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April 2015

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Subject:
From:
Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 14 Apr 2015 10:13:40 -0400
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The Shawnee is managed by ODNR's Division of Forestry. The Division of
Wildlife has a different mission, and I imagine it properly should take
more effort and time to secure permission for harvesting trees on its
properties. The money should be less of an incentive. Because the DOW
commits a lot of effort to serving hunters (and of course wildlife), it
has to balance the income that timber harvests provide against its
mission to foster wildlife--from mushrooms to deer. Huntable species
like deer and turkeys kinda like dense forests, but the DOW is fond of
promoting the early growth following clear-cuts as habitat for the
ruffed grouse; here there are of course at least double monetary
incentives--money from the timber industry, and from grouse licenses.
Grouses are getting harder and harder to find, though, despite lots more
clear-cuts. The theory that thinned-down forests promote grouse habitat
is perhaps convenient for a state land manager, but maybe not for a
grouse. Our senior ornithologist Wheaton wrote long ago that this
species "was formerly much more numerous and widely distributed than
now, and has decreased in numbers with the rapid clearing away of
timbered lands" (1882:p.447). Trautman seems to have accepted the ODW
line, but had to reveal it didn't make much sense: in his "Birds of
Buckeye Lake" (1940:223) he writes: "The original forests, with their
cover and abundance of berries and other foods, presented a favorable
environment. Later, when the forests were replaced by brushlands and
clearings, conditions should have become more favorable, and it seems
probable that the grouse then became more numerous that (sic) it had
been at the advent of the white man." Without explanation, he goes on to
say that "the species was very numerous between 1860 and 1870, that it
decreased sharply in abundance between 1875 and 1885, and that by 1890
it had become rare or absent."
        My view is that we have a boatload of clearcuts in Ohio already, some
of them covered in asphalt to be sure, but if we continue to regard the
ragged remnants of the original forests as tree farms our wildlife will
continue to disappear.
Bill Whan


On 4/13/2015 1:19 PM, Brad Perkins wrote:
> I recently had an ODNR Division of Wildlife employee complain to me
> about the amount of effort and time it took to get timber harvests,
> including clearcuts, approved on ODNR Division of Wildlife
> properties. His professional opinion is that a whole tree chipping
> contractor, doing a series of patch (5 to 20 acres in size)
> clearcuts, in one week can do more to enhance wildlife(including game
> and non-game species of birds) numbers and diversity, than he would
> be able to do in his entire career using other wildlife habitat
> enhancement methods. I have had first hand experience with several of
> these projects, and am very impressed with the results, both for the
> timber regrowth and for the improvement in wildlife habitat and
> diversity.
>
> Brad Perkins
>
> Nashport, Ohio

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