Disturbed Forest

Northern New England -- the "Great North Woods"-- is logging country.   What is important to folks like me is that when the loggers come in and cut and remove (i.e. "disturb") parts of the forest, they begin a 'regenerative process' that provides habitat for deer, grouse, rabbits, song birds, small mammals and diverse other wildlife that CANNOT successfully exist in mature, full grown forests.

When some one like me walks through such 'regenerations', he ends up with bruised knees and scraped shins due to the remnants of the logging process--stumps, logs, branches on the ground and saplings galore. He falls from time to time and usually has a "full-body-ache" at the end of the day. Such a pursuit is worth it to K-Lee and I, because we are seeking things that are wild.  We're having our own little adventure with the possibility of harvesting nature's bounty--although, if you've ever tried to take a ruffed grouse "on the wing", you know that there are absolutely no guarantees of success!  To me, that's alright.  If the ideas of grouse and woodcock hunting were about meat alone, it would prefer to visit the local grocer.  It's cheaper, easier, and more dependable than my feeble attempts at shotgunning. 

Today we have a large problem in that  many of our forests are not being managed scientifically.  There are lax "overseers" who opt to do nothing and avoid the sentimental push-back of the ill-informed--a decision which has its own negative effects.  I believe that our society has become so removed from nature and the "elemental things of life" that the unpleasantness of the natural process is considered "ugly" and "bad".  Oh, if only men and women would wake up and not live by sound-bytes!

 

Copy either link into your browser and travel to a recent video from the Ruffed Grouse Society which explains the truth of why we need "disturbed forests":  

https://www.facebook.com/RuffedGrouseSociety/videos/990152764401675

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taFNXt1vAMk