"In the 1970s, researchers started using the term “old growth” to describe complex, biodiverse forests at least 150 years old".........."Environmentalists prefer using the term to describe forests with large, old trees undisturbed by human impact"............. "Under the environmentalist’s characterization, much more forest would qualify as old growth"........ "The tension between these two definitions remains unresolved"

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__r20.rs6.net_tn.jsp-3Ff-3D0012KMILY7KwND6jA8xnJVDfLca8B0f6zQN0Hvw-2DcGIgFPPxHFt1FegZcPD6bk2OYR3oMCBbJQBEC6BLdUoUORZU9He-5F7vFWaOUrYQV-2Dms5WTDRVQSvHEld4vJQjDntfDZfc7vKS1VEJSkjXlRuFw7y7eYXCO3MgYWpt7m6pxcmuvcIos2u1tRysB3a2CpPGUUiRoeHfar7rvwsdZFT4f73Zyi3njVjuM-2DH-26c-3D0T-5FS89SiHPq6DOWoEMBgWFUzUPJ0a8B4TBuCmcXUGCAq7aX27F-2DptA-3D-3D-26ch-3Dm8lxYZXE1HexNsNajMlep6OcOlolhOCkrjYOkRdAhrE6rbFkBqxZjQ-3D-3D&d=DwMFaQ&c=-SicqtCl7ffNuxX6bdsSog&r=-DxtnAHbuRRkyWQnoegVz79cCKJiYDnPm_QtmQKN7-I&m=FlKB_D1DCxSHwgLZOmu_HMWTy1fGYHAS5fpA7CPQrYg&s=lE6282m_CRt-IWfKM4fTvgbxsQMDYEShIZ10vnWA-sA&e=

What is an 'old-growth' forest?

What’s so good about ‘old growth’ anyway?

Old growth forests are like a giant bank account of carbon – they store an enormous amount of carbon in their trunks, and allow even more to be stored in forest soil. Although scientists long had thought old trees can no longer absorb carbon, recent studies suggest they continue to capture large amounts into old age.

Carbon in the atmosphere is one of the main causes of climate change, so preventing carbon emissions is more important than ever. Despite that, old growth forests continue to disappear globally – victims of land clearing for industrial agriculture and logging.

In Regions with Winters that regularly feature both ice and snow events, which trees are best adapted to not only surviving, but thriving/

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__r20.rs6.net_tn.jsp-3Ff-3D0012KMILY7KwND6jA8xnJVDfLca8B0f6zQN0Hvw-2DcGIgFPPxHFt1FegZcPD6bk2OYR3e64VXvBypsNiQ1NINqji99rzaCk5vFkvOoSX7g3JIEy4zZbxnWG9P4kRd8wpMvMsVNYqyjTi2cgesn0cWv4DD5hIb7W1RyP72mrl0LqyFuaC2Ql-2DT08BcFjneIbXQry0wR2DDEYMtgMlraugvjz9WVU3Idc025-5FXk4dcHMncGbcsx7LhmYX2i5EVinERARNyAVuHnEi0hbrWyrh130DFdfZhtTxy5Vv-2Da-5FAWOuROEXgJKVjAp2JKv9t6nU9gwrtYbt71kvqvAvD7AFHbnU9r0g-3D-3D-26c-3D0T-5FS89SiHPq6DOWoEMBgWFUzUPJ0a8B4TBuCmcXUGCAq7aX27F-2DptA-3D-3D-26ch-3Dm8lxYZXE1HexNsNajMlep6OcOlolhOCkrjYOkRdAhrE6rbFkBqxZjQ-3D-3D&d=DwMFaQ&c=-SicqtCl7ffNuxX6bdsSog&r=-DxtnAHbuRRkyWQnoegVz79cCKJiYDnPm_QtmQKN7-I&m=FlKB_D1DCxSHwgLZOmu_HMWTy1fGYHAS5fpA7CPQrYg&s=2iAZo0_3sC4Yth6r3bBteHzKfGcu-RoE6g1ZegT2HMI&e=

Forest Journal: When winter returns, which trees cope best?

By Dave Anderson 

Dec 7, 2019

 Winter precipitation can include heavy, wet snow or freezing rain and trees must endure it. Despite what sci-fi or fantasy authors might imagine, trees can’t lumber away to a more hospitable climate.

Some trees are simply better adapted than others. The same can be said of New Hampshire’s human residents.

So just how do trees survive harsh northern winters?

Like any living thing, trees have adapted over time to deal with the wide range of environmental conditions thrown their way, including freezing rain, ice or heavy, wet snow. Trees that are not adapted to survive periodic ice loading simply don’t live here. Southern trees struggle to survive in northern climates. Trees that lose their leaves entirely or feature thick waxy coatings over thin fine needles compete more successfully than broadleaved evergreens like laurels or rhododendrons.

Some cone-bearing trees like pine, spruce and hemlocks fold their branches to shrug off snow. Conifers’ limbs tend to flex to release snow loads and spring back upward. Other trees, like red and white oaks or sugar maples, stand rigid and inflexible.

Broad-beamed mature oaks and maples exhibit a lower scaffold of heavy stout branches, an architecture less prone to breaking. On the other hand, supple upper branches with narrow “v-shaped” crotches of beech and red maples tend to break apart under heavy ice loads, dumping wreckage onto roads and lawns and powerlines.

Bend, but don’t break

Trunks of white birch — aka “paper birch” — famously bend under the weight of ice and may remain bent forever. White birch is our official state tree — what does that say about our state? I like to think we endure adversity, persevere and continue to grow, even if afterward we exhibit a kind of bent look ourselves from decades of northern winters.

Our northern deciduous trees lose their leaves in winter as a means of survival. Broad, flat leaves with tiny pores leak moisture. During spring, summer and early fall, this drives the upward movement of water from soil into the atmosphere via transpiration. In winter, when water is frozen in the soil, plants losing water through their leaves would quickly dry out in the cold. Shedding leaves is primarily an adaptation to cold temperatures to avoid drying out, but the reduction in surface area of bare branches also limits the potential to carry the excess weight of accumulating ice and snow, which would lead to more broken branches.

We see more tree damage during early snowstorms in the late autumn when trees still have some leaves. A heavy, wet snowfall at higher elevations during the “Halloween Surprise” storm hit deciduous trees harder than any comparable heavy snowfall in January.

Some New Hampshire tree species tend to retain their leaves into early winter, particularly when they are young. Botanists call these trees “marcescent.”

The more marcescent trees in New Hampshire are oaks, beech and occasionally young sugar maples. Typically, these younger saplings hold their leaves longer than more mature stems. These tree species first appeared relatively more recently — approximately 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.

The ancient relatives of oaks and beech trees originated in the tropics. Some scientists speculate they haven’t lived in the north long enough to respond as quickly to the autumnal fading light and colder temperatures, cues that it is time to shed their leaves. Northern trees that have been here for relatively longer time periods — birches, poplars, red maple and ash — have adapted and lose leaves quickly. Later arrivals — oaks and beech — have not. They exhibit their tropical families’ affinities in their propensity to hang onto their leaves into the winter. Other botanists speculate that retained leaves may afford some modest protection to the lower branches from browsing by herbivores like deer and moose.

Conifers – like an umbrella

The more common evergreens in NH include varieties of pine, hemlock, spruce and firs. Conifers retain approximately 80% of their needles each winter. A thick waxy coating helps the needles retain moisture. Yet heavy, wet snow can naturally become an issue.

Evergreen conifers are named for their reproductive “cone-bearing” trait (rather than flowers). It is also true that having a cone-shaped silhouette helps conifer branches to fold down like the ribs of a closing umbrella against the trunk to shed the weight of snow.

Sticky freezing rain is not as easy to shed as snow, so ice builds up even on downward folded limbs that then tear off the trunk or snap. The evergreen advantage in snow does not apply during more-frequent ice storms we now seem to experience. You’ve likely witnessed lawns and roads littered with pine limbs or experienced power outages when ice-crusted limbs contact utility lines.

When it comes to heavy wet winter precipitation, Muppet front-man, “Kermit The Frog” had it right: “It’s not easy being (ever-)green.”

Naturalist Dave Anderson is senior director of education for The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. Contact him at danderson@forestsociety.orgor through the Forest Society’s website: forestsociety.org.

"Masting is what biologists call the pattern of trees for miles around synchronizing to all produce lots of seeds and nuts – or very few"..............."Trees make their food through photosynthesis: using energy from the sun to turn carbon dioxide into sugars and starch".............."There’s only so many resources to go around, though".............. "Once trees make a big batch of seeds, they may need to switch back to making new leaves and wood for a while, or take a year or two to replenish stored starches, before another mast event".................."Weather conditions appear to be important, especially spring weather".............. "f there’s a cold snap that freezes the flowers of the tree – and yes, oaks do have flowers, they’re just extremely small – then the tree can’t produce many seeds the following fall"............. "A drought during the summer could also kill developing seeds"..............."Trees will often shut the pores in their leaves to save water, which also reduces their ability to take in carbon dioxide for photosynthesis"..............."Because all the trees within a local area are experiencing essentially the same weather, these environmental cues can help coordinate their seed production, acting like a reset button they’ve all pushed at the same time"

https://earthsky.org/earth/mast-year-synchorized-seeds-trees

Tons of acorns in your yard? It must be a mast year

Posted by Earth Sky;  | November 21, 2019

Masting is what biologists call the pattern of trees for miles around synchronizing to all produce lots of seeds – or very few. Why and how do they get on schedule?

If you have oak trees in your neighborhood, perhaps you’ve noticed that some years the ground is carpeted with their acorns, and some years there are hardly any. Biologists call this pattern, in which all the oak trees for miles around make either lots of acorns or almost none, “masting.”

Sometimes the ground seems paved in acorns. Image via kurutanx/Shutterstock.com.

In New England, naturalists have declared this fall a mast year for oaks: All the trees are making tons of acorns all at the same time.

Many other types of trees, from familiar North American species such as pines and hickories to the massive dipterocarps of Southeast Asian rainforests, show similar synchronization in sHarm to the tree’s flowers in spring doesn’t bode well for the acorn crop come fall. Image via almgren/Shutterstock.com.eed production. But why and how do trees do it?

Benefits of synchronized seeds

Every seed contains a packet of energy-rich starch to feed the baby tree that lies dormant inside. This makes them a tasty prize for all sorts of animals, from beetles to squirrels to wild boar.

If trees coordinate their seed production, these seed-eating animals are likely to get full long before they eat all the seeds produced in a mast year, leaving the rest to sprout.

For trees like oaks that depend on having their seeds carried away from the parent tree and buried by animals like squirrels, a mast year has an extra benefit. When there are lots of nuts, squirrels bury more of them instead of eating them immediately, spreading oaks across the landscape.

Getting in sync

It’s still something of a mystery how trees synchronize their seed production to get these benefits, but several elements seem to be important.

First, producing a big crop of seeds takes a lot of energy. Trees make their food through photosynthesis: using energy from the sun to turn carbon dioxide into sugars and starch. There’s only so many resources to go around, though. Once trees make a big batch of seeds, they may need to switch back to making new leaves and wood for a while, or take a year or two to replenish stored starches, before another mast.

But how do individual trees decide when that mast year should be? Weather conditions appear to be important, especially spring weather. If there’s a cold snap that freezes the flowers of the tree – and yes, oaks do have flowers, they’re just extremely small – then the tree can’t produce many seeds the following fall.

A drought during the summer could also kill developing seeds. Trees will often shut the pores in their leaves to save water, which also reduces their ability to take in carbon dioxide for photosynthesis.

Harm to the tree’s flowers in spring doesn’t bode well for the acorn crop come fall. Image via almgren/Shutterstock.com.

Because all the trees within a local area are experiencing essentially the same weather, these environmental cues can help coordinate their seed production, acting like a reset button they’ve all pushed at the same time.

A third intriguing possibility that researchers are still investigating is that trees are “talking” to each other via chemical signals. Scientists know that when a plant is damaged by insects, it often releases chemicals into the air that signal to its other branches and to neighboring plants that they should turn on their defenses. Similar signals could potentially help trees coordinate seed production.

Investigation of tree-to-tree communication is still in its infancy, however. For instance, ecologists recently found that chemicals released from the roots of the leafy vegetable mizuna can affect the flowering time of neighboring plants. While this sort of communication is unlikely to account for the rough synchronization of seed production over dozens or even hundreds of miles, it could be important for syncing up a local area

Masting’s effects ripple through the food web

Whatever the causes, masting has consequences that flow up and down the food chain.

For instance, rodent populations often boom in response to high seed production. This in turn results in more food for rodent-eating predators like hawks and foxes; lower nesting success for songbirds, if rodents eat their eggs; and potentially higher risk of transmission of diseases like hantavirus (tick borne diseases like Lyme)to people.

Lots of nuts is good news for the animals that eat them, and the animals who eat them. Image via TessarTheTegu/Shutterstock.com.

If the low seed year that follows causes the rodent population to collapse, the effects are reversed.

The seeds of masting trees have also historically been important for feeding human populations, either directly or as food for livestock. Acorns were a staple in the diet of Native Americans in California, with families carefully tending particular oaks and storing the nuts for winter. In Spain, the most prized form of ham still comes from pigs that roam through the oak forests, eating up to 20 pounds of acorns each day.

A mast year can be a squirrel’s dream come true. Image via Editor77/Shutterstock.com.

So the next time you take an autumn walk, check out the ground under your local oak tree – you might just see the evidence of this amazing process.

Emily Moran, Assistant Professor of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Merced

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Bottom line: Explanation of masting: the pattern of trees for miles around synchronizing to all produce lots of seeds – or very few.

"Mosquitoes are the world’s deadliest animal and cause immense suffering"............."Ideally, we should maintain their ecosystem functions while reducing their vector causing disease burden"

https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/how-it-works/the-bizarre-and-ecologically-important-hidden-lives-of-mosquitoes

The bizarre and ecologically important hidden lives of mosquitoes

The bizarre and ecologically important hidden lives of mosquitoes

BY EARTH TOUCH NEWS DECEMBER 05 2019

Daniel A.H. Peach, University of British Columbia

Mosquitoes. Hordes of them, buzzing in your ears and biting incessantly, a maddening nuisance without equal. And not to mention the devastating health impacts caused by malaria, Zika virus and other pathogens they spread.

But mosquitoes have a whole other life that doesn’t involve biting us; it revolves around their ecological interactions with plants.

We often view mosquitoes as bloodsuckers that do nothing but make our lives miserable. However, mosquitoes do have ecological functions. From pollination to ant puke, the secret life of mosquitoes is both bizarre and ecologically important.

Mosquitoes have many functions in the ecosystem that are overlooked. Indiscriminate mass elimination of mosquitoes would impact everything from pollination to biomass transfer to food webs.

A common house mosquito, Culex pipiens, covered in tansy pollen. Image © Mike Hrabar, Author provided

Mosquitoes that pollinate

There are about 3,500 mosquito species, many of which want nothing to do with biting humans or any other animal. Even in species that bite, it is only the females that do so and just to develop their eggs.

The fundamental food of all adult mosquitoes is plant sugar and its associated nutrients, most often in the form of floral nectar. In the process of looking for nectar, mosquitoes pollinate many of the flowers they visit — this is one of the most commonly overlooked ecological functions of mosquitoes.

Mosquito pollination is likely far more common than we realize. There is evidence that mosquitoes function as generalist pollinators in some plant families, and there are many known instances of mosquito pollination that are simply overlooked.

Mosquito pollination was observed as far back as the 19th century. Mosquito pollination is hard to see, as most mosquitoes visit flowers near or after dusk and human presence disturbs mosquitoes from nearby flowers. In the Arctic, plants make use of vast hordes of nectar-hungry mosquitoes for pollination during the short growing season.

Mosquitoes play an important role as pollinators. Image © Shutterstock

Mosquito evolution

The connection between mosquitoes and flowers is ancient and has likely had a strong influence on mosquito evolution. Genetic evidence supports a rapid increase in mosquito diversity corresponding with the appearance of flowering plants. Mosquito scales have been found in flower fossils from the mid-Cretaceous era.

Mosquitoes locate flowers by a variety of cues including odour and vision, and recent research has discovered that some of the odour constituents of certain flowers that mosquitoes feed on (and pollinate) are shared with humans. One interpretation of this is that to mosquitoes, some flowers may smell like humans, possibly indicating the evolutionary origins of why some mosquitoes take blood.

Sourcing honeydew

While less ecologically important than pollination, mosquitoes also consume plant sugar that has been processed by other insects.

Plant-sucking insects such as aphids excrete a sugary waste product known as honeydew, which is exploited as a food source by many insects, including mosquitoes. But honeydew is hard to find in the environment. Mosquitoes have solved this problem by using the smells emitted by microbes that live in the honeydew to locate it.

Additionally, honeydew is famously consumed by many ants, which farm aphids to collect honeydew. An ant can, through strokes of its antennae, induce a compatriot that has recently eaten honeydew to regurgitate and share some of its meal. Some mosquito species have learned to exploit this for their own benefit.

When a mosquito inserts its mouthparts into an ant’s mouth and strokes the ant’s head with its antennae, it tricks the ant into regurgitating and sharing its honeydew.

Biomass transfers

Mosquito larvae grow by consuming microorganisms such as algae and microbes that decompose decaying plant material. Larval mosquitoes contribute to aquatic food chains by serving as food sources for many predators, including fish and birds.

If a mosquito survives to adulthood, it flies away from its aquatic habitat. This transfers the mosquito’s biomass (its material weight) to the terrestrial ecosystem.

Adult mosquitoes are eaten by many creatures including birds, bats, frogs and other insects. Adult mosquitoes that die (or are eaten and excreted) then decompose, turning the microbes they consumed as larvae into nutrients for plants, completing another important ecological function.

Mosquito biomass has been calculated at 96 million pounds in Alaska alone. While the contribution of nutrient-cycling by mosquitoes to plant growth and other ecosystem functions remains unstudied, the amount of biomass involved implies that it may be important.

Unique homes

Mosquito larvae can be found in most types of freshwater, from temporary snow-melt pools to lakes. They can even be found in a few types of saltwater habitats such as crab burrows.

One of the more interesting habitats that mosquito larvae can be found in are the pitchers the carnivorous plant Sarracenia purpurea. These pitchers are filled with water and decomposing insects that provide food to both the plant and the mosquito.

The digestive enzymes in this plant are too weak to dissolve the mosquito larvae. Several mosquito species place their eggs in the water that collects between the leaves of tropical plants in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, and the larvae of some other mosquitoes attach themselves to the roots of aquatic plants to breathe.

Disease reduction, ecosystem balance

An Aedes mosquito feeding on the author. Mosquito blood-feeding may have evolved from feeding on floral nectar due to odour constituents shared between vertebrates and flowers. Image © Dan Peach, Author provided

Mosquitoes are also the world’s deadliest animal and cause immense suffering. Ideally, we should maintain the ecosystem functions of mosquitoes while also reducing disease burden.

Not all mosquito species are responsible for spreading pathogens. Targeting specific species or making the mosquitoes themselves immune to pathogens and thus unable to spread them would protect humans while keeping the ecosystem function of mosquitoes intact.

In a world of collapsing ecosystems and declining pollinator populations we need all of the help we can get. This includes acknowledging the secret lives of mosquitoes and more sophisticated mosquito control strategies that protects their ecosystem functions.

" Across the Americas, we kill more than 400,000 Coyotes a year"............"Despite this full-frontal assault, this adaptable predator is thriving beyond all expectations"............"Now, it's poised to enter South America!"............."Coyotes have dramatically expanded their range since 1900, carving out habitat in suburban and urban regions across the United States—including the greater Chicago, NYC and Washington, D.C, Montreal and Toronto. metro areas".............."Coyotes have colonized most of Central America in the past century".............."The Darién Gap, on the Panama-Colombia border is the final obstacle to their South American expansion"

We kill more than 400,000 a year, but this adaptable predator is thriving beyond all expectations. Now, it's poised to enter South America.

We kill more than 400,000 a year, but this adaptable predator is thriving beyond all expectations. Now, it's poised to enter South America.

Most Biologists prefer Eastern Coyote to the term Coywolf

The Eastern Coyote can range a good 15 pounds heavier than

the Western Coyote due to some 15% Eastern Wolf lineage

"Seismic lines, snowmobile trails, oil, gas and timber extraction and other human land altering activities fragment caribou habitat and facilitate their predator (wolf and black bear) movements(and killing success), simultaneously enhancing competition from white-tailed deer and moose".............."Restoring this altered habitat to optimum Caribou population carrying capacity is a long and drawn out affair that even when done in optimum fashion does not quickly mitigate predator impact on Caribou"............."Therefore, mitigation strategies that resist, or redirect Wolf, Bear, Deer and Moose movement where human land alteration has occurred can reduce the effects of those predators(and competing browsers) preying on Caribou".............."Therefore, by moving recreational snowmobiling trails, power lines et al. away from caribou habitat, may help draw wolves and bears away from caribou—thus, reducing those predators opportunistic killings of caribou-without the need to cull the Wolf and bear populations"

https://phys.org/news/2019-03-disrupting-wolf-movement-effective-caribou.html
https://phys.org/news/2019-11-habitat-threatened-caribou.html

MARCH 6, 2019

Disrupting wolf movement may be more effective at protecting caribou

by Jonah Keim, British Ecological Society

Photograph of an adult, female woodland caribou and a calf captured by a motion-triggered camera . Credit: Jonah Keim et al 2019

Woodland caribou populations have been dwindling towards local extinction across much of their range and scientists believe that predators, and specifically wolves, are a leading cause of the decline. 

Wolf populations are thought to have increased and expanded into caribou range due to the expansion of linear features, such as pipelines and roads, resulting from oil, gas and forestry development.Controversial practices such as wolf culling and building fenced enclosures have been implemented to reduce the encounters between wolves and at-risk woodland caribou in the Canadian Oil Sands.

New research suggests there may be more effective and less invasive strategies to reduce the ability of wolves to encounter caribou. Researchers used motion-triggered cameras to capture photographs of wolves, caribou, and other wildlife species in the Canadian Oil Sands. The study captured more than 500,000 photographs that were used to study the habitat use patterns of the animals and test management strategies aimed at reducing the impacts of the linear developments on caribou.The results showed that disrupting the ability of wolves to travel on the linear developments can reduce the ability of wolves to access caribou habitat, without building fences or culling wolves.

 A paper describing the research is published in the March issue of the Journal of Animal Ecology, a British Ecological Society journal. The paper reveals new methods for using motion-triggered cameras to study animals. In doing so, researchers found that spreading logs, felling trees, or roughing the soil surface of the linear developments can be used as a habitat recovery strategy to disrupt the ability of humans and predators to access the critical habitats of at-risk caribou.

Disrupting the ability of animals to travel on linear developments is different than recovering the habitat. It takes decades for the habitat to recover in these northern caribou ranges and the cost of reclamation is considered prohibitive. However, disrupting travel on these same features can be more easily implemented, scaled-up across ranges, and reduce the predator's ability to encounter caribou immediately.

Jonah Keim, the lead author of the study, and his collaborators, Subhash Lele of the University of Alberta, Philip DeWitt of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources & Forestry, Jeremy Fitzpatrick (Edmonton, Alberta), and Noemie Jenni of Matrix Solutions Inc. have been conducting studies in ecology and data science for more than two decades. In 2011, members of the team co-authored a study revealing the abundances, diets and habitat use patterns of caribou, wolves and moose.The study suggested that removing wolves may have unintended consequences. 

This January, the team released the results of a second camera study that shows how to reduce the use of caribou habitat by wolves. Surprisingly, they found that moving recreational snowmobiling trails away from caribou habitats may help draw wolves away from caribou—reducing the opportunistic killings of caribou by wolves.

Encounters between wolves and caribou can be managed by reducing wolf populations or by reducing the ability of wolves to access caribou. The research shows that the expansion of linear features has enabled wolves to more readily travel into caribou range and encounter caribou. Disrupting the ease-of-travel on linear features can reverse the impact on wolf-caribou encounters without wolf culling.

More information: Jonah L. Keim et al, Estimating the intensity of use by interacting predators and prey using camera traps, Journal of Animal Ecology (2019). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12960

COYOTES, WOLVES AND COUGARS BLOG reader Dave Messineo is an amateur Ornithologist who has participated in two New York State Breeding Bird Surveys with several published breeding discoveries under his belt..............In his New York home region, he is locally known as an experienced and expert birder...............He is also a student of the environmental changes that have occurred since European colonization began in the Eastern USA, circa AD1600...........An advocate of restoring this region to its 17th century Eastern Woodland environment as much as possible, he has actively encouraged his Upstate NY farm to recover from a cattle farming cycle of close to 200 years..............Dave passionately refutes with solid facts my most recent Blog Post entitled FOREST MANAGEMENT AND BIRDS that opined on the need to create prairie openings in Eastern woodlands to bring back bird populations that have been declining since the turn of the 20th century..............A solid Op Ed articulation from Dave for your reading pleasure below

Rick:

.

   There have a number of articles that encourage
 opening the forest for the benefit of birds.

    Unfortunately while this is well intended, it is 
misguided and simply wrong.

    Wood thrushes and indeed all the thrushes are
 forest birds and any decrease in numbers is a 
result of

 decreasing winter habitat and/or various 
chemical pollutants here in the US.

    The Golden winged warbler was never a 
numerous bird, preferring open areas with
 brush and trees. They

 have plenty of that kind of habitat here in 
NY but are still limited so something 

else is at play keeping their numbers down.

   The great eastern forest is home to many
 birds that don’t need openings to nest and
 breed. Openings only

 serve as a detriment and decrease their 
breeding habitat and in fact are deadly for them.

  These forest birds are threatened by the
 fragmentation of that forest. Many studies 
have verified the 

decrease of native eastern forest birds due
 to forest fragmentation. Audubon annual 
surveys bear this out.

     The birds that will benefit most from
 openings are mostly birds that were
 originally absent or limited in

 the eastand took advantage of the
 cleared land, eg.  bobolinks, meadow 
larks, grasshopper sparrow,

 savannah sparrow. vesper sparrow. As
 the forest recovers those birds will
 decrease or disappear.

    Opening the forest allows cowbirds 
(from the west) to parasitize our native 
forest birds.  When I was an

 active bird bander we found that Goshawks
 that built nests near fire breaks or forest 
roads were often

 killed on the nest by horned owls or raccoons.

    Indeed horned owls thrive in broken forest 
ares to the detriment of the barred owl and
 many other hawks

 and owls.

    Most of the warblers want unbroken forest
 eg. northern water thrush want forest swamps,
 Louisiana water thrush want forested ravines.  

     Canada warblers are deep in the forest. 
Wood peewees and pileated woodpeckers as 
well as most of the vireos need forest. 

    Winter wrens are found in cool forested 
swamps and ravines.

   These are the birds we lose through forest
 clearing and openings 

  It is also a fallacy that birds need young trees
 to feed and breed. Some birds do like young
trees which occur naturally without help.  But
 each bird has a particular niche for feeding. 

   Warblers and vireos may glean insects from 
the bark, some from the leaves.   Each has a 
special place in the ecology and the trees
benefit from the removal of insects. Young
 trees do not have  more food than big 

older trees. More than likely less food for birds.

 We have become used to all the midwestern
 and prairie birds here on our artificial eastern
 prairies but if we are to return back to our 
natural environment  we will have to accept 
 that as  we gain backour forest birds

 we will see less of the open habitat birds.

 The people that open up their forest will see
 more birds but the true forest birds are almost
 never visible anyway and are only detected by
 their distinct calls.  Most of the average forest
 owners have no idea of the existence of 
Swainsons thrush or Cerulean warbler or black
 throated blue or black throated  green warblers.
 Most of our forest birds never come to feeders.
 Most of my birding is by call or song. 

It is indeed unfortunate that some 
foresters/loggers are encouraging thinning 
beyond what is good forest management.
 Good forest management keeps

 the forest dense and only allows minimal 
thinning to keepthe trees growing quality
 lumber. Most foresters/ loggers will gladly
 cut your trees and will seldom tell a

 landowner to leave more tress. I have had 
several lumber sales and dealt with numerous  
loggers and foresters and they will use any excuse to 

advise the landowner to let them cut as it is 
profitable for them. 

I have participated in two Breeding Bird Atlases
 here in New York State for a period of ten years
 and I cantell you with a good deal of experience
 that forest openings are usually pretty blah
 areas for bird life.

Dave Messineo

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A few shots follow below of my wood lot which has many 
different habitats, wooded swamp, Hemlocks,cattails,
 ravines, steep slopes and river bottom and well 

as beaver ponds: 

Maple and cherry seedlngs will use increased sunlight 
to surge upward. Too much sun and all you get are

 blackberries and ferns which are of little use for wildlife.

Sugar maple and cherry shooting up in one area will restock the
future forest and offer habitat for hooded Warblers that prefer that 
habitat

A section of my wood lot showing uneven aged trees. A logging job
has opened the canopy to allow a limit amount sun to enter the forest
 but in a few years the canopy will close again as the trees grow
 larger from the increased sunlight

 A logging job has opened the canopy to allow

 a limit amount sun to enter the forest but in a few years the canopy
 will close again as the trees grow larger from the increased
bank account and I dare say  I have more bird species
 than any of the open forest advocates.