Birding Friends, Sorry to read of Mark's report and a lack of ruffed grouse in Zaleski. If successional habitat alone created grouse, Zaleski should be teaming with them. ODNR even advertises "Excess Lumber For Sale to Public at Zaleski State Forest" on their Forestry website. There is no shortage of successional habitat* in Ohio. The private lands which provide the 95% of timber products produced in Ohio are all successional. Private property owner are certainly encouraged to manage and produce timber products on their lands- if they choose. However, old-growth habitat is arguably the rarest habitat in Ohio. One would hope our State Forests would be managed for the needs of the future, not as the 1950 models dictate. Let's leave the timbering to private land owners. Ohio needs our contiguous forests to provide for biodiversity- like box turtles and bobcats. Mohican Forest has one small parcel of old-growth trees protected as a State Nature Preserve. Other lands at Mohican are schedule to be timbered this year. Timbering will not help Mohican's tourist base. Those successional lands created by timbering will not produce grouse either, as we have not seen a grouse in Mohican for at least 20 years. This year Hocking Hills' Forest came very close to losing a large old stand of oaks and mixed hardwoods to the saw. However, the Hocking Hills Tourism Association challenged Forestry's idea of management and the timbering is on hold for a year. Tourists now have a little time to go and enjoy a last view of these trees, in case Forestry decides to follow through with the cut next year. Ohio Ornithological Society (the owner of this list-serv) as well as Black Swamp Bird Observatory, Mohican Advocates, Ohio Environmental Council, Flora-Quest and North Central Ohio Land Conservancy have been joined by the Hocking Hill Tourism Association in calling for rededicating Ohio's State Forestry System. If you are under the mistaken assumption that Ohio's Division of Forestry is strictly protecting forests lands, you need to know O.D.F. is timbering them, too. Let's find better ways of raising funds for local schools and fire departments than cutting down our natural heritage for a short term profit. The tourism tax dollars in Ohio's most visited State Forests far out produces timbering as an economic driver. "Hugging" our old trees makes good economic sense and drives eco-tourism commerce. More importantly to this list-serv, the birds like trees too. Nature will provide for natural succession, it always has. Cheryl Harner OOS Conservation Chair *Seen today in my succession sub-urban yard: Northern Cardinals, Tufted Titmice, Downey Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, American Robins, American Goldfinches and others. -----Original Message----- From: Marc Behrendt Sent: Friday, October 02, 2015 9:39 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [Ohio-birds] ruffed grouse As a follow up for ruffed grouse reports, I spent Sunday, Sept 27 in Zaleski State Forest, and did not hear any drumming, nor did I flush any birds. I remember "the old days" when grouse were common. ______________________________________________________________________ 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] --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus ______________________________________________________________________ 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]