Site Discussions

Some excellent points but don’t stop there. There’s clean air, clean water, and the opportunity to manipulate the forest and farm land to improve wildlife habitat; whether it be for song birds or whitetail deer.

Agree completely. For the vast majority of land, development is much much greater than it’s use value.  However, I would guess that there are a few cases where use value for sugaring approaches development value. That would not be true for almost all parcels, but I would imagine there might be a few parcels that would fit the bill. Of course, maple trees don’t last forever and the price of syrup fluctuates, so use value would probably peak and drop over time.

Unfortunately, it’s hard convincing people that the program provides them with more than it costs them. But people are generally bad with money, so no real surprises there. 

It’s also hard to convince people that the program isn’t welfare for the rich. One analogy I’ve heard is imagine if you could get a renters prebate or income sensitivity rebate for your property taxes but only if you rented out one room of your apartment or house.  The bottom line is the program forces the land to be worked. Wealth of the landowner doesn’t matter, the point of the program is to provide jobs. Without the program, landowners will high grade their property to the extent that nobody would be able to harvest anything for 100 years. They will know it has no more working value in their lifetime and after they log it, they will build houses. I’ve witnessed this over and over throughout the years.

There is talk of increasing penalties and like the blog points out, there is no reason to do this. There isn’t enough land being removed to warrant the increased penalties. An increase in penalties will hurt the farmer who wants to give his kid a couple acres to build his/her house on so that they can stay in proximity to the farm on which they will work.  Vermont farmers have done this for years and I don’t see any reason to make this more difficult.

As far as land access, the current use program has nothing to do with land access. Landowners are free to post their land regardless of whether the land is in the program. Now if the public wants to pay ALL of the taxes, ALL of the mortgage on these lands, and without any penalty for withdrawing the land, then by all means let them have access. People who want unfettered access to current use lands are of the “what’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine” mentality.

I came to the site to get more detail on logging in Northern On.  My father was a small timber operator selling timber to gold mines to be used as pit props and supports under ground. As a kid I used a horse to skid logs from the bush at the time the “chain saw ” was starting to replace the “buck saw” and bark was peeled from logs with a “draw knife” as opposed to a debarked.  Saw logs for lumber was still being floated down rivers and hauled to river banks using “ice roads, sleighs and tractors. This was in 1950 and “half tracks” rather than tractors were used.  The introduction of mechanical loaders was replacing the “jammer” ( an “A” frame supported by a guy wire over a truck, with a jeep or horse providing the motive power with a series of pulleys attached to the “jammer” to drag logs from the skid way and elevate them onto the truck bed.  I haven’t got any pictures of this early apparatus but am looking for them. Thanks.

This article assisted me greatly in understanding the process of the tanning industry, most especially as it relates to the industry of my hometown ( ironically within miles of the author). I have been researching the evolution of industry and community development for our historical society as we are developing a park where once (early 1800’s) stood a Hemlock stand.
Well done!

That’s a whole bunch of stuff I never knew. Sure explains a great deal. Thanks for the actual why how and what.

Wow! I had no idea the science behind those dang frost heaves. Great info, Leah. Drainage, drainage, drainage!

Thank you for this article. I measured my property by my slope before I found your article. Then I started looking for an article like yours where I discovered the answer I was seeking matched my long time thinking. For years I have commented to others that they had more square feet of land that the acres described on their deed because their land was also sloped. I went from 5.09 acres to 5.83 acres using the land mass. Actually the county register says I have only 4.79 but that does not compute with the measurements on the map?

Dave,

This is a beautiful essay and the last three sentences are the heart and soul of it. Thank you. 

Judy

My sister in Vermont just sent me a very strange cloud photo - it is a vertical cloud, seen at 5:00 PM on or about 1/31/14.  It looks like pictures of clouds that people think are “chemtrails”.  Who should she send her photo to?

I have been following and tagging Monarchs for some 55 years and seen the devastating effects of Monsanto’s Frankenseeds on the populations.  I encourage people to plant milkweed in their spare land.  Here in San Diego I have them breeding in my backyard all year round. 

Although attempts have been made to protect their habitat in Michoacan, corruption and poverty have proven to be quite fruitless.  Serious policing must take place there, and other areas. 

Monsanto must be told that we, nature, will not take it any more. Their migration is one of the most amazing phenomenon Earth has to offer. 

As far as Global Warming’s very significant contribution to their demise, nothing will be done until icebergs are floating down Wall Street.  I well imagine that they would market them as ice cubes.

Please pass the word and get planting.
R. James, PhD

I live in Indiana and we’ve had some temperatures below 0 wind chills around 30 below zero. I feed the birds all year round and I was watching this morning dove which seemed hurt or very cold, She could hardly move her wings and walk, I then picked her up put her in a cage with a rag and food and water, she is doing well, she is now eating and keeping warm, I will let her go when the temperatures get above freezing. I named her lucky.

I’ve cut most of my life with a small timberjack skidder. Some lots come out good, some terrible. Glad to see some people looking out for our forests future as we are always looking for more hardwood lots in the area.

“Like race horses at a starting gate.” Very nice article. I will pay more attention come spring.

I swear I saw a coywolf at Cleveland Hopkins Airport area just last week. It was on a highway cloverleaf area by the airport catching rats or mice. It was diving in the snow with it’s snout and pulling up these mice and eating them. Really interesting and so close to the population. I have seen coyotes before in our parks but this was a larger species and more ‘german sheppard’ looking. Could it have been a coywolf?

Beautiful writing Dave!

I live in the Caribbean with average temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius…I have no knowledge of growing mushrooms and would like some advice on the best method to use growing the Shiitake mushroom for hot climates….

Would you suggest that I purchase the inoculated logs and see how they perform and maybe a few more strains of mushrooms that may perform in this weather…..I want to start small and get to learn as I go along with all of your assistance..ie type of structure needed to grow indoors etc

I have a small area of about 22 feet in length and 17 feet in width…..how many pounds of mushrooms on average can these logs produce?

Thank you for the wonderful article and look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Andrew Waithe

Growing up in Scituate, MA, I saw beautiful sunsets overlooking the cranberry bogs right from the kitchen window. What was especially nice, was ice skating well into the evening with a deepening sunset.

Marsupials are not really native to North America. They originated in South America and then moved north when the oceans shrank and the Central America pathway was created. Before the continents divided the migrated to Australia where they basically mirror the mammal population here. An interesting question is why there are not more species in the Americas.

Sunrise OR sunset on these VERY cold days is nothing short of spectacular! Perfectly still and bitterly cold moonlit nights spent stargazing across the snow covered fields with the mountains in the background is euphoric! Your article hits the spot! THANK YOU!

Great photo. Even greater text. Bravo.