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 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]