A River Rolls Through It

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river rolls

through it

Rolling Fork River WMA offers new opportunities on fringe of Golden Triangle • By Kevin Kelly

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HE ROLLING FORK River figures prominently in the identity of a new wildlife management area that carries its name but does not singularly define it.

The river separates Nelson and LaRue counties and the land flanking it showcases the topographic extremes of the region. This is where the knobby country of Muldraugh Hill divides the Bluegrass region from the Pennyroyal region. This is where broad floodplains collide with steep, timber-covered slopes and upland fields.

This is where visitors will discover Rolling Fork Wildlife Management Area (WMA), which opened to public use in late

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September 2016.

“It’s a spectacular property,” said John Morgan, small game program coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

A flurry of land acquisitions by the department in 2016 in effect provided hunters, anglers and wildlife enthusiasts with 7,600 acres of new public land.

Six of the eight newly added properties adjoin existing wildlife management areas in Ballard, Bath, Crittenden, Henry and Owen counties. The largest land purchases were used to create two new wildlife management areas measuring roughly 2,900 acres apiece ± Rockcastle River WMA in

Pulaski County and Rolling Fork WMA. “These purchases came at no cost to the Game and Fish Fund due to federal Wildlife Restoration Program funding,” said David McChesney, Wildlife Division assistant director at Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.

“Amazing teamwork made this possible.

You have to go back many years to find more success in acres than we accomplished this year. The only years with more lands made available to sportsmen were 1957 and 1995, respectively.”

A guiding principle in the department’s strategic plan for land acquisition is the agency’s mission to conserve and enhance fish and wildlife resources and provide op-

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portunity for hunting, fishing, trapping, boating and other wildlife-related activities.

Rolling Fork WMA checks all the boxes.

“It’s really got a whole lot going for it,” said Tony Wheatley, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife’s land acquisition coordinator. “There’s something for everyone to do.

No matter what license you have, you can do something there. To me, it can’t get any better.”

There are more than a dozen wildlife management areas in Kentucky ranging from 2,000 to 4,000 acres. Because most of Rolling Fork WMA’s eight parking lots are built on the periphery, it makes the area seem deceptively larger than its 2,889 acres.

In Nelson County, the property sweeps north from the river past the two lanes of KY 84. Most of the property lies south of the river in LaRue County. Stillwell Branch cuts through the heart of a valley that runs almost the entire length of the triangularshaped LaRue County portion.

Visitors who skip from parking area to parking area will feel as if they’re visiting an entirely new area at each stop.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been down there trying to take people on a nickel tour and we’re down there all day and we’ve not stopped moving and we aren’t seeing all of it,” Wheatley said.

While biologists see great potential for small game as habitat improves, deer and turkey will be the primary draws for hunters.

“I know some people who have had hunting leases on adjoining properties and they’ve been chomping at the bit because they know what’s on the WMA,” Wheatley said.

The property is open under statewide regulations for hunting, making it one of the few wildlife management areas around central Kentucky where hunting deer with modern firearms is allowed.

“I think we’ll see some big deer taken off it,” said Derek Beard, Bluegrass Region wildlife coordinator for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.

Gabe Jenkins, the department’s deer and elk program coordinator, formed a favorable impression of the area while doing a From the Nelson County side, visitors to Rolling Fork WMA can glimpse a stunning rock face not on the property.

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health check on its deer herd.

“It’s a fairly big area but it’s really rugged,” he said. “You can get to it and there are nice parking lots, but they’re all on the edge, so you’re going to have to walk. I think the terrain will self-limit usage. If you’re willing to walk and don’t mind packing something out, I think it will be a good place to go.”

Hunters took 27 deer during the 2016 modern firearms season on Rolling Fork WMA. David McCauley discovered the new area while driving home after fishing the Rolling Fork River near the Howardstown boat ramp.

An avid hunter, he hopped online and explored the new WMA virtually before stepping foot onto the property to scout for hunting spots. In late October, McCauley was the first hunter to telecheck a deer from

the area. He took the doe with his bow and arrow.

“It’s a nice property as far as access and the way it’s set up,” McCauley said. “A few spots are going to be difficult to get to.

You’ve just got to get out and hoof it to get back to where you need to go.”

RIVER ACCESS Rolling Fork WMA offers about 3 miles of river frontage. Exposed rock bluffs forming the river gorge hem in the sprawling fields rising into densely wooded hillsides. The river flows over a mud and rock bottom in pool-riffle sequence, often between steep mud banks gouged by frequent floods that have uprooted trees and created numerous snags.

Intrepid paddlers can float entirely within the bounds of the WMA for about 2

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HOW TO GET THERE 462

From New Haven travel KY Hwy 52 east 1.2 miles and turn right onto Hwy 247. Follow Hwy 247 south for 7.6 miles towards Howardstown. At Hwy 84 turn left and travel east for 4.2 miles to WMA .

Elizabethtown Hodgenville

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For more detailed information go to

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WATERFOWL POTENTIAL The neighboring bottomlands hold potential for waterfowl hunting. During a visit to the property one fall morning, Scott Buser, public lands biologist for the area, flushed several wood ducks from the river.

“Part of those bottoms are pretty wet, so there may be potential for wetland enhancement,” said Chris Garland, assistant

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Above, A deer rub and ample mast indicate good habitat for deer. Below, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Bluegrass Region public lands biologist Scott Buser looks across a fallow field on Rolling Fork WMA.

miles. However, the launch involves a milelong walk to reach the river from the two parking areas south of KY 84 on the Nelson County side. For anglers, the easiest river access by foot is from the same parking areas.

Kentucky Fish and Wildlife currently has no plans to carve access to the river for boaters and paddlers.

The community of Howardstown is located about 5 miles from the WMA’s westernmost parking area. A public boat ramp located off the KY 84 bridge in Howardstown is roughly a 10-mile float from the WMA boundary.

Fisheries biologists sampling the Rolling Fork River in 2014 encountered some quality fish in the vicinity, but low numbers overall.

Channel catfish were most abundant.

Some measured up to 22 inches. Flathead catfish up to 27 inches also were present.

“If we’re sampling and we’re seeing good numbers of channel catfish, it means there’s a lot more because we don’t typically get them unless there is a lot of them,” said David Baker, assistant biologist of the department’s Central Fisheries District. “The flathead numbers are lower than the channel catfish but there is an opportunity for a quality-sized fish. We found them around logjams in the middle of the river.”

Spotted bass are the most prevalent of the black bass species in the WMA bounds.

However, anglers will find smallmouth bass above and below the river’s riffles and braided sections.

“The spotted bass were concentrated in the pools that are very common in that section,” Baker said. “The riffly areas with moving water are where we found more smallmouth. Largemouth were kind of hit or miss in the pools.”

Rock bass also were present. Most were in the 6- to 7-inch range.

“They were in good condition,” Baker said.

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director of the department’s Wildlife Division.

The area will likely attract ducks when the river rises and floods the adjacent bottomlands. Wood ducks would use these areas during the summer and fall while mallard and black ducks might use it during the winter, said John Brunjes, migratory bird program coordinator for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.

Rolling Fork WMA also is in a travel corridor for sandhill cranes. In general, sandhill cranes prefer to roost in shallow water to avoid predators and forage in harvested agricultural fields near those roosting areas.

“It’s in a spot that’s right in a major pathway for cranes,” Brunjes said. “It’s just whether or not we have either of those two

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items or not. You can provide all the food in the world but they have to have somewhere to go at night.”

HABITAT While touring the area with visitors, Buser directed the driver of the pickup truck to follow a two-track to look for evidence of deer rut activity picking up.

The route passed through a long and narrow overgrown field. Where the visitors saw an ocean of head-height weeds, Buser sees promise.

“It’s kind of neat and refreshing to get a new WMA,” he says. “Here, there’s a lot of potential.”

In time, there will be a plan to manage the habitat on the property. Habitat plans determine the direction for the property,

such as forest improvements or managing grasslands.

“Sometimes the plan is as simple as, ‘Hey, here it is. Go hunt it,’” Garland said.

“Otherwise, they get very in-depth and involve multiple management practices over many years.”

The main block of property that is now Rolling Fork WMA had been in the same family since the early 1970s, growing through the years as the family expanded the farm piece by piece. The family managed the trees for the benefit of fish and wildlife, according to a forest stewardship plan created in the mid-1990s by the state’s Division of Forestry.

The property bears evidence of logging and farming. Groups also leased it for hunting and horseback riding rights, which explain the extensive network of trails that course through the property.

Kentucky Fish and Wildlife’s management plan may involve conducting an inventory of the plants found there. Because sections of the property are heavily forested, the department may consider thinning the stands to help improve habitat for wildlife.

Some sections of the property include farm fields once enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife employees met with federal officials this fall to discuss requirements for those fields, with an eye toward continued farming in some areas.

“We have the option to do tenant farming to keep out woody plant succession and provide some kind of alternative food sources for a period of time while we decide what Winter 2016 Kentucky Afield 25

we want to do,” Garland said.

A farming agreement could hasten plans to provide a public dove field on the LaRue County side. “It’s an idle crop field and has power lines already going across it,” Beard said. “We actually saw some bobwhite quail on there. We may try to get one in or we’ll contract to have a local farmer put in a dove field.”

In the short term, there is opportunity to do small but not insignificant habitat work. That work could include mowing to improve access for wildlife and people, strip disking and planting small food plots for quail and young turkeys, and burning fields.

“When we get a piece of property like this, we see all this potential and as biologists want to take all of our resources down there and make it what it could be,” Beard said. “Budget dictates that. So, what’s the low-hanging fruit? Down there the lowhanging fruit is going to be converting some of those big ag fields, getting native grasses planted, trees and shrubs planted, creating some early successional habitats.”

NEAR, YET ISOLATED Proximity to a large number of people is but one consideration when Kentucky Fish and Wildlife evaluates a property. Part of Rolling Fork WMA’s allure is its location on the fringe of the Golden Triangle, an area bounded by Louisville, Lexington and northern Kentucky. About one quarter of the state’s population lives within a 60-mile radius of the WMA, a circumference that includes Louisville.

It’s close to home but feels remote once immersed in its surroundings.

With no direct route from major highways, visitors must drive along two or oneand-a-half-lane roads to reach the parking areas. Primitive camping may be considered in the future but, for now, visitors are looking at either a day trip or finding overnight accommodations. Hotel offerings are limited in the immediate vicinity of the WMA but Bardstown, Elizabethtown and Lebanon are 30 minutes away and offer lodging options.

“That whole area down there is kind of unique,” Wheatley said. “You draw that 60-mile circle and you go, ‘You know what?

It’s not that far.’ Not everybody can pack up and go four hours to western Kentucky. But you can, in 90 minutes, get down into this country.” n 26 Kentucky Afield Winter 2016

Opening a new Wildlife Management Area is no small feat

Kevin Kelly photo

Kevin Kelly photo

Obie Williams photo

The driver and his passenger spotted the open gate and turned off KY 84 onto an unpaved driveway that led back to an old homestead.

At a graveled parking area near a vacant two-story farm house and tree-ringed pond loud with frogs and teeming with lily pads, the men encountered two Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources employees installing a brown metal sign denoting one of the state’s newest wildlife management areas.

When Kentucky Fish and Wildlife bought the 2,889 acres that make up the new Rolling Fork Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Nelson and LaRue counties this past summer, people were understandably curious; when would it open and what could they do on it once it did open?

These are common questions whenever Kentucky Fish and Wildlife acquires a new property. The short answer is it depends on how much infrastructure is needed for essentials such as parking areas and signage, among others.

Work on any new property cannot begin until the sale closes. In the case of Rolling Fork WMA, the state finalized its purchase in mid-June 2016. The property needed boundaries surveyed and marked, parking areas built and signs erected before it could open to the public.

Rolling Fork WMA officially opened in late September, after completion of the groundwork.

It was a busy summer, as the department added two new WMAs and expanded six other existing management areas.

“We can’t open a new property for the public until we get boundaries marked, gates, parking and signage installed,” said Chris Garland, who oversees wildlife management areas as assistant director of the department’s Wildlife Division. “Depending

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Kevin Kelly photo

on the size of the area and how many access points it has, it could be as simple as a single parking area, gate and a kiosk. Or it could include a dozen parking areas, gates, kiosks and signage.”

Aside from the physical preparations, department managers must develop a shortterm plan of action for the property. If the acreage has houses or barns on it, decisions must be made about what to do with those buildings. Employees must determine what maintenance the property needs right away.

Then there are questions to answer about the property’s use and what regulations would best suit it.

“We develop a plan, see what’s there, what’s not and where it fits,” Garland said.

“What property do we have close to it? Do we have staff close to it or not? Then, we decide where we want to go from there.

“With hunting seasons, most of the time, the first cut we consider is whether to open it up to statewide seasons. That keeps everything simple and provides the most opportu-

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nity. Sometimes you can’t do that for various reasons such as the size of the area, proximity to large population centers, etc.”

Discussion of a new area’s regulations involves upper management in the wildlife division, program coordinators, regional coordinators and field biologists exchanging ideas.

It’s not always possible to enact longterm regulations in time for an upcoming hunting season, so the department may establish temporary seasons and regulations in the meantime. These regulations allow hunters to use the area until the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission can vote on recommendations for more permanent regulations.

In general, it takes a minimum of four months from the time a new regulation is filed until it becomes effective.

Bluegrass Region Coordinator Derek Beard and Deer and Elk Program Coordinator Gabe Jenkins spent time on the Rolling Fork WMA property before determining it was safe to open the property to modern

gun season for deer under temporary regulations for 2016. Rolling Fork joined Marion County WMA as the only areas in the Bluegrass Region open under statewide regulations for hunting deer with modern firearms.

“We can’t allow modern gun hunting on all of our WMAs in the Bluegrass Region because of overcrowding concerns,” Beard said. “Gabe and I went down, drove the area, walked some of it and evaluated it, looking at the terrain features. We felt we could safely allow modern gun hunting on it.”

As for what’s next for Rolling Fork WMA now that it’s open, Garland said region staff will develop a long-range strategy for managing the new area.

“They did a good job finding this one,” said Scott Buser, Bluegrass Region public lands biologist. “It’s kind of neat and refreshing when you get a new WMA like this.

You’ve got new property that you yourself can help determine the course it’s going to take.”

- Kevin Kelly

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