CADDO COUNTY
A water-use permit has been approved for development of a wetland in Caddo County to attract birds – ducks and geese in particular.
Mallard Mecca Farm LLC received permission from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board to pump up to 199 million gallons of groundwater per year to irrigate crops and to create a wetland during the waterfowl hunting season on 468 acres on the south side of Fort Cobb Lake just below the dam.
HUNTING SEASON
The property has seven ponds that are replenished from three wells that penetrate the Rush Springs Aquifer, said Phil Hinch of Tulsa. During hunting season, the ponds will be flooded in order to attract waterfowl, he said.
Hinch, his brother, a high-school friend, and two other men – all from the Tulsa area – created their partnership company six years ago, records indicate.
“We bought this land primarily for hunting ducks and geese,” said Hinch, a real estate developer/broker. However, “I love watching them as much as anything.”
Serendipity led to their acquisition of the property.
One of the partners “knew some people in a duck and goose hunting club” in the Fort Cobb area, Hinch recalled.
“On the morning of our first day hunting, I took a county road and drove past a farm where ducks and geese were pouring into the place. I told one of the guys, ‘We ought to buy that place if it ever comes up for sale.’ Two or three months later it did, and we did.”
The partners lease their property to farmers who plant, irrigate and harvest grains such as corn and millet after the waterfowl hunting season closes, Hinch said. “But no cotton,” he quipped.