I had to look hard before I could believe it was you!

Your pride in having discovered one of PineKnot's secret stashes of firewood shows clearly on your face!

Jimbo   

Today's POD....deer by the cabin.

They don't even let me have sharp objects let alone operate heavy equipement  .   It almost kills me to log parts of the property but I think it's the right thing to do.  I've learned some hard lessons over the years about land management  .  You gotta have long term vision and a large bladder to brain ratio. 

We're getting closer 

mpeebles wrote on Jan 16^th, 2021 at 5:01pm:


  I have friends who co-own a large tract of land in the UP. When they first bought it they thought the best thing to do was leave in in it's "natural" state.

  They resisted efforts by locals to log some of it using the best principals of land/wild life management.

  They didn't realize that what they thought was "natural" was due to humans stopping natural wildfires that cleared out the underbrush that choked much of their property.

The changed their views and allowed select longing under a well developed plan. They also spent a lot of time Brush Hogging areas around their cabins/hunting camps.

There are now MORE deer/wildlife than ever before and the proceeds from the logging pays most of their taxes. A win-win for everyone.

The locals told them that NOW that they understand what they knew from childhood, they are no longer considered "trolls" 

DD.....Back in the day I stacked a few hay bales both on the hay wagon and in the loft.  Nope, they didn't let me drive the tractor.  Yup...not a good career choice 

The logger I work with is a master logger and more importantly a deer hunter so he understands my goals.   The property is managed for wildlife management being the number one goal.  I think diversity is the key ingredient towards that goal.  The last thing that the property will ever look like is a monoculture of aspen or a park like setting of mature maple with no understory. We do not cut any pine. oak or hemlock and always try to leave dead trees standing to provide nesting sites for birds and other critters.  I, like Leupold, have a bias towards white pine trees, followed closely by red pine.  While areas of larger pines are not good wildlife habitat except for a few bird spieces (no understory)  they are places where I am happy being in.  That's important because if I'm happy the critters are happy

Just an aside .....I've had nothing but positive experiences working with our DNR folks, foresters, wildlife folks, etc.  Everyone, including me, were flexible in adapting to changing conditions (EAB, timber market changes, etc.) and proceeding accordingly.  Our "plan" has changed several times.  I've learned much from them.