Luke Macaulay

Extension faculty @UofMaryland. Helping landowners & land managers improve wildlife habitat and bring back bobwhites.

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

We can solve conservation problems, but we need to do more than simply preserving natural areas and leaving them alone.

Unmanaged natural areas can provide acceptable habitat, but usually far from optimal.

There’s a few reasons for that:

1. land use change and development has so altered the landscape that we need to actively work to represent a diversity of habitats in conserved areas.

2. Natural processes like fire, grazing from native herbivores, and predation by apex predators, which interacted to shape vegetation diversity, are usually absent.

3. Invasive species can dramatically reduce the habitat value of an area

4. A lot of our forests were harvested 80 to 100 years ago, and we now have relatively even-aged stands that lack age and structural diversity needed to support a diversity of wildlife.

Despite all this, we have the knowledge and ability to manage natural areas to support greater biodiversity and abundance.

It often involves targeted disturbance. Warning some of these may surprise you:

-Strategic timber harvest to create structural and species diversity and establish forest understory.

-Herbicide for invasive and undesirable plants,

-Prescribed fire to maintain open grassland areas,

-Timed disking to stimulate wildflowers, and/or

-Targeted grazing to mimic historical herbivory and reduce grass dominance.

Determining how to apply these tools can take a lot of nuance and should be done with forethought, but they can make dramatic improvements for some of our most declining wildlife species.

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

@pmarca I thought that was parody…. But it’s not…

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

@JTLonsdale Also includes Russian Hill. 👍

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

@realDrTT @SteveStuWill @FriedrichHayek When did you come out of the closet? Asking for a friend. 😂

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

@DataLucky @BRRRRcollects @unusual_whales Lukasz knows!

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

@elonmusk Agree, and I love FSD, but when will my Tesla insurance rates drop to 1/8 the price? 😂

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

@Founder_Mode_ Amazing. Changes what I think is possible.

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

@DrKellyHDunning @ryan_dane Congrats!

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

@Brandon_Hubbard @unusual_whales 😂👍

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

@farm_play I wonder how much Phragmites expansion might have impacted them negatively.

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

We can solve conservation problems, but we need to do more than simply preserving natural areas and leaving them alone.

Unmanaged natural areas can provide acceptable habitat, but usually far from optimal.

There’s a few reasons for that:

1. land use change and development has so altered the landscape that we need to actively work to represent a diversity of habitats in conserved areas.

2. Natural processes like fire, grazing from native herbivores, and predation by apex predators, which interacted to shape vegetation diversity, are usually absent.

3. Invasive species can dramatically reduce the habitat value of an area

4. A lot of our forests were harvested 80 to 100 years ago, and we now have relatively even-aged stands that lack age and structural diversity needed to support a diversity of wildlife.

Despite all this, we have the knowledge and ability to manage natural areas to support greater biodiversity and abundance.

It often involves targeted disturbance. Warning some of these may surprise you:

-Strategic timber harvest to create structural and species diversity and establish forest understory.

-Herbicide for invasive and undesirable plants,

-Prescribed fire to maintain open grassland areas,

-Timed disking to stimulate wildflowers, and/or

-Targeted grazing to mimic historical herbivory and reduce grass dominance.

Determining how to apply these tools can take a lot of nuance and should be done with forethought, but they can make dramatic improvements for some of our most declining wildlife species.

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

@unusual_whales No context. Cheap shot. Do better.

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

@elonmusk That’s awesome. Wonder if that’s a factor causing ghost braking for shadows on the road. For me, FSD updates have advanced performance except that exception.

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

@elonmusk Yes, wishing you and the Spacex team the best for your next launch. Can’t wait.

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

Rapid tree id by flower timing.

Black Locust blooms are winding down now on the Eastern Shore.

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

Two more native trees —both great for wildlife—that you can identify from their showy flowers this time of year.

1. Black cherry (first 2 pics)

2. Flowering dogwood (last 2 pics)

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

Right = habitat

Left ≠ habitat

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

Always fun when you see these little dinosaurs show up in your back yard.

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

@elonmusk The last bar at 1.14 is taller than the previous at 1.24, please fix the figure.

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

@MispillionFarms It was an awesome few days. I highly recommend Quailmasters and following the work of Dr. Rollins and the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation!

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

Was great meeting one of the foremost quail experts in the country: Dr. Dale Rollins.

Session 1 of Quailmasters at the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch is wrapped up.

3 to go in South Texas east Texas and the panhandle.

[Luke Macaulay @LukeRangeWalker]

My Xfinity kept lagging and dropping in the middle of zoom calls. So I got a Starlink, works great, and a month later I got a Starlink mini for my car so I can have internet when I’m out in rural areas. No more crappy phone tethering issues when I need internet out in the field. Both amazing products. And it’s even cheaper than Xfinity!