Soils were pretty well left intact. The heavy rainfalls, distributed over weeks, following one storm after another saturated the ground. There was nowhere in the soil for the rainfall to percolate, so the river rose and the land stayed wet. The thick vegetation absorbed the tendency to erode the soils. Shoot, there is very little relief to our FLAT lands in Florida, so waterborne velocity is not the issue for us as it may be for you.
I just read part of your satirical piece for "land management" and have to admit, I am getting there pretty much as you suggest. It takes money and time, especially time, to migrate a fallow property into a Mecca for wildlife. I am not spending the money or taking the time, although I am trying. Sometimes natural events get in the way too, but apathy, children, spouse, house, mortgage, work, and you know the rest take their toll on motivation and loss of momentum toward what is really wanted.
I can say that I have instituted a more rigorous approach this year and started in April instead of late September. I am making progress too, on my own, as my hunting partner and dear friend has emphysema and can barely take 100 paces before being out of breath. Be that as it may, bush hogging wild grape vines in one of what long ago was a meadow (long prior to my ownership) is an attempt to "clear cut" with the tractor, disc, and plow...
...which brings me to an interesting subject for another post - the disc harrow.
Land Owner
If it was easy, anybody could do it."[/b]