A beautiful state forest, full of great habitat for birds in the winter months. Located in Vinton, Hocking and Athens counties, st. rt. 278 bisects the forest, I enter from the south and past Lake Hope State Park. There are several areas to park, but since I was backpacking I parked in the designated parking lot. The ecosystem consists of a mixed-mesophytic, beech-maple and pockets of aspen and popular hardwoods, a few conifers scattered on well-drained slopes. The forest has past and present wildlife management practice. There is turkey management areas and wildlife areas. I feel to see more birds and wildlife fall and spring season would be the best time. Also to see more flora species. Birds seen on the trail: Forest..... House Sparrow Field Sparrow Canada Geese seen on Lake Hope & unnamed wetland (with open water)in the southeast section possible snow geese (2) couldn't ID, seen at same wetland swamp sparrow back into forest... red tail hawk American Crow wild turkey (heard call) Was hoping and planning on seeing a, ruffed grouse, but I think the time of year and weather conditions didn't yield the bird. Happy Trails, Jeremiah W. Roth Conservation Biology Geographer (GIS) Kent State University [log in to unmask] Jan. 03, 2008 ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]