Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Autauga County Forestry and Wildlife Stewardship Council along with the Autauga County Extension hosted their annual Fall Landowner Tour in Billingsley this week.
The tour started with breakfast provided by Riverbank & Trust, the Alabama Ag Credit and Trustmark Bank. The tour was on the property owned by David and Virginia Reed in Billingsley.
Every year the Autauga County Forestry & Wildlife Stewardship Council with the Alabama Forestry Foundation host multiple events centered around education and stewardship of the resources Autauga County has to offer.
On the Reed property, the tour focused on education regarding pond management for quality fishing, bobwhite quail habitat and the basics surrounding the upkeep of that environment on the property, bird dog essentials as well as forestry practices with a focus on Alabama reptiles.
To kick things off, after breakfast Jimmy Stiles, a herpetologist with Alabama Reptiles, shared his wealth of information regarding reptiles and other animals and ecosystems localized to Autauga County.
Stiles stated that snakes are vastly misunderstood, and actually help the natural processes and ecosystems thrive not only in Autauga County, but throughout the entirety of Alabama.
Trice Nichols, a member of the volunteer Autauga Forestry and Wildlife Stewardship Council thanked the Reed family for being willing to have everyone out on their property. Nichols also stated that education is at the root of everything they do on the council, and he is excited for more events to come in 2025.
During the tour, participants were loaded up onto deck over trailers, equipped with benches and ample views of the Reed’s beautiful property.
“This is something that I like to see people enjoying outdoors and seeing what you can do. The more people that come out to see this, the more programs you can do and the way you can learn and find out what you can do to help wildlife, land management and stewardship of land is really important. Autauga County is a rural county and if we’re not taking care of it now, no one will want to take care of it later,” property owner David Reed said.
Reed has a two and a half to three-acre pond, where one of the presentations was done during the event, Reed also stated that he has multiple kennels on the property for his bird dogs and the training of bird dogs. Which was also another presentation done on the property. However, Reed stated that they originally bought this property years ago and fixed up the old house to be livable to get away on the weekends.
Now, the property is a stunning farm, with more than one beautiful house on the property. Reed stated with a smile that he just loves to play on the property.
“Autauga County has always meant a lot to me. My ancestors are all from here and we still have old family land here too with houses my grandfather and great grandfather lived in. This whole county just means a whole lot to me, and I just want to leave it a better place than we found it,” Reed said.
