As a geologist, and as a birder I would like to add my two cents worth to
this discussion. A very important factor, one usually completely ignored by
foresters and wildlife managers alike, (at least the ones I have talked to)
is the soil and geology of the areas considered for clear cutting. The soil
chemistry and parent material (in this case the bedrock from which the soil
is derived) varies rather broadly in areas of the Shawnee State Forest.

Another factor in the discussion, unfortunately, is resources and jobs in
an area that is essentially Appalachia without coal.

Of particular concern to me are the steep slopes represented by the Ohio
Shale Formation, a black Devonian shale that incidentally is the
surface-correlative formation as the now famous or notorious Marcellus
Shale, that of fracking note. This black, carbonaceous shale makes for very
poor soil that is very slow to recover when disturbed. It is at worst
poisonous or at best sterile, and it takes a very long time to establish
anything remotely resembling fertile ground on it.

I cut my professional geological teeth on a field study of the black shale
(potentially oil shale) of this formation in Scioto, Adams, Pike, Highland,
and Ross Counties. I did this for the now-defunct Ohio Department of
Energy. In doing so I spent the summer of 1981 driving around the
backroads, finding the precise locations of water wells for which the
Division of Water had stratigraphic records. Drillers are supposed to
submit such reports with each and every well drilled, and when potentially
interesting strata are encountered these records can serve as the data for
reconstructing the bedrock geology of an area, basically a technique for
find "virtual outcrops" in an area where actual outcrops are scarce.

Locating water wells entailed talking to the locals. So 27-year-old Bob
Evans also conducted, by default, a social survey of the same areas. As I
stated, it is Appalachia without coal. One fellow building a garage
remarked, "If you don't have a trade, you are **** out of luck! In fact,
even if you do have a trade it is hard to find work." And so there is the
timber industry. Trees are one of the only local resources, thus one of the
only local sources of money and jobs.

Saying that, this is not terribly different than issues we birders have
with timbering the rainforests of the world, or bad agriculture, or any
number of similar topics. Sometimes, forestry is practiced in a way that is
"renewable" or at least produces a result that in a few years resembles a
"natural" landscape again. Sometimes, such as when clearcutting is
practiced on soil that has a nearly sterile parent material, it can result
in damage that could take a century to recover to a reasonably "natural"
state. The men cutting the trees don't know or think about the bedrock
under the dirt. The companies cutting the trees don't care to know. There
is a big difference between the slopes near the Scioto River in the central
sections of Scioto and Pike Counties and the slopes in the western parts of
those counties and further west in Adams and Highland.

I have not been back to this part of the state in twenty years except for
brief day-trips to Serpent Mound. And I have not studied it in detail or
known it intimately for over thirty. My geological work occurred at a time
in my life between my boyhood interest in birds and when I took up
"birding" (ie. started keeping lists) when I turned 40 in 1994. But I
remember essentially barren slopes that had been clear cut more than ten
years previously, and then looked like badlands. And I remember the birds,
families of turkeys on Bracken Ridge, vultures sunning themselves in the
morning, a phoebe singing at my motel in Friendship, and the barred owl
that startled me in broad daylight in the forest along Lower Twin Creek. I
saw the owl a half hour after I retreated from a rattlesnake, a completely
non-aggressive rattler, but one from which I prudently decided to retreat.
It was coiled on a rock in the shade along the creek on a very hot
afternoon, and neither of us wanted much to do with the other.

It was wild country.

Bob Evans
Geologist, etc.
Hopewell Township, Muskingum County




On Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 8:19 AM, Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Yes, it is sad to imagine the state of the forests before we arrived to
> improve them.  Give me a break....
> Bill Whan
> Columbus
>
> On 4/12/2015 9:49 PM, Alan Walter wrote:> There is no doubt that seeing
>
> a fresh clearcut is extremely jarring.  I, also, used to believe that
> they were environmentally devasting but have changed my opinion for 3
> main reasons:
> >
> > 1.  Amanda Rodewald, formerly of OSU and now at Cornell Ornithology
> Lab, is an amazingly good birder and someone whose opinion I deeply
> respect.  A few years ago she wrote an excellent report titled "Managing
> Forest Birds in Southeast Ohio: A Guide for Land Managers" which was
> based on years of research.  I don't know if this listserv will allow
> hotlinks to be pasted or not but I'll try:
> >
> > http://www.obcinet.org/committees/ForestManagement_web.pdf
> >
> > If the link didn't work, it can be found by Googling the above title.
> >
> > In brief, the report states that woodland breeding birds in Ohio have
> fared fairly well in the last 50 years, whereas early successional and
> grassland dwelling birds have declined significantly, in no small part
> due to habitat loss.  A very surprising finding of the study was that
> even mature forest specialists (e.g., wood thrush and scarlet tanagers)
> are drawn to early successional habitat right after fledging -- probably
> because of the dense cover and abundant food (berries on brambles and
> insects).
> >
> > Early successional habitat is AMAZINGLY short-lived (only about 6
> years before it has matured too much to provide the attraction to early
> successional habitat specialists (e.g., indigo buntings, yellow-breasted
> chat)) so it must be constantly re-disturbed to keep being a bird magnet.
> >
> > Amanda's guide gives specific recommendations on the sizes and
> placement of the clearcuts.  The most value comes from them being pretty
> large and close together.
> >
> > 2. There is a sound silvicultural reason for doing a clearcut;
> specifically there are some species of trees that not only thrive on
> disturbance, they rely on it.  Many species of oak fall into that
> category -- they will not regenerate in great numbers without serious
> disturbance.  Historically it was frequent spring fires but a clearcut
> is a good alternative.  Which brings me to the second person whose
> opinion I deeply respect:  Jim McCormac.  His PowerPoint on the
> importance of forest caterpillars to the health of bird populations is
> amazing.  Oak trees are incredibly important "caterpillar factories" so
> we want to be sure we've got a steady supply of oaks up-and-coming.
> >
> > 3. My own personal experience with driving past a clearcut on the way
> to work.  It looked like Hiroshima about 25 years ago and my opinion
> pretty much was the same as yours..."Shouldn't there be a law against
> that?".  But within 2 years it had probably the prettiest fall foliage
> that I've seen -- the trees had sprouted back so thickly from the stumps
> that you couldn't have walked through the place.  The density of the
> foliage made the intensity of the colors incredible.  Now, 2 decades
> later, the early successional aspect is long gone but it is still a nice
> young forest.  Since then I've learned the first 2 points above that I
> didn't know then.
> >
> >
> > A nice quote from Amanda's publication is:  No matter how a forest is
> managed, whether actively or passively, certain species will be favored
> and others discouraged. The best strategy depends upon the management
> goal.  State forests offer a unique opportunity to do coordinated forest
> management with timelines over a century and create habitat that is in
> significant decline throughout the Appalachian area.  My opinion about
> clearcuts has definitely changed now that I understand the place they
> have in the ecosystem.  Humans too often want to keep things "status
> quo" whereas wildlife has evolved under realms of disturbance and we do
> a disservice to the wildlife by not providing disturbances.
> >
> > Alan Walter
>
> On 4/12/2015 9:49 PM, Alan Walter wrote:
>
>> There is no doubt that seeing a fresh clearcut is extremely jarring.  I,
>> also, used to believe that they were environmentally devasting but have
>> changed my opinion for 3 main reasons:
>>
>> 1.  Amanda Rodewald, formerly of OSU and now at Cornell Ornithology Lab,
>> is an amazingly good birder and someone whose opinion I deeply respect.  A
>> few years ago she wrote an excellent report titled "Managing Forest Birds
>> in Southeast Ohio: A Guide for Land Managers" which was based on years of
>> research.  I don't know if this listserv will allow hotlinks to be pasted
>> or not but I'll try:
>>
>> http://www.obcinet.org/committees/ForestManagement_web.pdf
>>
>> If the link didn't work, it can be found by Googling the above title.
>>
>> In brief, the report states that woodland breeding birds in Ohio have
>> fared fairly well in the last 50 years, whereas early successional and
>> grassland dwelling birds have declined significantly, in no small part due
>> to habitat loss.  A very surprising finding of the study was that even
>> mature forest specialists (e.g., wood thrush and scarlet tanagers) are
>> drawn to early successional habitat right after fledging -- probably
>> because of the dense cover and abundant food (berries on brambles and
>> insects).
>>
>> Early successional habitat is AMAZINGLY short-lived (only about 6 years
>> before it has matured too much to provide the attraction to early
>> successional habitat specialists (e.g., indigo buntings, yellow-breasted
>> chat)) so it must be constantly re-disturbed to keep being a bird magnet.
>>
>> Amanda's guide gives specific recommendations on the sizes and placement
>> of the clearcuts.  The most value comes from them being pretty large and
>> close together.
>>
>> 2. There is a sound silvicultural reason for doing a clearcut;
>> specifically there are some species of trees that not only thrive on
>> disturbance, they rely on it.  Many species of oak fall into that category
>> -- they will not regenerate in great numbers without serious disturbance.
>> Historically it was frequent spring fires but a clearcut is a good
>> alternative.  Which brings me to the second person whose opinion I deeply
>> respect:  Jim McCormac.  His PowerPoint on the importance of forest
>> caterpillars to the health of bird populations is amazing.  Oak trees are
>> incredibly important "caterpillar factories" so we want to be sure we've
>> got a steady supply of oaks up-and-coming.
>>
>> 3. My own personal experience with driving past a clearcut on the way to
>> work.  It looked like Hiroshima about 25 years ago and my opinion pretty
>> much was the same as yours..."Shouldn't there be a law against that?".  But
>> within 2 years it had probably the prettiest fall foliage that I've seen --
>> the trees had sprouted back so thickly from the stumps that you couldn't
>> have walked through the place.  The density of the foliage made the
>> intensity of the colors incredible.  Now, 2 decades later, the early
>> successional aspect is long gone but it is still a nice young forest.
>> Since then I've learned the first 2 points above that I didn't know then.
>>
>>
>> A nice quote from Amanda's publication is:  No matter how a forest is
>> managed, whether actively or passively, certain species will be favored and
>> others discouraged. The best strategy depends upon the management goal.
>> State forests offer a unique opportunity to do coordinated forest
>> management with timelines over a century and create habitat that is in
>> significant decline throughout the Appalachian area.  My opinion about
>> clearcuts has definitely changed now that I understand the place they have
>> in the ecosystem.  Humans too often want to keep things "status quo"
>> whereas wildlife has evolved under realms of disturbance and we do a
>> disservice to the wildlife by not providing disturbances.
>>
>> Alan Walter
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________________
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>>
>>
> ______________________________________________________________________
>
> Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
> Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/
> membership.php.
> Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
>
>
> You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
> listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
> Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]
>

______________________________________________________________________

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