Habitat Improvement

The spring field trials are over here in Northern New England and its time to get some work done on our summer training grounds. We are very fortunate to have a few pieces of private land with strong numbers of grouse and woodcock that the the landowners are willing to let us do some mowing and trail clearing. I am also talking to one of my neighbors who is a logger to do some cutting on my own place. My 100 acres was a dairy farm at one time, was allowed to grow up, and was then clear cut almost 20 years ago. When we bought it ten years ago it held good numbers of both grouse and woodcock but those numbers have decreased recently as the woods have grown back up with lots of spruce and fir. My neighbor has developed a system designed to leave little behind when they cut -- they have three pieces of a equipment that work over a piece of ground. First the shear comes in, delimbs, cuts the logs to length and then stakes them. The forwarder comes in next and loads and hauls (not drag) the logs to the landing. The third piece of equipment is a forwarder that has a chipper directly behind the cab and a box for the chips -- this comes in last and picks up and chips all the brush and tops. Will probably start with 2 or 3 five acre clear cuts to get more early forest growth.