Second Growth forest in Northern Dacks
I am a new associate member in an old deer camp in Franklin County NY. This means I have no voting rights, and am pretty far down the totem pole. This is a typical deer camp among the the old paper company holdings. The land that the camp sits on is wholly owned, and the surrounding 300 acres are a long term lease, so we will stay there after the Forever Wild laws drive many of our neighbors out.
Here is what we have. Second or probably third or fourth growth hardwood that has last been logged about 17 years ago. Extensive systems of skidder trails snake through the property. Some areas of what I would call pine bottoms that are lower elevation areas that contain primarily evergreens, and some swamp terrain. The property is liitered with springs. The hardwoods are mainly Maple, and Beech, mixed with alot of Birch. There is very little table land, and most of it requires the traits of a billy goat to travel. The elevation runs from about 1400 feet to about 1800 feet. Many of you I'm sure are aware of the bygone days of bagging "camp meat", and there was a time when does were hunted hard from time to time. The deer population is poor as you may guess. Logging as far as we know, will not be a factor any time soon, but we have permission to selectively harvest trees for heating, etc. The canopy is pretty thick, and the visiblity for hunters at ground level has deteriorated quite a bit in recent years.
What are we to do? What would be a good first step?