughly 500 acres in the SC low country in the early 70s. He very quickly donated 200 acres of it (mostly marsh) to the Audubon Society to conserve it for eternity. This move would later literally worth millions of dollars because it decreased the development value of the property significantly, but that wasn't important to him. As Bop retired from a busy banking job in Boston and moved to Charleston full time he was able to spend more and more time at the farm. He could be found down there at least 3 days a week even when blindness overtook him later in life. He was always on his little tractor cutting walking trails through the woods or making small fires from trees that had fallen. He was in heaven on the farm, and his ashes were spread there when he died in 2004.
My father was the true steward of the land. He is a farmer at heart but gave it up professionally when we children came along. He never lost the farming spirit though. He spent every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday down there for as long as I can remember. He had a vision for what he wanted the land to be, and through his hard work that vision became reality. He ran a wildly popular and successful dove club there until the early 2000s, and when the migratory patterns shifted and the doves stopped showing up, he switched from managing for doves to letting me manage for deer.
He was planting thousands of trees before it was popular. He planted pines, oaks, cypress, dug water holes, and planted the fields in diverse mixes that benefited the wildlife. He did it because he loved it. He did it because at his core it represented who he truly was.
That's how I am. We sold the farm a couple of years ago because of family politics, but the new owner is a great man who let me stay on board as the property manager. I love that land and I love continuing to mold it into what my grandfather and father wanted it to be. I was lucky to be inspired by them at such a young age because it's allowed me to see the fruits of our labor while I'm still in my 30s. We have sawtooths that have been dropping for 10 years, chestnuts that started dropping last year, pears that will drop in the next couple of years.
Thanks Bop, Pop, and to all of you who have inspired me.
Second of all, everyone who posts in these forums (here, habitat-talk, and QDMA) has inspired me in some way.
This thread is about how it all got started for you personally. I've obviously done a lot of thinking about this stuff over the last few days. It's hard not to sit back and ask "why is this topic (and community) so important to me?"
For me it starts with my father and his father. They were (and my father continues to be) great stewards of the land. My grandfather, Bop, bought roughly 500 acres in the SC low country in the early 70s. He very quickly donated 200 acres of it (mostly marsh) to the Audubon Society to conserve it for eternity. This move would later literally worth millions of dollars because it decreased the development value of the property significantly, but that wasn't important to him. As Bop retired from a busy banking job in Boston and moved to Charleston full time he was able to spend more and more time at the farm. He could be found down there at least 3 days a week even when blindness overtook him later in life. He was always on his little tractor cutting walking trails through the woods or making small fires from trees that had fallen. He was in heaven on the farm, and his ashes were spread there when he died in 2004.
My father was the true steward of the land. He is a farmer at heart but gave it up professionally when we children came along. He never lost the farming spirit though. He spent every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday down there for as long as I can remember. He had a vision for what he wanted the land to be, and through his hard work that vision became reality. He ran a wildly popular and successful dove club there until the early 2000s, and when the migratory patterns shifted and the doves stopped showing up, he switched from managing for doves to letting me manage for deer.
He was planting thousands of trees before it was popular. He planted pines, oaks, cypress, dug water holes, and planted the fields in diverse mixes that benefited the wildlife. He did it because he loved it. He did it because at his core it represented who he truly was.
That's how I am. We sold the farm a couple of years ago because of family politics, but the new owner is a great man who let me stay on board as the property manager. I love that land and I love continuing to mold it into what my grandfather and father wanted it to be. I was lucky to be inspired by them at such a young age because it's allowed me to see the fruits of our labor while I'm still in my 30s. We have sawtooths that have been dropping for 10 years, chestnuts that started dropping last year, pears that will drop in the next couple of years.
Thanks Bop, Pop, and to all of you who have inspired me.
