State forests are now managed for long term sustainability.
Timber prices really tanked after the housing bubble burst. As prices rise, more private landowners will consider timbering.
For those who hunt public land exclusively, you need to become active when forest planning public input is sought.
When the Fed's do these open meetings, the tree huggers/anti-timber folks will show up, along with the old growth forest lovers and the spotted butt hawk lovers society, etc. But who rarely shows up is deer hunters.
On the other hand, the grouse hunters have been very active in aspen timber policy, for without cutting, grouse hunting will become a thing of the past.
This is from 2005. The USFS in Michigan had open meetings about the 10-15 year forest plans and almost no deer hunters showed up. We're about up for a new plan and I suggest hunting groups give their input...
Thoughts sought on national forest plans
By Steve Griffin
Field Editor
Midland, Mich. — Michigan’s three national forests — comprising nearly 3 million acres of some of the state’s best hunting and fishing spots — are in the final stages of mapping management plans for the next 10 to 15 years.
And managers of those forests are eager to hear what citizens have to say about their ideas.
The Ottawa and Hiawatha national forests in the Upper Peninsula, and the Huron-Manistee National Forests (two once-separate Lower Peninsula forests combined into one) released proposed management plans in March, and held public meetings throughout April.
Now, citizens have until late June to weigh on the proposals.
The plans have been in development for about two years. In each case, officials mapped several alternative approaches, and indicated the one they thought best fit the forest and its users.
In about one year, each forest’s preferred alternative will be judged against the comments, and a management plan will be adopted for each.
The Huron-Manistee forests comprise about 1 million acres of northern Lower Peninsula lands, through which flow two of the state’s best known trout streams, the Au Sable and Manistee rivers, along with several other fine rivers. Thanks to their location within a couple of hours of drive time to millions of Michiganders, the forests are heavily used by recreationists, including hunters and anglers.
Huron-Manistee officials considered three alternative management plans. Their preference is one that would include some semi-primitive motorized areas along with non-motorized ones; aggressively treating hazardous forest fuel situations and creating firebreaks; restoring barrens and savannahs, initially at a moderate pace but boosted nearly three-fold in 40 years; and maintaining current harvest rates of aspen and birch.
On the nearly 1-million-acre Ottawa National Forest, managers weighed four management alternatives and selected as its preferred alternative one that remains focused on hardwoods, but with some increase in aspen and conifers and a greater variety of forest types and conditions. It’s something of a midpoint between a strict focus on a minimally managed hardwood forest and aggressive management for grouse and deer. Under the preferred alternative, ATV access would be limited to designated roads open to vehicle traffic, and to designated trails.
The Hiawatha National Forest comprises about 900,000 acres, mainly in two saddle-like blocks in the central and eastern Upper Peninsula.
Four management alternatives were considered by the Hiawatha, each taking close looks at the main issues of managing vegetation, primarily trees, and managing recreation on the forest’s lands and waters.
The preferred plan would provide a continued, sustainable flow of timber products — and increase motorized recreational opportunities.
It strikes a midpoint between the other two new alternatives on non-motorized, conventionally motorized boats and personal watercraft on lakes within the forest; it also falls between them in miles of snowmobile trail eyed. It would ban cross-country travel by snowmobile.
The planning process used for the three Michigan forests is in line with the new Environmental Management Systems approach adopted by the Forest Service late last year. It allows forest managers to more quickly adapt to changing conditions such as wildfires and invasive species, and cuts the time required to draft management plans from as much as seven years to as few as two.
Groups such as the Ruffed Grouse Society have praised the new approach as a red-tape-cutting process.
“These new regulations shift the emphasis from producing paperwork to protecting forest health and forest wildlife.” RGS senior wildlife biologist Dan Dessecker said in a news release.
To learn more about the forests for their proposed management plans, or to register your comments, contact the forests at:
HURON-MANISTEE NATIONAL FORESTS, 1755 S. Mitchell St., Cadillac, MI 49601; phone (231) 775-2421;
www.fs.fed.us/r9/hmnf; OTTAWA NATIONAL FOREST, E6248 US Hwy. 2, Ironwood, MI 49938; phone; documents on forest’s web site,
www.fs.fed.us/r9/ottawa; comments due June 23;
HIAWATHA NATIONAL FOREST, 2727 N. Lincoln Rd., Escanaba, MI 49829; phone (906) 786-4062, e-mail
[email protected].
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I’d like to dispel the myth that the DNR’s main job is to manage wildlife.
It isn’t.
DNR officials manage people. You. Me. Everyone who picks up a gun or a bow. We, in turn, help them to manage wildlife populations by killing more or fewer of the animals we choose to hunt.
John McCoy
Topic: Michigan-Deer Winter Severity Index (Read 532 times)
