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Wildlife management, particularly white-tailed deer management, is becoming more and more commercialized, but little attention is given to the basics of deer habitat management because it can't be put in a bag or can and sold for a profit.

Food plots and feeders are intensive management practices and, while widely used, they are not real habitat improvement practices in most cases. Usually, they only work as supplemental feeding to concentrate wildlife populations for improved harvest success or observation.

Four programs are slated to receive approximately 8 million dollars to be allocated toward natural resource improvement this year.

It is true that there are a few spiders that are harmful to man, but the vast majority pose no threat, and are in fact beneficial.

Dung Beetles are biological control agents for horn flies and intestinal parasites. They destroy the habitat for other insects and internal parasites to complete their life cycle.

Clearing brush or timber when woody plants are not overabundant often decreases land value and income potential.

In my opinion, cattle are the most powerful quail managers in Oklahoma, for two reasons. The first is because it is difficult to successfully produce bobwhites without them. Quail cannot thrive in rank grassland. The second reason is because so many land management decisions are made exclusively with cattle in mind.

The most important concept to understand for successful wildlife management is the role of native plant communities - without them, most wildlife species cannot exist.

This article was revised in 2006. Crappie are an excellent tasting sunfish that are sometimes stocked into ponds. Two species of crappie occur in Oklahoma and Texas. White crappie usually have six...

Wildlife managers need to be aware of the importance of habitat diversity.