Site Discussions

Other than an axe or chainsaw, is there a forestry tool available that makes “ringing” or cutting the bark in a circle off a tree a little easier task to terminate undesirable species for forestry management purposes?

George

Erm . . . as someone who doesn’t do this, I can kinda-sorta understand it, especially after reading this nice essay . . . until you put the fish back in.

If you’re not going to catch supper, what’s the joy of freezing one’s petootie off and doing face or back plants when you can drink spirits and wax philosophical in front of a cozy fire?

Maple and birch are very different trees, so they have different mechanisms that drive their ascent of sap—maple relies on the freeze-thaw cycle to draw sap up which causes expansion and contraction of the sap as it freezes and thaws whereas birch relies on root press pushing that sap up (that’s why when you cut down a birch during winter, the stump will weep sap the following spring).

When I worked as a fish manager for Wisconsin DNR out of Marinette we would go out on Green Bay to check the commercial fishermen who fished gillnets underneath the ice (yes, there’s a trick to it). At that time they discarded “lawyers” which was their name for burbot because they only got 2 cents a pound for them (for soap). We would load up on them as skinned and steamed and then served with butter they were indeed “the poor man’s lobster.”

Paul Brouha, fisheries biologist, retired.

Although blackberry brandy has long been a favorite, we’re finding Dr. McGillicuddy’s mentholmint to be our “go to” ice fishing companion.  I will be on the ice “with the guys” in downeast Maine over President’s weekend and my bottle is already packed.

I’ve never given Lota lota a shot, since my experience with jigging for perch on Lake Champlain (Kingsbay area) has not been the best with mainly small fish (less than 6 inches) being taken.
I attribute that problem to overfishing, especially as a result of allowing perch to be sold commercially with essentially no rules to protect this important food fish for the benefit of the local walleye and pike population.

Both stoves in my home life are non-cat, Brian, but the one at work is, and i wonder the same thing every night when i put it to bed. I think probably what you should do is leave it engaged and don’t damp the fire down too much. Of course no one likes having to load wood every few hours during the night, or rekindle a fire every morning, so i’m not sure how practical this advice is.

It is very sad to see statements and comments on this topic, so filled with ignorance and untruths.  Maybe if you spent a little more time learning about what you are commenting about, you might make a better case for yourself, but assuredely not for your point of view.  Where do you think the Pittman/Robertson Act gets its money?  Do you think it is from hikers/photographers?  Do you have any idea at all, what would be required to determine bobcat density in an entire state?  Seeing as how state f&g personnel are already running way short,and can barely produce the results they are, what would it take to hire enough persons/equipment to elucidate a population density?  Apparently much more than the PR funds are going to accomodate….that is unless more and more people start hunting and therefore, contributing to PR funds.  I don’t suppose many of you will voluntarily contribute to PR funds would you?  All you have to do is purchase a hunting license (don’t even have to hunt), and then you can be happy that you are actually helping with wildlife management, instead of complaining about it.

I agree with you wholeheartedly, Gudrun.

Dear Professor Verderber,

I used your essay to comment to the DEC of NY not to expand their bobcat trapping and hunting into the entire state before they even have a population density plan. Although they received 1,600 comments and most of them were against killing the animal, DEC went ahead and are going with their inadequate plan http://www.dec.ny.gov/press/86240.html  Thei.r idea is to count the number of dead bobcats and with higher counts they would conclude that there is a greater population of bobcats—well one could also argue the other way around after five years of this plan - who knows if any are left? One carefully done study published in 2002 “The Bobcat in Illinois” used graduate students and boots on the ground to actually find population density , properly using the Pittman-Robertson Act for maintaining wildlife not killing it and then decide that they would close the hunting and trapping season for bobcat entirely. DEC of NY said there were 13 states that don’t permit hunting or trapping at all of the bobcat.

You concept of trapping to photograph is a fabulous photo and it is truly renewable- the animal lives another day to be another model for another photo in the future.  Very very beautiful animal and worth only $50-200 as a fur with quality of fur being poor in the Northeast and is hardly a “livelyhood”

I just bought a used Appalachain 36 BW that is catalytic. My question is, can I leave the catylitic burner engaged when I go to bed and let the fire burn out. Or is it better to open the bypass (to lighting mode) and let it burn out?  Experiences good? Bad?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Stove Rookie

Jessica,  in response to your question…

As an amatuer wood turner, who works with (fallen) logs as raw material for turnery; I can tell you my experiences with logs I’ve turned from winter-harvested wood as opposed to summer-harvested wood.
When I’ve had the chance to work with green wood from each season, I can easily tell the difference. 

Turning fall and winter-harvested wood is a (moderately dry) pleasure, and the wooden object made tends to be more stable (less distortion when it dries, and less chance of cracking or checking).  Summer harvested wood, by comparison tends to be a wet experience, since the water and sap in the wood is much more likely to spin out (spraying me and my environment), and the turned bowl is more likely to crack, if I turn it to finish, in one go.

I’ve not had a chance to turn any American chestnut wood, yet, thus I cannot definitively relate my experiences with that species of wood.

I’d like very much the chance to see how Chestnut wood turns; but I won’t be harvesting any living trees to do.

This note arrived from a new subscriber:

I am an avid reader of back issues of your magazine, but have never had a subscription myself.  We just moved into a house on my wife’s family farm that I logged, milled, and built myself.  I farm in the summer, log in the winter and maple sugar in the spring…. your magazine is a perfect fit!  Thank you for all your hard work and keep the wonderful articles coming!

-Stephen Bartlett, Center Sandwich, NH

I have been studying this problem ,trying to determine what has been done,discovered, recorded.
I had thought all one had to do was grow a lot of seedlings in pots,cull the deseased,innoculate the survivors ,then line out those surviviors. It seems innoculation by passes the defence system,thereby eliminating promising genetic material without field testing. That might be OK if the there were enough survivors to work with. The info does not indicate that. Could the potted plants be put out in an area exposed to natural infection? It seems like a lot of wasted work to put out untested stock in the ground to let it die. What spacing would one use?Could not be too close because of the allelopathy.That additional stress would mess up any resistance
So,how do you test the resistance without destroying that resistance We need early culling of severely suseptible plants before lining out the stuff you are looking for
Jerry

What a wonderful article. 
So much useful information. Glad to pass it along to other interested parties.
M.

I too remember gathering and boiling with my Dad… this article makes me nostalgic and thankful for those days so many years ago. One of my favorite pleasures was drinking ice cold sap right out of the bucket.

But it also makes me sad. The FDA, along with most government agencies, has demonstrated a profound lack of intelligence and reasonableness… any effort becomes about power and regulation, not about common sense and consumer safety.

I may be old fashioned enough to hope that self-regulation will win the day.

Well researched, well written, and informative. I would like to be kept abreast.

Global warming has drastically shortened the period during which the ground is hard frozen each winter.  Yet many loggers who complain about this still vote for a party that says it’s not real.

Hi Dan,

I feel your pain—i’ve got a big silver maple that looms over the west side of my bedroom that might someday crush me as i sleep. As someone who’s cut a lot of trees down in my day, i’m at peace with the poetics of all this.

Seriously, though, no one can tell you what will happen for sure. I’ve seen perfectly healthy trees snap, and i’ve seen mature “V” shaped trees that defy physics and somehow stay together against all odds. I’d call an arborist and ask them to come look—they may be able to cable the tree in such a way that if it does fall it spares the house. Otherwise, it’s all up to you how much risk you want to take. If the prevailing wind is towards the house, and the tree looks stressed, you might cut it down and replace it with a fruit tree. If you’re a gambling man who loves the tree, make your peace like i have.

We had a terrible time getting rid of a nest of flying squirrels in the ceiling and they made bad urine stains. I finally took the ceiling down nest and all. There was a mother and four young ones that I could see. I gathered them up and took them down the road about a half mile. When I finished sweeping up I found a fifth young one which I left there for the night. In the morning it was gone. All the young ones were new born and could not go anywhere by themselves so I must assume that the mother returned.