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Coyotes-Wolves-Cougars.blogspot.com

Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions. This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization. Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. - Blogger Rick

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Friday, July 19, 2019

Maine's pam and Bryan Wells doing wildlife, woodland and river restoration work on their 1050 acres acquired by them 15 years ago---"Living a lot of Blog readers(and blogger Rick's) dream"


Read What will my woods look like-full Maine Government booklet below--
"A before and after, and sometimes during, photographs of a common harvest activity. Accompanying each image are observations from the perspective of a landowner, forester and logger. There is also information on likely wildlife habitat outcomes"

What Will My Woods Look Like?

What Will My Woods Look Like? Image
New growth after a crop tree release. Photo by Pam Wells.
When she was young, Pam Wells aspired to be a forester. It was the late 1970s, and as she now wryly recalls, “I was not encouraged, as a woman.” So she directed her smarts and considerable energy elsewhere, including a twenty year career as a children’s mental health social worker.
Pam’s fascination with the woods remained, however, and in 2004, she and her husband Bryan made an offer on 1050 acres of land just seven miles up the road from their home in Old Town, Maine. The property was in bad shape – poor logging practices had destroyed most of the forestland’s commercial value, and Pam remembers riding out with a game warden in the ruts left by equipment.
But it was cheap and beautiful, with stunning waterfalls. It presented endless opportunities for a woman inclined to forestry-related projects. After a few years, as the forest grew, she says, “I began to think, now what?”
What Will My Woods Look Like? Image
A view of Sunhaze Stream, which runs through Wells Forest. Photo by Pam Wells.
Pam’s answer to that question has led to continuing, escalating ambitions as a landowner. She has gone back to forestry school, not for a degree this time but for the specific purpose of learning how to care for her woods. She has also thrown herself into the physical work of management (for example, with her forester Kirby Ellis, she spent a summer with a host of University of Maine students, measuring stands of trees on her property). She and her husband have provided access to their land as a stewardship educational site, and have plans for stream restoration activities.  In 2017, Pam and Bryan were recognized as Maine Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year.
For the past several years, Pam has also served as a landowner advisor/contributing photographer to What Will My Woods Look Like?, a booklet just published by the Maine Forest Service. It’s an easy read, and an excellent resource for anyone who ever wonders what their forester is talking about, but is afraid to ask.
The booklet’s design is simple. Each section presents before and after, and sometimes during, photographs of a common harvest activity. Accompanying each image are observations from the perspective of a landowner, forester and logger. There is also information on likely wildlife habitat outcomes. As Pam notes, this approach encourages conversations about how each person measures success, in what time frame. Photographs can also help landowners overcome often-daunting forest industry vocabulary. “Precommercial thinning – what is that? Quit talking and show me.”
Andy Shultz, the Landowner Outreach Forester at the Maine Forest Service, notes that the idea for What Will My Woods Look Like? isn’t new; “we’d talked about making something like this for years.” A critical group of individuals and organizations had to come together to make it happen, to put together both the writing and photography from sites around the state. Shultz credits key support from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund and the Sustainable Forest Initiative, and in-kind support (paper) from Sappi North America. A pdf of the booklet (including a list of acknowledgements) is found here. As for Pam Wells, you can read a description of the Wells Forest and see a gallery of her photographs here. Be sure to check out the image of baby moose

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