brandywine iSland - Megaagent.com

A PERSPECTIVE ON
brandywine ISland
Brandywine Island is an extraordinary property because of the
strength and synergy of three key attributes — location, size
and quality of habitat. The result is enormous potential.
As the old saw in real estate goes—location, location, location!
If ever there is a perfect location, this is it. I am not familiar
with another sporting property of the size and quality of the
habitat and wildlife that is situated as close to a S.M.S.A.
(standard statistical metropolitan area) having a population
in excess of one million. Memphis also happens to have one
of the world’s busiest international airports. Happily, getting
from Memphis to Frenchman’s Bayou is not only a short
drive but a pleasant one as well. Mercifully minimal time is
spent on Arkansas’ truck-choked interstates. Drives to most
of Arkansas’ duck blinds require at least an hour and a half of
high anxiety time on the interstate.
The size of a sporting property is critical to its successful
management. Larger tracts enable optimal management
for a wide variety of fish and wildlife species as well as
permitting simultaneous fishing and hunting for a broad
range of target species. Properties of substantial acreage
also afford protection from any negative influences from
adjoining lands. Brandywine’s size is more than adequate;
indeed its riparian nature provides additional protection
from trespass by virtue of the physical barriers created by
the river, chutes, lakes and sloughs.
The once vast Mississippi alluvial flood plain was originally
a sprawling bottomland of 24,000,000 acres. There are now
fewer than 5,000,000 acres. Much of the acreage was cleared
for cotton and corn; more recently these crops have yielded to
soybeans that are well suited to the delta’s soils and climate.
As the world markets change, so, too, will the crops of choice.
Brandywine is a green oasis island in a sea of bean fields. The
bottomlands directly contiguous to the river are especially
dynamic and productive. The river’s periodic flooding also
changes the topography of the land throughout the creation
of natural levees, chutes (cut off ancient ox bows), and islands.
The result is that Brandywine is a splendid wet and wild mosaic
of wetlands and uplands, meadows and woodlands, mature
mixed hardwood forests and regenerating willow thickets, and
placid still waters and the surging and meandering channels
of the Mississippi. The point of convergence of these habitats
is called edge. This special transition margin is greatly favored
by wildlife, and because of the island’s numerous and divergent
habitats there is an abundance of edge and, not surprisingly, a
resultant great bounty of wildlife. Every game species that you
might expect to find on the delta can be found on Brandywine;
squirrel, rabbit, mourning dove, bobwhite quail, waterfowl,
turkey and white-tailed deer. The periodic yet unpredictable
flooding stocks the lakes and chutes with both game fish and
rough fish. Very few private lands can match Brandywine’s
stunning numbers of birds. The size, the habitat diversity,
the lush profusion of vegetation, and the moist fertile
soils combine to host a plethora of neotropical birds. The
flourishing, healthy ecosystems of Brandywine not only
provide food and cover for these songbirds, they also protect
them from the parasitic nesting of the brown-headed cowbird
that plagues much of the delta.
Brandywine’s potential is considerable. This gem is
already being polished into a jewel by its owner through
responsible and committed management. The topography
of the tract lends to its manageability; the lowland, chutes,
lakes and sloughs receive flood waters when the river
is in its “lower” flood levels and conversely many of the
roads, improvements, management plots and buildings
are above recent “high” flood water marks. The island
is unlikely to ever attract waterfowl in numbers on the
order of Claypool as the river is somewhat fickle and is at
its best when in its flood and the weather is cold. Nearby
Wapanocca has held ducks for many years; indeed, it was
where Nash Buckingham shot his first duck in 1890. The
season at Brandywine can be enhanced by developing
some new waterfowl units through management initiatives
that include promoting moist soil plants, pumping and
flooding shallow basins. If there is an interest on the part
of patrons, a basin might be managed to attract snipe
which can provide unique and challenging wingshooting.
The island’s meadows, food plots and cultivated fields
interspersed throughout the woodlands make attractive
coverts for upland bird hunting. The character of the
covers will lend themselves to stocking pheasants and
chukars in addition to quail. Several reliable propagators
of gamebirds for releasing throughout the season will
have to be developed in nearby communities. Sunflower
fields should be planted and cultivated on the island
and the adjacent high ground for dove hunting in
September. The principles of quality deer management
should be adhered to, including rigorous harvest criteria,
supplemental feeding, including compounds for growth
and antler development, as well as habitat improvements
favoring preferred deer foods. These strategies should
produce a healthy herd and trophy animals. Brandywine
has enjoyed a good reputation for its turkey flock for
more than 50 years. This situation should continue with
occasional setbacks due to poult losses from spring floods.
The addition of a few fish feeders on selected lakes will
concentrate fish, add to their growth rate and make them
more vulnerable to angling.
Given Brandywine’s exceptional populations of viewable
wildlife “just up river from the Pyramid,” it may be
worth testing the marketplace for those who value the
opportunity to see Bald Eagles, call up a bobcat or coyote,
hike through the cool solitude of the emerald forest, take
wildlife photographs of more indigo bunting than any
place on earth, or dream in a hammock by the bank of the
river as they drift off downstream with “Huck and Tom.”
The development of special trails, food plots, viewing
blinds, lecturers, etc., will nurture these pursuits. It is likely
that many of the non-consumptive wildlife activities will
be undertaken by those who constitute the base of your
traditional hunting and fishing.
It has been my good fortune to experience many sporting
properties on the delta and on the Grand Prairie of
Arkansas; I think of commercial venues such as Five Oaks,
Greenbrier, Wildlife Farms, Tara and Wingmead. I do not
believe that their full sporting potential can rival that of
Brandywine.
Matt Connolly
Former CEO, Duck Unlimited Inc., and Wildlife Biologist