Newspaper Page Text
Index
News 2,3,7,10
Obituaries 3
Opinion 4
Sheriff's Report 5
Around the County 6
Calendar 8
Legals 9
Sports 11
Inside
Elijah Hood is one of two
returning running backs for the
Oglethorpe County football
team, which wants to build on
last fall's success when it begins
spring practice on May 2.
...Page 11
The Oglethorpe Echo
Volume 149, Number 28
April 13, 2023 ■ Oglethorpe County, Georgia
$1
Free relationship education
program reconnects couples
ByGianna Rodriguez
and Shelby Wingate
The Oglethorpe Echo
Seven couples fill the small
space that will be their classroom
for the next hour and a half. Every
one is used to the routine: they sign
in, grab dinner for the whole fami
ly and the couple then takes a seat
at the large, square table while kids
go to child care.
After they finish dinner, Lynn
Hear Elevate
Experiences
WATCH: Couples talk about
how the program has af
fected their relationships at
theoqlethorpeecho.coml
Dixson, the facilitator, begins class
by introducing the module for the
week and reminding everyone of
the “Vegas rule” — whatever is
said in the room, stays in the room.
The Elevate program is a free,
eight-week course that guides couples
to reconnect and develop their parent
ing skills through the UGA Extension
Office. It’s part of Brightpaths, a par
enting organization in Athens.
Elevate educates between 30 and
40 couples a year in the Athens area.
See EDUCATION, Page 11
GIANNA RODRIGUEZ/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO
Seven couples engage in an activity about maintaining strong
connections in an Elevate class last month. Elevate is an eight-
week program focused on reconnecting couples.
Growth
industry
New Wolfskin Growers
owner overcomes
weather, high prices
By Jack Rhodes
The Oglethorpe Echo
The spring growing season has arrived, but
cold weather and high prices persist.
Wolfskin Growers, a nursery and land
scaping company on Double Bridges Road in
Winterville, has faced numerous challenges
since new owner David Browning took over
about a year ago, but he remains encouraged.
“What you see now is a total transforma
tion from what it was,” Browning said, refer
ring to the nursery's facilities.
Browning bought Wolfskin Growers from
the previous owners to vertically integrate it
with his landscaping business and utilize the
nursery, getting rid of the “middle man” in
the retail market.
Unfortunately for him, there have been
many industry-wide challenges that have
come in his first year as owner. Rising pric
es have affected the entire industry, and Wolf
skin Growers is no exception.
“Things have slowed down because the
cost of everything has gone up, and there
isn’t much we can do about it,” said Morgan
Rue, the nursery manager.
Additionally, the shortage of materials,
such as baskets, has slowed production, caus
ing a strain on the workload as the staff pre
pares for its busiest time of the year.
The recent cold fronts, with temperatures
dropping into the 30s, also have had a nega
tive impact.
“It hit all of our stuff really hard, all of that
was green and now it is gone, and it’s not
coming back,” Browning said.
“It snapped a lot of plants, it’s really messed
with the agricultural industry,” Rue added.
To ensure the health of its plants, Wolfskin
Growers implemented an irrigation system
See GROWTH, Page 5
11 v •- T- f .
JACK RHODES/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO
Wolfskin Growers, which has been under
the ownership of David Browning for the
past year, keeps an assortment of flow
ers inside its heated greenhouses, which
prevents damages from the cold weather.
Turkey season
gets makeover
State hopes new rules reverse trends
in hunters, harvested birds
Tommy Nimmons, a junior at
Oglethorpe County High
School, showcases his
current taxidermy job,
which happens to be
a turkey tail, earlier
this month. Nimmons
is the son of Andy
Nimmons, who owns
Andy Nimmons Taxi
dermy.
ALEX BAVOSA/
THE OGLETHORPE
ECHO
By Alex Bavosa
The Oglethorpe Echo
Andy Nimmons, an Oglethorpe Coun
ty taxidermist and experienced hunter, said
he knows why both turkey populations and
turkey hunting participation have declined
throughout Georgia.
“First, you got varmints such as coyotes,
raccoons and opossums. These varmints
will come in and they love to eat all the
eggs, so that just destroys a flock,” he said.
“If people aren't controlling these preda
tors, you are not going to have hot turkey
numbers.”
With that in mind, the Georgia Depart
ment of Natural Resources has made two
big changes to turkey season, which start
ed this month.
The first includes lowering the harvest
ing quota for turkeys from three per season
to two, with only one bird allowed to be
harvested per day.
The second change shortened the hunt
ing season by a week.
Instead of starting in late March, turkey
season will start in early April going for
ward. This year, the statewide turkey hunt
ing season opened April 1 for private land.
For public lands, including Wildlife Man
agement Areas and National Forest land, it
started April 8.
The changes were enacted to help re
Harvest Rate [turkeys b a [vested/ hunter) 2001-2021
Rale
■■ Linear 1 Hm\ch Rate!
ALEX BAVOSA/
THE OGLETHORPE ECHO
verse massive declines in both hunter par
ticipation and turkeys harvested the past
two years.
According to Georgia DNR’s 2022
Statewide Turkey Harvest report, an es
timated 37,568 hunters hunted wild tur
key in 2022; down 31% from 2021. These
hunters harvested an estimated 10,970
gobblers in 2022, a 40% decrease from the
previous year.
The main reason for the changes is to
rebuild the turkey populations around the
state, with hopes to increase hunting par
ticipation as a result. But Nimmons, who
owns Andy Nimmons Taxidermy in Lex
ington, doesn’t buy into the strategy.
“Deer hunting to turkey hunting is a
100-to-l. For every 100 deer hunters,
there may be one turkey hunter,” he said.
“Deer hunting is what everybody lives
and breathes for. I mean, would you rath
er harvest a couple turkeys a year or a cou
ple deer? You get more meat, and it's easi
er with deer.”
Stewart Sanders, a manager at
Oglethorpe Feed and Hardware Supply,
said it’s business as usual dining this time
of year.
“On Thursday, Friday and Saturday
of deer season, we will be slammed with
deer hunters coming in and buying corn
and other stuff to plant,” he said. “We stay
covered up that time of year. But, as far as
turkey season goes, it is not like that.”
Nimmons said he feels the same as
Sanders, as he described his taxidermy
business as “steady” during turkey season.
Emily Rushton, the Wildlife Resources
Division wild turkey project coordinator,
said turkey populations are headed in the
right direction.
“Statewide reproduction in 2021 was
above the average we’ve seen in the last
decade, which means we should have
more 2-year-old birds in the woods,”
Rushton said. “While still lower than what
we saw prior to the mid-1990s, the aver
age number of poults per hen was high
er statewide than it has been since 2011,
which is a good sign for this year’s turkey
season.”
Homes • Land • Farm
Home & Land Man Realty
Your Rural Realtor
Phil Wilson ~ 678-791-3483
serving
Greater Athens
Properties
bpPOtrfuKirr
for Rural Real Estate
>