I manage about 8,200 acres for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. Some of the property is in Fant's Grove, some is in the Townville area, and the rest is around Lake Keowee. My job is to attract wildlife to the properties for outdoor enthusiasts to enjoy. Hunters are one of the primary groups that enjoy the properties, but these days, outdoor enthusiasts might also be interested in photography, rock-climbing, kayaking, fishing, hiking, or camping.

Some days, I come in to work early, and some days I leave late. I usually work 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., but when you love your job, you don't watch the clock. As long as you're doing your job, the biologists who oversee your work allow flexible hours. When I'm at home, I'm doing the same thing I do at work--growing crops and seeing what kinds of wildlife I get.

Although my official title is Wildlife Technician, I work a lot with agriculture, and I attract game animals like ducks, deer, and quail through the way I set up crops. Game animals like undergrowth; so I give it to them. The areas I manage contain a lot of planted pines that are grown for harvesting. After a group of trees is hauled away, I come out to the land where they were cut and use a bulldozer to remove any stumps or fallen trees that were left behind. Later, I drive a tractor out to the clearing and plant crops like millet, sorghum, and corn. The crops grow up and die, and their seeds fall to the ground--that's an ideal quail habitat. The undergrowth makes the birds less visible to predators, and there's plenty of food. Creating a habitat for quail is similar to creating one for ducks.

At the property I manage in Townville, I plant corn, sorghum, and millet. After that grows up, I flood the land with water. With a ready supply of food, the flooded cropland makes an ideal habitat for ducks. The Townville property draws a variety of ducks including ring-necks, mallards, gadwall, widgeon, wood ducks, and others. One of the problems we run into on the Townville property is beavers.

They like to swim right up to tree trunks and eat the bark. When we try to drain the water off of the property--to give it time to dry before it's planted again, beavers will do all they can to keep the water there. To keep them from interfering with the habitat, we trap the beavers and remove them from the property; sometimes, we remove "nuisance animals" as large as bears. When a habitat is finally established, it is ready to be hunted.

When I'm managing a hunt, I open up the property for the hunters and check to make sure they abide by the rules. Department of Natural Resources properties are public lands with rules for when the land can be hunted and how it can be hunted. We do all we can to make our activities safe and enjoyable for anyone who wants to hunt. That's why we built wheelchair-accessible duck stands on the Townville property.

I also speak in schools to help young people learn about my job. I might bring antlers or an alligator with me when I'm asked to speak. One year, I nursed a black bear cub back to life, and for a while I took it with me to speak at assemblies.