gjersey .... I am in Alabama. Where I hunt is a piece of privatley owned land located in the SE part of the state that 15 of us lease from the owner. We have just over 3000 acres on which we can hunt. Most of it is in planted pines, the oldest tract being about 30 years old. Most of the pines are aobut 15-20 years old. There are some very nice, long and rather wide SMZ along the creek beds that are loaded with oaks of several varieties. Chief among these are Chestnut, White, Water and Chestnut oaks.

Thinning of the pines started in earnest this past fall with about 1000 being thinned for chip. The loggers just moved out. Interrupted both our fall/winter deer season and the spring turkey season as well. We had a fine deer season but turkey season was the worst in 15 years. We are hoping the logging gear being in some of the traditional prime areas had a lot to do with tha lack of birds being found.

The areas thinned last fall are now loaded with browse. What little bit of scouting I have done in the thinned area indicates the deer are hitting this fresh stuff.

Unfortunately a tornado (samll thankfully) touched down on the property a few weeks ago. Dead nutted a stretch of one of the SMZ's and dropped countless oaks. Cut a swath about 100 yards wide and probably about 1000 yards long. Timber manager is hoping to get these hardwoods salvaged. I am not certain that anyone is willing to move in and try to haul out this tangled up mess. Took out no telling how many fine acorn bearing white oaks. Left a bunch ... so after all settels down it may work out OK. But right now it is a mess in there.