Site Discussions

Thanks Jim! I was so curious about the percent of toads that survive the winter as well. I think it would have been so neat to come across 600 toads hibernating in the same location together. I am going to be more keenly observing toads this spring. Thanks for the comment.

Last winter, 2013, we purchased a new VC Encore 2 in 1. We can’t get the cat working properly for anything.  We have a 2012 2,700 square ft home and it will heat our entire home, but that comes with waking twice a night to reload.  If the cat is working we cannot completely fill for it will over heat 900 degrees + sometimes, and the back puffing is enormous excretion from all corners of the stove. Should the air intake lever on the side be able to cut the air completely?  There is barely a difference in flame when the lever is open vs closed.

A NICE article about toads that is a bit off the beaten path! I was surprised at the percentage that don’t survive a winter.

I’m a very long time hunter and landowner who is excited to see this white stuff on the ground in advance of the muzzle loading deer season.  That said I recognize the fact that the “People” own the game despite hunters and fishers stepping up to the plate so generously.  Whether the non-consumptive users pay anything the deal has always been that if we hunt or fish we pay for that right to consume. 

I would love to see a Pittman-Robertson type tax on binocs and bird feed etc.  We could preserve lots of land for future generations and get the non-consumptive users to pay their fair share.  They are going to take their place at the table anyway so lets get it done.  Not worried too much about hunting rights.  Deer are going to keep doing what comes natural and there will always be a constituency for reducing collisions, Lyme and crop depredation. Look at how the urban areas are bending over backwards to get deer hunted in the backyards. 

A friend in suburban MD has and fills an “Urban Deer Permit” that allows him to hunt closer than 150 feet from houses with a bow.  Let’s get all of the People at the table and get their ideas on how to fund all the tasks our F&W agencies are charged with.

Regarding impact of CU on town finances, the towns are NOT “held harmless” by the state, for properties with reduced taxes.  For my town, the reduced revenues are about $295,000 (FY2015), and the most recent state payment was about $65,000 - so the net cost to the town’s taxpayers is about $230,000 - and that is about 9% of total taxes raised.  I agree with the ideas behind the CU program, but with the current concern over rapidly escalating property taxes, CU should not be immune from discussions about ways to “fix” taxes.

Interesting that female asses are called jennies, too!

This is one of those subjects where my intellectual mind can go yes, what a sensible idea, but my cultural deep-programming makes my gorge rise at the thought. I would have to be starving on the verge of death to consider eating insects!

Am still working on the city-girl-moves-to-country issue of actually *seeing* where my mammal-based food products come from!

To answer your question, Annie, the young females are called “Jennies”.

Thanks for the compliment, Annie. Poults refers to a young domestic chicken, turkey, pheasant, or other fowl being raised for food. A young male turkey is a jake and a young female turkey is a jenny.

I have a dry well near several trees. In the summer the trees absorb water to keep the well from overflowing, but in the winter when water isn’t absorbed and a snow melt occurs a nearby building may be flooded. The clay soil here is also a factor. Is there a way to prevent this from occurring other then pumping out the well with snow still on the ground?

Hi Danny,

Welcome to “Northern Woodlands” and congratulations on your land acquisition, land you wish to steward well into the future.

Here goes a bit of shameful self-promotion: we published a guide for New York landowners who want to get the most from and give the most to their properties. It’s called “The Place You Call Home”. It’s available in our shop: http://northernwoodlands.org/shop/item/place-you-call-home-a-guide-to-caring-for-your-land-in-new-york in hardcopy or as a downloadable pdf here: http://northernwoodlands.org/programs/place_you_call_home

We hope to keep in touch with us!
Amy Peberdy

Funny how certain elements of camp are universal. Except the Friday rule: I’m heading up on a Thursday.

I’ve recently purchased 9 acres of land in Florence NY which is located in the Tug Hill region.  I’ve been searching via Google for any and all resources available so I may educate myself on the region, the woodlands, etc…I wish to preserve my woodland to the best of my ability and I’m actively educateing myself.  If there are any preservation/forestry minded folks I could be directed to in the Tug Hill region,  I would certainly appreciate it.  I love your magazine BTW.

Warm regards,

Danny Baseheart

I liked the article very much.We have a lot of turkeys and a few of my questions were answered. Are young female turkeys called anything? Is poults a term for young turkeys in general as foal is for a young horse, either sex, or is it specific to female turkeys as jakes is to young male turkeys?

Recently purchased a 3500 usd stove from vermont castings, Defiant combination. It’s hooked up correctly, @150 usd for this service. It has the right chimney and it’s clean. The stove is a terrible performer. It smokes in the open mode, puffs in the damped down mode and it spills ashes on the deck when cleaning out the poorly designed ash bin. Not sure if the cat converter is an asset or a liability. Given the 4000 dollar investment thus stove is a rip off. I owned 3 vermont stoves prior, and the all performed as advertised, this new defiant is a total rip off.

Hi Susan - great article and photos.

While the focus of your article is on wildlife food, as you know, many of the “mast” species you included in your article are also edible by people:

Hawthorn
Beaked Hazelnut
Eastern Red Cedar (sparingly)
Highbush Cranberry (but see comment below)
Staghorn Sumac
Black Elderberry
Nannyberry
Black Cherry
Choke Cherry
Common Juniper (sparingly)

I mention this because I think the “you can eat it too” factor provides a significant incentive for people to plant the above species beyond the pure ecological argument (although admittedly your photos also show that many mast plants are nice to look at too).

Here, in case it might interest you and/or others you know, is a link to a list I prepared on the edible native species of the Northeast:
http://ecolandscaping.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Edible-Native-Plants-of-Mass.-Northeast-U.S.-and-E.-Canada-March-18-2013.pdf

BTW - according to the (IMO) great website GoBotany, created/maintained by the New England Wild Flower Society, a very closely-related species, Squashberry (Viburnum edule) grows in Northern New England - see https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/species/viburnum/edule/?key=dichotomous.  I believe this plant produces tastier (albeit still quite sour) berries than V. tilobum - I have made a sauce from V edule that is more or less identical to a seedless bog cranberry sauce.

Thanks for this article.  I look forward to trying the recipe.

For those of you seeking more info about Black Walnut trees, including a big section on processing and eating the nuts (contributed by yours truly), including two recipes,you might want to check out the September 2014 edition of the Mass. Citizen Forester newsletter.

Here’s the link: http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dcr/stewardship/forestry/urban/citizen-forester/cf2014-sept.pdf

The Black Walnut article begins on p.3.

It gives me chills to read about the ages of some of the world’s oldest trees.  We had a 200 year old maple succumb to the ice storm last December. It was on its way out, but the last large surviving branch got broken off. The trunk is almost hollow, the Pileated and other woodpeckers work. It was like a member of the family; now we mourn its death. Oh, to see the trees when we first stepped foot on America’s soil. Giants.
Thanks for this story

“Turning on the propane” ...
reminded me of hooking up the propane at a deer camp some 40 years ago. I was in the back sleeping room igniting the gas lights while my friend was lighting the pilot on the cook stove.
It was not so much a bang as it was a very loud “fooop!”. Just as I was about to claw a new rear entrance to the camp, he shouted, “found it!”,and deer season began once again.

Beware, gardening different types of peppers is fun, but the oils in the plants themselves can cause reactions. Late this summer, I came in to contact with a pepper plant, it brushed up against my leg. It was a hot pepper plant branch that had been cut and had been in the sun. I picked it up because there was still a long red pepper on the plant and I wanted to use it to spice up a dish I was preparing.  Little did I know the sap from this plant, just brushing up against the skin can cause blisters and burning itch type rash.

The blisters appeared days later, were itchy, burst, then the itchy rash spread where the fluid went. Ouch, so itchy.
Calamine, hydrocorstisone, aloe lotion, basically treat as a wound, wash, apply ointment, cover with bandage, repeat.

It’s two weeks now and it’s barely starting to fade, but the itching subsided -  thankfully.