HuntingBry

chickory, I have been a supporter of Dr. Alt's plans from the outset. I studied wildlife and fisheries science in college and see merit in many aspects of the plan. I feel in the long run it could be positive if managed properly, especially given the successes seen in New Jersey with their program. However, it appears that I may not have all of the facts. You have obviously done your homework on this subject and have brought to light some things I was not aware of. If you could, please provide me with some of the resources you have used to get this information so I can do some further research.

thecontractor

Chickery I like your points and would like to validate some of them. Here in Warren County, the timber business is king. Timber companies have signs on the perimeter of the properties that say "This land is open to public hunting". Which I won't complain about because I'm a hunter. What's interesting about this is you never see trees laying everywhere just rotting away. They do a fine job of "select" cutting and if you look closely there are saplings growing everywhere. If you go into the Allegheny National Forest on the other hand, you will find trees laying everywhere. Which in my mind is another way to "select" cut, just cut everything down and "select" the trees that are most profitable. I hunt private land by permission only and they have recently hired a timber company recommended by the Forestry Service. The landowner is a friend of mine and he's not too awful happy with this company. They went into his property and totally screwed it up. They clear cut half of the property, hauled off what they wanted and left the rest lay. This wasn't the only thing they left behind. They also left bar-oil jugs all over the propery. No big deal right, well there are atleast 10 streams that run through the property coming off the mountain down to a creek that dumps into the Allegheny River. The point I'm trying to make is that the NFS are not environmentalists, they are out for a profit just like anybody else. When you kill off the deer herd, it produces more money. Our forests are not in trouble because of the deer herd, they are in trouble because of the NFS, PGC and yes Dr. Alt. The smaller timber companies that own the land they timber seem to respect the property a lot more than these larger companies working for the NFS. It's all a bunch of political BS and it needs to stop now. I will hunt this Saturday for a buck only. I didn't purchase a antlerless tag this year for myself, but my 12 year old has one. He will not be harvesting a doe this year. I will not be purchasing any antlerless liscenses next year at all. I would like to push for a boycott of the Antlerless liscenses next year,

rybohunter

Speaking of cutting trees and such, here are my personal observations from the land i hunt. I have a ton of deer around my area, thinking back over teh last 10-12 years it seems like every few years one of the landowners has had thier property logged. The regrowth in the years afterwards if incredible. I'm sure that if some proper logging occured in the big forests, they'd regrow just fine as there are way less deer there than my areas.

livbucks

Rybo,
I have posted on this in the past. The best way to log is to clearcut. The reason the ANF and state forests don't benefit from this is the treehugger influence. There are rules in place that limit the size and scope of logging parcels and the trees that must remain standing. This causes shadow from sun in most of the tract at some point during the day. This severely limits the precious amount of sun needed in northern regions to allow wholesale regeneration. The treehuggers love their trees, sometimes to death (for the trees).