Re: Rows of Trees (Was: The Education Function)

Michael Lorrey (mike@lorrey.com)
Wed, 16 Dec 1998 12:26:21 -0500

Joe E. Dees wrote:

> Date sent: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 12:58:53 -0500
> From: Michael Lorrey <mike@lorrey.com>
> >
> > a) every where I see replanting, when it is on a hillside it is
> > randomized, when in the valley it is regularized.
> > b) at the turn of the century, NH was 90% clear cut. Now just 10% is cut
> > and developed. The regrowth everywhere is diverse and random. The areas
> > that were replanted by hand with evergreen trees are the best dense cover
> > for deer and other animals. They take shelter there, and venture out into
> > the hardwoods only to forage for food.
> >
> > Mike Lorrey
> >
> >
> I know Champion Paper Company. Champion Paper Company is a
> corporate neighbor of mine. I have walked their grid-planted
> nothing-but-pine pulpwood farms and I have walked protected
> woods. Their land is no habitat.
> I go camping for two weeks every year, and have for the last fifteen.
> Is that real enough for you, or have I neglected my forest-person
> research? What kinf of woodsperson are YOU? Joe

My hunting cabin is on paper company land, which we've leased for 35 years. Owners have come and gone, first Brown Paper, then International Paper, then a couple others, now its Mead Paper. I hunt and fish all through this land, which is regularly logged. Some is left fallow to grow back slowly, while other areas are replanted, typically on hillsides. The diversity of cover between the logged and unlogged areas provides just the sort of cover that deer, coyote, rabbit, grouse, and other species love. We have more deer living in NH now than in colonial times, because there is a diversity of covers, not just constant old growth everywhere..