www.roanoke.com

Bill Cochran

Recent mail

• Buck measure as much art as science
• An unopened package of nine
• Proof of big bass record elusive
• Of elk and mast

• Mail archive
• Bill's Column
• Bill's Field Reports
• Trout stocking schedule

BILL: Thank you for the articles on the decline of deer in the national forest. I aspire to be a landowner some day, but at the present I am not. I hunt national forest a great deal and/or rely on generous landowners to allow me to pursue my passion for the outdoors and hunting.

This information on national forest management needs to be spread and understood by all. The current method of limiting logging and at the same time extinguishing every forest fire immediately is absolutely taking its toll. I understand fire is extremely dangerous to personal property and that not all fires can be left to burn. Something has to be done to allow for new age forests, through.

I like the scene of a beautiful hardwood hollow as much as the next guy, but the reality is that when you have nothing but this scenario, it is counterproductive to many forms of wildlife and creates a static environment. Logging is the safest answer. I prefer selective harvest over clear-cut practices, but anything is better than not having a diverse mountain ecosystem.

I attended the forestry plan meeting at JMU last year, and I plan to attend the meeting at Rockbridge County High School* to further express my feelings about this topic. I encourage everyone to take some form of action. Please do. The mountains we share depend on the greatest conservationists our forest have ever known -- hunters and fishermen.

*George Washington National Forest workshop on the forest plan, Jan. 29, 6:30-9 p.m., Rockbridge County High School, Lexington.

BILL: I was reading your Cochran Mail Bag which had some good points of view from other readers regarding the management of our national forest. Mr. Hart had a good comment about where our $4 permit fee to hunt and fish on national forest goes.

I know of two gentlemen who used to manage wildlife habitat on national forest land for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the hunter. They haven't done anything on national forest land for at least five years. Our permit fee went to pay these technicians, but now they are working on state lands. I asked them about this and they tell me that our permit fee is going to law enforcement for wildlife.

This, in my opinion, is a misuse of the permit fee because it is supposedly dedicated for wildlife management on the forest service lands. If the hunter and fisherman have to pay a permit for using the lands then the hiker, biker, or horseback rider should have to hold a permit as well. The U.S. Forest Service caters to these individuals by creating trails and areas for their use. Lots of campsites traditionally used by hunters and fishermen have been blocked with tank traps and gates. This, in my opinion, shows that the U.S. Forest Service is catering to the environmental movement. The hunters and fishermen should voice their concerns!

The national forest staff has all but eliminated timber harvest, and they are supposed to be foresters. Who would have thought? In nearby Giles County, we have lots of national forest land that is sitting idle with a lot of it considered old growth climax forest, which needs to be managed as such. That means logging it to make the forest sustainable, and eliminating forest fire hazards fueled by dead trees that need to be harvested. This problem will only compound with the devastating effects of the gypsy moth and drought. I hate to say it but, the gypsy moth may be the answer to creating the much needed habitat for early successional growth to improve deer and grouse habitat on national forest lands in Giles County.

BILL: I appreciate you mentioning the Cooperative Wildlife Management Program. The state biologists in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service used to do such great work back in the1960s and before. Creating wildlife clearings, blasting water holes, wildlife planting in conjunction with timber sales and the like. I expect that much of the wild turkey and deer reintroduction was done through the cooperative program.

Are you and I the only people that remember that great program that so effectively leveraged our wildlife management opportunities on public land? What would it take to get it back—designating the forest service stamp license receipts.? I wonder how those funds are used nowadays?

CHRIS/GARY: The national forest access stamp recently has generated about $400,000 per year, according to DGIF biologist Rick Bush. “We specifically plan about $150,000 to $200,000 worth of direct habitat work on the two forests and otherwise spend as much as $1,000,000 annually including fish stocking, technical assistance and law enforcement,” Bush said. The number of stamps sold has been declining.

BILL: Thanks to your recent columns, a sizable contingent of hunters from the Shenandoah Valley will be in attendance at the Woodstock (forest planning) meeting*.

I know two groups who have had success hunting rugged, mountainous public land in recent years. The first hunt was in western Augusta County. The hunters travel with a large crew of over a dozen members and orchestrate very efficient drives from dawn to dusk for a couple of days. They work hard and walk miles per day, but they end up with a pile of deer.

The other group hunts high in the mountains of western Madison County where hunting with dogs is legal. Members of the group climb to the peaks, often crawling on all fours with guns on their backs to reach the ridge tops. The dogs are released on one side of the ridge and then the other and, again, a substantial number of deer are seen and harvested, including some nice bucks.

The common thread of these two hunts is driving deer rather than still hunting. The lack of sign clearly indicates a low deer population, but it would be interesting to have a group of well-qualified dog hunters under DGIF supervision to spend a day or two driving areas of the national forest where the deer population seems to be in decline. No deer would be killed, but DGIF could get a real survey on the population by having standers who make notes on what the dogs are running.

I simply do not understand the mindset of those opposing logging of a few thousand acres per year on a tract of over a million acres. Not to do so is environmentally unsound and a tremendous waste of resources.

*George Washington National Forest workshop on the forest plan, Feb. 5, 6:30-9 p.m., Peter Muhlenberg Middle School, Woodstock