Improving habitat on our WMAs.

[Bucksnbows]

By 'logging' you are really saying - good forestry management from the look of things.

Yes, which is lost on the antis. They think of this as a huge money maker for the timber industry of which there is none in our state. There are very few sawlogs coming off of these properties. Most of this goes to firewood although some of the larger poles will go to the mills. But those mills are in Pennsylvania and have lots of shipping costs associated with getting product there. Neither the state nor the forester or logger will make any real money on these forestry practices. It is just about being good stewards to the forest for a change.


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[LPJR]

46 minutes ago, Bucksnbows said:

 

Yes, which is lost on the antis. They think of this as a huge money maker for the timber industry of which there is none in our state. There are very few sawlogs coming off of these properties. Most of this goes to firewood although some of the larger poles will go to the mills. But those mills are in Pennsylvania and have lots of shipping costs associated with getting product there. Neither the state nor the forester or logger will make any real money on these forestry practices. It is just about being good stewards to the forest for a change.


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This was a battle that was publicized with lots of drama. Glad to see science taking precedence with regard to this project.

[Greybeard]

On 3/27/2019 at 3:19 PM, Rusty said:

The loggers have just completed this year's cut on Sparta Mountain.  

Worth scouting? Over hunted?

[Bucksnbows]

Worth scouting? Over hunted?

Sparta Mountain WMA is no different than any other WMA in NJ. Deer are hammered 5 months out of the year in that zone. Add bears, coyotes and bobcats to that predator list.


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[Nomad]

On 2/14/2019 at 3:33 PM, Rusty said:

 

This is literally "right out my backdoor", so I am thrilled to say the least.  

    

 

Why do you like that out your backdoor?  I would like big mature forest out my backdoor.

[hunterbob1]

7 minutes ago, Nomad said:

Why do you like that out your backdoor?  I would like big mature forest out my backdoor.

With power lines

[Bucksnbows]

1 hour ago, Nomad said:

Why do you like that out your backdoor?  I would like big mature forest out my backdoor.

Except that Nj has zero acres of that.  But most don't understand forest health, so no surprise.  Our Highlands, Ridge & Valley, Piedmont and other physiographic regions of the state lack forest diversity in species and age composition.  Also, many native trees such as the American chestnut were wiped out by blight, radically changing the forest we see today.  If I were to take you into nearly every forest in the northern half of the state, nearly all trees will be within 10-20 years of each other in that stand.  Understory will be heavily browsed by deer with exceptions more recently in heavily hunted areas (hunted for deer numbers, not just racks).  I could go on for a long time about forest species of birds and other terrestrials that have disappeared or nearly so due to our lack of forest diversity.  A healthy forest is a mix of young, early successional growth, shrub and herbaceous lined (less so under significan canopy), and some older growth which we have something like 82 acres left throughout the entire state.  I could be off by as much as 100 acres, but we are still talking about less than 1/1,000 of 1% ofall NJ forests.  What you see is a biological mess of sorts, exacerbated by foreign invasive plants and at more recent time, too many deer browsing too few acres. 

But the great news here is that the photo Rusty showed first is the immediate aftermath of recreating early successional forest growth for a myriad of plant and animal species by logging nearly all trees in an irregular cut and leaving enough "seed trees" behind to cover your butt in case deer hammer your natural regeneration and the cut has to be fenced.  That has not been the case on Sparta Mountain for what it's worth.  The forest rebounds in the very first growing season and looks great, and different.  You notice song birds you never saw before and turkeys strutting in the new openings.  Box turtles where nothing but a high forest canopy and deer kept out most any forest undergrowth and where little lived compared to more diverse habitat types nearby.

Deer are key to modern forestry management in states like NJ and they have to be planned for.  I (along with my buddies) had to kill 9 deer off a 107 or so acre parcel next to the WMA the first year after my first 5 acre clearcut (a.k.a. -modified seed tree harvest).  The local herds had peaked in numbers, and that was about 8 years ago, right after my 1st and at the beginning of my 2nd and 3rd clearcuts.  But that is also around when zone 6 got more liberal bag limits, added to EAB season, etc. and now we don't have as many as the habitat can hold instead of too many as we had for a relatively brief time.  Normal for us is 1-3 deer per year, with a max of 1 doe lately since our numbers are down right now.  But the WMA takes care of itself because it does get a lot of hunting pressure, especially gun seasons.  Archery is far lighter pressure as it is everywhere for the simple fact that we have 4-6 months to get out and scratch that itch instead of 6 Day, or muzzleloader or permit shotgun (3 days). 

Let me dig up some photos to show what things look like and post them later.  Let's just say I'm hesitant to say too much about how radically it changes the game and habitat on your property since I butt up to state land on the property I manage for a close friend.     

  

[Rusty]

2 hours ago, Nomad said:

Why do you like that out your backdoor?  I would like big mature forest out my backdoor.

"Right out my backdoor" is actually a few hundred yards back, I can't see it from the house.  And I like it because these cuts grow into thick areas that provide much better habitat for the critters than open woods with no understory.  Better habitat produces better critters.  

[Bucksnbows]

I'm gathering photos now that show the process and progress.  I fear a bunch are on my old laptop still and I will have to dig them up there.  

[Rusty]

2 hours ago, hunterbob1 said:

With power lines

The power lines are half a mile from the house.  We can't see them from the house.  

[Nomad]

26 minutes ago, Bucksnbows said:

Except that Nj has zero acres of that. 

Zero mature forests?

[Bucksnbows]

1 minute ago, Nomad said:

Zero mature forests?

Not zero, but a very tiny percentage as I mentioned.  Here's the current list of old growth forest which is different than "mature forest":

https://www.nj.com/inside-jersey/2014/05/nj_old-growth_forests_trees_untouched_for_hundreds_of_years.html

The good news is that we will have more old growth forest in most of our lifetimes by the sheer fact that we no longer need to cut every single tree to the ground for fuel or timber, and some of those trees will now make it to old age.  But mature forest habitat I'm not sure we have expect on heavily managed properties which I know is rare.  It means timber stand improvement (TSI) cuts, crown releases on certain canopy, mast trees like oaks, modified seed tree harvests (MST) which are the nearly a clearcut, planting native species, and the everlasting battle with invasive species which is ongoing and oft changing.  I have seen on my property the virtual extinction of the American chestnut which would have made up 90% of Sparta Mountain's forest with oaks and hickories filling nearly all of the remaining 10% and all others clamoring for a percent or two.  Today, maples, white pines, black birch, poplars, and others make up a significant percentage of the forest.  So just by the fact that the major, overly dominant forest genotype, the American chestnut is gone, we can't have a mature forest in the historical sense.  At least not until that species is reintroduced in significant enough numbers once they can get the newly disease resistant strains back to something very close to the original but with the ability to fight the blight.  Then add 200 years of time.  The word "mature" now takes on a distinctly new meaning for states like NJ whereby the forest is in some equilibrium with the invasives although new foreign invaders hit us all the time it seems these days with the global trade we have become reliant upon.  And the forest has to have a blend of mixed aged stands of trees, meaning they are all not within 20 years of each other like we see today, to be considered mature.  The 20 year or so age spread of our forests is a direct product of cutting down nearly 100% of our forests by the turn of the last century, and many of those forests were cut down 100% at least 2 - 4 times since settlers arrived until the early 1900s.   There is a ton of written material on all of this,  especially here in NJ where settlers have been for a long time in large numbers compared to most of the current US and where logging was chronicled by historians over the decades.       

[Rusty]

32 minutes ago, Nomad said:

Zero mature forests?

The vast majority of our forests are between 80 - 100 years old.  Mature but not old growth.  

Sometimes BnBs uses too many words.  

[Rusty]

3 hours ago, Greybeard said:

Worth scouting? Over hunted?

You seem to like hunting big woods and working hard for your deer so it would be worth it for you.  It's not over hunted at all but by the very nature of the habitat and the overabundance of bears and coyotes there are not a lot of deer.  You have to put your time in to find them.    

Together, Sparta Mountain, Hamburg Mountain, and the Watershed make up one giant tract of big woods.  

Edited March 30, 2019 by Rusty

[Nomad]

19 minutes ago, Rusty said:

The vast majority of our forests are between 80 - 100 years old.  Mature but not old growth.  

Sometimes BnBs uses too many words.  

Aren't you the guy that started the poisenous/venomous snake crap also?

I'm talking about looking out your window and seeing beautiful big trees as opposed to a raped landscape! lol