Ran out to the Park Breaks this morning so that me and my Knight could get our walk in... It was a good morning to go for a walk but I was really disappointed when i got there and worked my way up the trail to the ridge... Logging!! right below me on the adjacent property.

You could not believe the noise... chainsaws, trucks, skidder, and a really noisey line machine and that infernal beeping line horn!!! One guy I swear was sawing with with a dull saw - drove me nutz, and really must have had the same effect on the animals. Not much sign and no movement at all - but yet it was still a great morning out.

The pictures show to shooting lanes available from the first ground stand, with water available in the draw to the right. The feeding ridge has a lot of red stem on (elk candy) not a big deal for Whitetail but usually will draw and hold elk in the area.
The last picture of CRP saddle is another ground stand and often you can catch both elk and Whitetail crossing through the saddle on their way down to the water source or returning from the water. On more than on occasion elk have been puched out of the timber in the backgound... They will cross through the CRP field into the saddle and out the feeding ridge. From the ground stand that I am on here if that event happens and you can maintain your composeure and stay hid they will run right over you.

BUT:::: no glory this morning... Did hear a Turkey if that matters...

well it never fails.. when you have a good spot, that's when they decide to harvest the timber off it.

I wish they would do a little clear cutting on our lease. Our plantation pines are getting tall and thick. Deer densities will be going down hill until the trees are thinned.

Down here in the deep South a three month old clear cut is prime habitat with thigh high brush, and stays prime for the next five to seven years. After that the Loblolly pines are tall enough to begin shading out the undergrowth and things get worse as they grow taller. The brush isn't easy to hunt, but holds a lot of deer.

As for the noise and disruption of a cutting operation, our deer hang back a few hundred yards from the cutting operation. A half hour after the logging crew shuts down for the day the deer move into the cutting area to browse the broken off tree tops.

Yep.. pretty much the same here... the real difference is that everything grows so much faster down there for you guys...

The deer will move back as soon as they can but these guys are trying to beat the weather - they are starting at dawn and going till dark -7 days a week... Even when the sawyers move out the loaders are still loading and they are hauling till 10 pm when the mill closes the yard.

It would really be nice if they would finish and get out before the end of the season - but highly doubtful - the are working 160 acres of very steep and rocky ground (canyon walls), that is the reason for the line machines.

The loggers here wouldn't even know how to rig a haul line. They just grab the logs with skidders and drag them to the loading deck.

This is the 160 they are working... It is up and down and rocky-- Basalt Volcanic rock

You can tell it is steep. Those contour lines are pretty close.

Funny you mention chain saws. The first elk I ever shot was in CO. About 40 yards off a major power line. And the lineman were clearing trees on the line about 75 or 80 yards away from where I shot the elk.

The sawyers moved in about 10:00 in the morning, and I shot the elk about 10 minutes later. Right before I was getting ready to leave. I never would have believed it. To this day I actually believe the crew drove those elk to me(inadvertantly). Tom.