Site Discussions

Maybe the observation will lead to an epiphany for someone . . .?

Regardless, the article raises good points. Too often we think of policymakers as enemies, or merely ignorant buffoons. Yet somebody’s got to do it, and how many of us are lining up to undertake that miserably frustrating work?

“The northern shrike probably evolved this hunting technique on its far-northern breeding ground.”

Nice piece, especially the ‘site fidelity’ idea… I’ve noticed this with several adults over the years, but didn’t know it was in the literature.
As for evolution, shrike species are found in Africa and across Asia where they likely originated and then moved out from there—already shrike-like at the family level (Laniidae). Farther south the many other shrike species inhabit shrubby and nearly treeless open areas similar to the Northern Shrike’s habitat.

I agree with Carolyn, although I grew up around hunting and won’t understand it to the end of my days. My father tried to hunt but was repulsed by the things he saw happening to animals under the guise of ‘hunting for dinner.’ He couldn’t abide by the sporting mentality that accompanies many hunts.

So, I was shielded by our family’s lack of participation, until I got older and began working outdoors, close to hunters myself. Then, I got to see how many slovenly hunters there are, and how often the animal suffers to a great degree after being shot and left to expire, often hours, sometimes days, sometimes never collected if the hunter loses his prey or didn’t have the foresight to figure out what to do with the animal after it was shot.

Most people who don’t participate in the hunt, don’t realize how often this happens. They think quick kill, it’s done, all ethical, above board. Sometimes it works that way, but just as often, a deer is nicked by an arrow or bullet and is left to die for hours while the hunters wait for it to succumb. That’s common practice—to wait until you follow the blood trail. In the interim, the animal dies slowly of its wound, sometimes found by the hunter, sometimes not. The first time I saw an elk left to die for hours from a bad shot, was the last time I accepted hunting on the premise that it’s ethical or humane. This hunter refused to shoot the elk in a way that would reduced the bull’s suffering but would have also mangled his trophy head.

I agree that at least this article lacks the romance of recent pieces I’ve been reading on this subject. The recent fad seems to be writers waxing poetic about how “alive” they feel because they recently took up the practice of killing animals, or how it makes them feel so “close” to the animal they just killed and eviscerated. Nice they could have that experience of personal enlightenment at the expense of a life. 

But let’s face it, killing a moose isn’t all that hard. Once targeted, moose aren’t that tough to shoot. I’ve known of guys who passed right by one moose because the rack wasn’t big enough, only to take another moose a short time later. Of course, depending on the location, you have to haul the animal out as these hunters did. And Maine is notorious for people not thinking it through and finding it impossible to lug their meat out of the backwoods. The whole thing is unpalatable in a time where we really should be re-thinking our relationship to the animals and the lands under our stewardship. It’s 2011 and the defense of tradition is woefully inadequate to describe some of our barbarism toward animals.

My daughter, who is four, taught me this.  She learned it from the Kratt Brothers, a great resource to teach kids about nature and animals.  The episode was called “Blue and Gray”

http://pbskids.org/go/video/?category=Wild Kratts&pid=xAymMSJMg9LA4S_9EuLa2N0nBOS51fJd

Hi Ginny,
Last year was a record for acorn production here in the NE - about 250 lbs/tree compared to an average 25-30 lbs. This year we have just about 0 here in our yard - a record low. We’re seeing a lot of oak seedlings though!

Here’s a nice article in the Times about the oaks. The bad news is that scientists are predicting a record year for Lyme’s disease because of this year’s acorn dearth!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/nyregion/boom-and-bust-in-acorns-will-affect-many-creatures-including-humans.html?_r=4&src=tp&smid=fb-share&mid=54421

Dear Picton Pete,

Please see below for a response from Maine naturalist and writer, Tom Seymour (http://wildplantsandwoolybears.blogspot.com/), to your question about edible uses for redcedar berries.

“The reader mentions the (red cedar) berries being used to flavor
gin. It is not red cedar, but rather, Juniper berries (common or ground juniper berries) that are used to flavor gin and also to season meat. Swedish cooks love them for that purpose.

But red cedar berries may be somewhat toxic, at least I would not use them. The only use I am aware of for red cedar is for making fragrant furniture—jewelry boxes and so on.

So my best advice is for your reader to admire his trees, perhaps
break of a tip and relish the fragrant aroma, but don’t use any of it
internally.

—Tom Seymour”

As a forester and practicing wildlife biologist and avid woodsman, I have known that jays, as well as squirrels, chipmunks, and others, cache acorns. However, it was not until attending some oak-specific silvicultural training (SILVAH-Oak) that I learned jays have a propensity for caching acorns in canopy gaps, so they’re more likely to remain viable if and when they germinate. Unlike chipmunks, for example, who cache in groups (horde-caching), in which a lower proportion of acorns germinate and even fewer survive if the cache is in insufficient sunlight.

Could be worse! I feel very fortunate that my central NH Tree Farm is dominated by red oak - it is the win-win tree for timber and wildlife with excellent sawlog value, excellent firewood qualities useful in thinning stands for home utilization and also periodic mast crops which seem to feed all manner of rodents, mammals and birds. 

I say “Hooray” for the Oak Fairy. With a little more aggressive thinning I’d hope for more oak seed regeneration in the sun-dappled openings of my small woodlot. I fear the Beech Fairy or Hemlock Fairy or Red Maple Fairy is at work in my woods and I congratulate you for attracting a more benevolent wee folk. We don’t have any sugar maple fairies anymore where I own property - too acidic and dry.

On my many walks/hikes over the years, throug the forest of middle Tennessee, some years there are an abundunce of squirres, rabbits, and the plants they feed on.  Some years, very scarce.  A forest ranger told us recently, that is the way mother nature controls the population of her animals.  Fat years and lean years. Some oak trees do not bare acorns every year.  Last year 2010 was the first time in 38 years that the oaks on my two acres did have acorns on them.  I was also told that oaks do not bare fruit until they are 50 years old. I do not think that is entirely true of all oak trees, because I do have some oak trees that did bare in 2010, that are not more than 20 years old.  Oaks are slow growing trees, and I suppose there is a maturity process there. Just mostly my opinion.

My bar makes a whirring sound as it runs. The bar isn’t smoking and the oil is getting through. There were some minor burrs that I filed off and I can’t seem to find any other problems. I’m kind of new at this so I’m not sure if this sound is normal or not.

I have about 4 acres of eastern red cedar in Picton Ontario, along the north shore of Lake Ontario. Didn’t think much of them at first, and my farming neighbours curse them because they’re so invasive in pasture lands, but I’ve grown to respect and admire them. They are survivors, and as they mature each specimen seems to develop a distinctive shape and personality. The more senior trees seem to develop wonky branching patterns, producing an enchanted forest setting. Our soil is quite thin, with limestone not far below. I’ve had to cut a number of them for various reasons, and after a day of feeding the chipper shredder the heady aroma on my clothes fills the house. 
I know the blue berries are used in gin making, but are there any other edible uses?

Driving home a couple weeks ago, just as light was fading into dusk, we saw an unusual wild creature flash across the road and into the woods toward the ravine on one side of our street.  It was tawny yellowish, long and thin, perhaps ‘ropey’ is the best word to describe it, with a long rope-like tail.  Just before it reached the woods, it swiveled its head to look directly at us—a cat-like but almost human looking face.  Very startling. 
  Having spent much time as a kid and young adult in the then undeveloped central Adirondacks, I know this was no bobcat! A neighbor has spoken about a fisher cat that has frequented our area, but no—this was not that.  We have wildlife corridors in our area connecting to some larger tracts—I’m thinking this youngish animal was passing through (and very quickly, at that!).

Living in one of the counties where Mike did much of his work, we grew to respect him greatly as an example of somebody who embodied that elusive but profound middle ground: supporting the economic use of our forests while taking a long-term vision that took in more than immediate profits and a broader view that included the forests’ inherent ecology.

Alex,

It is all site related. On the very best site the trees will rebound with many suckers and be left with internal damage as seen in the photos.
  On the worst sites, high, dry, poor soils the tree may or may not send out suckers. If they do there are not enough to sustain the tree. The tops tend to slowly die back.
One thing that is common on both sites is that if the tree has a large limb ripped from the main trunk, they generally fail. Insects get into these wounds and then 6-8 years later the woodpeckers will begin the work the area for bugs. The tree will snap off after 5 or 10 years of woodpecker activity at this wound site.

Patrick

Another way to promote big bucks is to encourage hunters to shoot does.  Massachusetts for example issues lots of doe permits and allows shooting does in the modern firearms season.  Taking the pressure off the bucks equalizes the doe/buck ratio, keeps the deer populations from fluctuating wildly and helps to promote forest regeneration.  And there are some very nice bucks taken.

Great info thanks a lot.  I’ve been doing quite a bit of study in Centennial woods here in Burlington and have been curious about ice damage, especially in some of the maple trees as I know they can get wonky.  What have you observed about limb growth post-damage?

This comment came in as a letter to the editor.

NW, I just picked up the summer 11 issue and was reading Stephen Long’s story about Mike Greason the forester.I logged for over 17 years until calling it quits in Jan 2011 for economic and personal frustrations with whole Forest Products industry,While I did work over the years for Consulting Foresters I never waited by the phone for their woodlots or timber sales.Mr Greason seemed to have an ethical view of a foresters duty while working with landowners.I will also agree a foresters pay should be based on a set fee not a percentage of gross sales nor do I feel it is ethical for larger logging operations to have “consulting/procurement foresters” on staff,presenting the landowner with the perception of looking out for landowners silvacultural interests.I dont feel foresters should be allowed to market wood from a timber sale either,I guess Im just soured from the corruption/misrepresentation I saw in Southern New Hampshire’s woodlots from consulting foresters who didn’t quite have Mr. Greasons silvacultural morals.

Robert Claxton
Nottingham NH

Hi:
Kind of like Mark in Maine, I grew up with a crosscut saw and an axe, and with a lot of firewood to cut.  We had a good double-bitted “splitting” axe, wedges and a sledge hammer.  Now that I’m much older, I finally learned to put a polished cutting edge on the axe that you can see your reflection in.  In smaller rounds up to 15” or so, the axe explodes the wood.  Probably a lost art, but with a neighbor or two setting the wood up on “chopping” blocks, I can beat most hydraulic splitting rams, and that’s fun for an old man.

Thank you thank you thank you for speaking out on this issue.  I believe it is (and has been) THE major issue threatening the environment globally (but especially in the US since the 1600s).  I recently completed a Master Naturalist course here in NYS and was more than a little surprised and disappointed that population growth was never even mentioned…not once…except where deer were concerned. It was quoted, “There are 1.5M deer in NYS”, and control measures were outlined (hunting, fencing, etc.)  the major gist of which was, that deer are a problem that need to be exterminated so that foresters can grow more maple trees. But the fact that there are 19.3M people in NYS?  Not a mention of their existence or impact. Foresters want to control deer so they can have their commercially valuable monoculture of hardwoods, but fail to acknowledge that their “deer problem” is created by the fact that humans continue to garner every scrap of earth for themselves and mold it to their liking—pushing all other creatures out of habitat – not just deer—even to the brink of extinction.  “Environmentalists” that push for crops of “desirable” woods so more and more people can build more and more houses and furniture? It just doesn’t make sense.  Fifty years ago the youth movement had already figured out that population growth was a problem.  I believed in zero population growth back then – and stuck to that promise in my own life.  I also have refused to build or buy a new house – preferring to take what was already in existence. The insanity of leaving decaying cities behind to bulldoze lovely fields and decimate stands of trees to build yet another housing development named “The Pastures” or “Woodland Hills” to accommodate more people is just pure, human insanity. As noted in another comment on this page, the earth may yet save itself from humanity with a massive virus (or a series of cataclysmic global events), but the lovely earth that used to be – is really gone forever.

Wow! This is a big change on the part of Northern Woodlands. A few years ago I asked the editor to acknowledge the impact of population growth on our forests and he refused. Vermont Woodlands Association also refused. The Forest Ecology Newtwork of Maine is the only forestry related group in New England that I know of that acknowledges the population growth issue on its web site. In fact the director Jonathan Carter recently agreed to serve on the advisory board of the New England Coalition for Sustainable Population. Is there a Vermont forester out there who would be willing to serve on the board or the advisory board of Vermonters for Sustainable Population (www,vspop.org)If we want to preserve our forests and probably even the earth we must stabilize population. The argument can even be made that this is a bigger issue than global warming.

See today’s http://www.vtdigger.org for an op ed on population growth and post a comment there for a larger audience to see.

We are now seeing forest acreage in New England actually declining for the first time in decades because of population growth and development.

Thanks so much for speaking out on this issue.