Owner worries fawn crop could be impacted
Greg Hackney spends most of his year chasing bass on the Bassmaster Elite Series trail, but when it’s time to relax he usually can be found at his Washington County hunting club. But he was stunned by what he found when he stopped to check things out on his way home from a recent tournament.
“There was 4 feet of water over the floor of the lodge,” Hackney said. “And the camp is on a 13-foot mound and is probably another 4 feet above that mound, so the water had to be 17 feet over the ground to get to the floor.”
What was so shocking was that the camp is on the second-highest point on the 5,000-acre island.
“The entire island is covered,” Hackney said. “There’s a one ridge that is higher than where the camp is, but it’s got 3 or 4 feet of water over it, also.”
More photos from Hackney’s camp can be found on the MS-Sportsman.com forum.
While he knows there will be lots of work to be done when the water recedes (“We need a place to stay,” he said.), what concerned Hackney most was the fate of the deer that normally call the island home.
“You know, that’s the highest land in 40 or 50 miles up and down the river,” he said of the spit of land located within the Mississippi River levees.
Three years ago, water took most of the property – and deer and other wildlife were left seemingly stranded and starving.
“There were deer just ganged up on the little land that was left,” Hackney said, adding that he and his fellow camp owners undertook a feeding program to try and keep the deer alive.
But he said that’s certainly a problem this year.
“Those deer are (over the levee) eating beans right now, or drowned,” Hackney said. “Three years ago what hurt us is there was a little land left, and they just stayed there. Now they’re out there eating beans because there’s nothing left for them (on the island).
“There hasn’t been any dry land for three weeks.”
And reports he has received from buddies in the Delta seem to confirm his suspicions.
“I just get deer and bear sightings up and down the river,” Hackney said. “Deer are survivors.”
What does still concern him is the fate of young-of-the-year deer.
“The only thing that happened last time was we lost the fawn crop; we still had plenty of mature deer,” he said. “Even though the deer left the island, I still think the fawn crop will be down (this year), regardless.”
That leaves him wondering what will happen as hunting season approaches.
“I’m real curious to see how the state handles it,” Hackney said.
No matter what happens, the die-hard hunter is prepared for the island he loves to be flooded for the foreseeable future.
“In 2008 it didn’t get as high (as this year, and it was August before we could drive in to the island,” Hackney said.
Although crests were being announced up and down the river, Hackney said there was still water that hasn’t even reached the Mississippi River.
“All the big reservoirs up in Missouri are above flood stage,” he explained. “They’ve been holding it to keep it from going into the Mississipi River. All that water has to come back into the system.
It won’t surprise me if it’s September or October before we can drive in.”
While they can still access the island using boats as the water recedes, Hackney said it might be too late to provide any real food for the deer during the fall.
“We’ll plant some food plots, but I don’t think it will go down in time for any vegetation to grow,” Hackey said.
Check back for regular coverage of the flood and its impact on deer and other wildlife.
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