I posted a comment about my land that I had clear cut at the advice of a professional forester and then commented about the results of that cutting. My land looks like a manicured park with tremendous new growth and wildlife everywhere. We are in the process of clearing another small section now and then that section will be burned over. I live on this land and I hunt this piece of land as do many of my neighbors. Everything is working to perfection. So let me ask why someone can possibly comment negatively about property that they have never seen?

Someone needs to go to Southern Vermont and lay down a few of these.

The scientific part of me understands that clear-cutting (at least selective cutting) has its benefits. 15 years ago, a logging company clear cut about 40 acres on the border of a farm in Middle Tennessee. 5 years later my family bought that farm, and we could see that after only 5 years of regrowth there was a lot of thick cover and the deer were very happy.

However, last summer some neighbors on the other side of us clear cut about 20-30 acres on the top of a long ridge where we hunt and ride horses. Despite all the knowledge of what will eventually happen there, when I first saw it I felt like I'd been kicked in the gut. I've become very attached to that piece of land and to see it laid bare was really painful. Call me whatever you want, but when it's a place that you know like your on hand, where you've spent days on days hunting, hiking, and riding, it's really hard to accept. It'll be 50 years or more before it starts to resemble what it was just last summer. I'm sure that many things will improve for the wildlife, and for that I'm happy. I just wish I didn't have to see it.

Could not agree with you more about clear cuts, they are a great thing. I hunt National Forest in VA, and the areas that had sections clear cut 5+ years ago hold a lot more deer. Other areas it is all mature forest, and not a lot of food for the deer, needless to say the deer sightings in these sections of the NF are scarce.

Clear cuts bordered by sections of old growth and re-prod for cover, nothing better for big game habitat.....

Need to make a few clear cuts withing my hunting land... I have the trails for the ATVs and such but not really any open land within the woods... sounds like it would really help with hunting success.

Every time I cross a clearcut in the woods, i'm excited, on full alert, expecting that once in a lifetime buck to appear at any minute. Can be difficult hunting though as it gets thick. Bears love'm too.

well i am a lumber jack and yes i run a feller buncher. a timbco 445 exl to be exact. for a clean chip operation, all the tree, tops and limbs included is twitched out of the woods and used for saw logs, pulp chips for paper, or bio mass fuel for steam generated electricity. and living in the adirondack park (6 million acres of state and privately owned land) the state land in the park by the way is off limits to timber harvesting, and for the most part even farting in. most of the cutting we do is select harvesting diameter,species, or stand thinning. we have to get special permits to do large clear cuts over 20 acres. so most clear cutting here is a checker board pattern. 20 acres cleared of the large and dieing or diseased timber separated by 300 feet of undisturbed timber through out the prescribed area of harvest.
which makes for some top notch wild life habitat for all types of animals and birds , from song birds and raptors to voles, rabbits, white tails and black bear. the state land on the other hand is left to mature in to a climax forest, where there is very little re gen due to the large and dence forest canopy choking out light to the forest floor .pretty to be in and walk through, yes it is at times. but you better like looking at trees because there wont be nearly as many animals to look at on the uncut state land, like there is on the timber company and private land owners property .

I personally prefer burning an area, because the regeneration is more sufficient.

Nate

buck hunter .improper logging practices not clear cutting lead to erosion , mountain side or not. high lines or cables skidder's or grapples skidder's.if it is done correctly and with a bit of thought and care with water bars , buffer zones and stream crossings , put in place before, afterwards or left to begin with, erosion will be minimal at worst.

I know clearcutting produces good habitat, but that depends on the land.... Here in some areas of northern Michigan they clearcut 640 acre sections of National Forest all at once, but then go back, turn the soil and plant jackpine trees, so that no aspen or anything else for that matter grows...

The National Forests basically become tree farms, since whole square mile areas are nothing but row after row of jack pines with no other plants that are remotley benifical to wildlife... They claim that it is all for the endangered Kirklands Warbler, but before this "so called" program for that bird began, they just planted red pines instead..

I used to hunt a beautiful oak covered ridge that was next to a large cedar swamp, that now is a deserted tree farm...