Site Discussions

Hi Peggy,

It’s a little known nature fact that, exclusively on April Fool’s Day, mice hatch from eggs.

Amazing work guys!

I got goosebumps while reading your journal and looking at your pictures… Definately a dream of mine to build my own cabin. I started drafting a plan and I’m getting all the knowledge I can through the internet.

As I was reading your journal, I was reading it with Richard’s voice, it was comforting :)

Thanks for sharing,

Jonathan

I have a NW calendar. I wonder if this is an April Fools Day joke. Because today it says “Mice are laying their six to nine eggs about the size, shape and color of puffed wheat.”
Perhaps it a typo…..

Dear Chuck,

This issue has been an interest of mine for over 30 years and I was a founding board member of a land trust in Maryland in the early 80"s.

Historically,  courts have not recognized the public interest in upholding wills and land restrictions prior to easements and many of the most important gifts of will were undone by the courts.

Belts Woods in DC was a 500 acre virgin forest given with the sole purpose of preservation and then destroyed by the Episcopal Church with judicial help that did not recognize public benefit. So the record is not good.

As for experts, they are easy to buy - thus the invention of land trusts was a huge step forward.

Maryland was a leader in land trusts and has written easements with some flexibility in mind as to exemptions for agricultural operations, like grading.
Some house sites are not designated but subject to future siting with general guidelines. (Of course the number of allowed house sites can always change as long as it is fewer.  This would not be an amendment as it could be considered an additional easement as in your cabin case.)

As far as I am aware there are almost always federal gift tax incentives in a donated easement.

We are working on easement wording for conservation burial grounds here in Maryland.  Although best sites are already under easement, we are never proposing to change existing wording - only to find unprotected property and write a new easement allowing this almost zero impact use.

The Vermont effort last year on changing conservation easements was extremely ill-conceived and rightly abandoned.  It would have been a devastating blow to other states and a bad precedent for public trust in conservation easements.
I hope the next effort is a bit more careful.

Sincerely,  Doug Carroll

Could you explain exactly where the air vents are?

Thanks.

I had a grouse attack me and follow me and attack my legs and back. It wasn’t afraid of leave blower or lawn mower. I have apple trees, I think it was intoxicated from eating fermented apples. It stayed around for 3 weeks and tried to dominate me every time I worked in yard. I hunt them and they are always one step ahead of you, hard to shoot. I don’t get it.

I love the story about the history of the mill. I was wanting to know if any one knows where I can find a lock for the paper towel machine that was made back then somewhere around the 1950’s that has the mirror with it. Thanks, John

Ahh! Such a wonderful story of how bear cubs grow. They are near and dear to my heart. I know of five cubs that went into torpor last year. I’m eager to see them on the game cameras this spring (assuming spring will get here) to see how they fared.

Dave:

Interesting article, one small math error: 3/16th tubing is actually 64% smaller than 5/16th, not 36% as stated in the article.

Amazing production from the non-vacuum vacuum tubing. As referenced in the article, 36 gallons per tap - wow!

Sorry, no technical information to offer. But I must say, the numbers involved in making the whole thing work spin my brain!

I have 2 1-year-old Japanese red maple trees I potted last year. I brought them indoors when it started to get cold outside, and they got rid of their leaves in my apartment. They have been indoors in my warm apartment all winter long. They are now growing leaves again. I don’t think the cold timeline has anything to do with them regrowing their leaves. It may be a certain type of sunlight that influences regrowth?

MJ Grace: Your point about tax benefits is an important one. Some easements are purchased using public funds, some are partially underwritten through income tax deductions, and some involve no public money at all. None that I know of include property tax reductions.

Everyone I spoke with would agree with you that public money necessitates public review. But what about the easements that don’t involve public money? Should these also follow the same review process for simplicity’s sake, or would they benefit from being treated as a different type of easement with different amendment procedures? To date, the conservation community has preferred to treat both types similarly, though that could change depending on how the IRS decides to handle the amendment question.

-Chuck Wooster

I have found that rubbing vaseline into the end cuts prevents checking and cracking in green handles. Hope this helps. Do this shortly after cutting to length, before the wood begins to dry.

The way I look at it, if either or both parties have asked for and received tax benefits due to the easement (e.g. exemption from property taxes granted to qualified organizations for the rights they own) it is unfair for the parties to then amend the easement without public input as the public has given up those taxes for a period of time. 

When my grandfather was 15 years old, around 1875, he supposedly was running a little business selling hemlock bark to tanneries in NE Pennsylvania. Later he made considerable money in Minnesota (1890’s) operating white pine lumber camps. Then he lost his money. So here I sit.

Sophie - My experience is that fisher is hard to get without baiting. Confirm fisher presence by snow tracking, then look for fallen logs or at the base of snags where it looks like something has been digging or tearing away. It just might be a fisher digging for rodents!

David - Agree, end of beaver dam is an excellent camera placement. I’ve been experimenting with videos lately, too. You’re right - videos give insight on behaviors you wouldn’t otherwise observe.

Bob - Glad you enjoyed the article! You are so lucky to have a 100 acres of your very own. In that case, placement along a trail is an excellent idea, because some animals do use human trails, especially in winter where we humans have trampled down the snow. However, if it’s not your own property, placement along a trail can quickly result in theft. I didn’t get into camera brands in this article, but I use Moultries, too. I’ve had one out of 5 malfunction, but customer service quickly replaced it. Moultries are not top of the line, but good value for the money, in my opinion.

We tapped a maple in our backyard this past Sunday March 8, 2015 for the first time. The sap is freely flowing and we got almost 3 gallons within 24 hrs. Its a huge tree so we put in 3 taps. I cooked it down yesterday and it definitely has the metabolism off taste of popcorn. I was just wondering if that problem gets better as the season goes on or if this tree will continue to give that off flavor all season? Is there any reason I shouldn’t use it in recipes? Thanks so much for any advice. I can’t seem to find much info online about it.

I made a hammer handle from an oak limb I cut down from my tree that same day. It was beautiful. because it was green it shaped up so easily. Not bad for my first try. Was difficult to sand though, so I set it out overnight and by morning there was a huge check from stem to stern. What can I do to prevent this checking in the future? The handle was cut from a piece of wood about 2” thicker all the way around. Help I spent so much time on it.

This is a fun article to read. We have a “neighbor” porcupine that has been in the same den for a number of years in the woods in back of our house.  While backcountry skiing around Belknap Mountain (NH) we often see where the porcupines have used our skin tracks to access their own trails. They have areas in the hardwoods where the branches are stripped for 6’ to 8’.  I like having them around.

I spend a great deal of time working with urban trees where leaving CWD is often not an option given safety concerns. But when I’m out in the woods or walking back country roads, I love to study old trees and see the amazing role they provide in a healthy forest environment. Thanks for your continuously great magazine!