Hunting in the ANF

Took a 7 mile hike through some of the ANF today when I moved my log skidder in. Had to hike out seven miles because the trucker wouldn't go up the road. So I drove the skidder in and walked out.
Any of you fellas that hunt up in that country got my admiration. That is some tough country to get around in. And not a heck of a lot of game either..Saw 3 deer.. Not alot of tracks..Think I'll stick to the farms and creek bottoms where I'm at.

Bings--Where on the ANF are you cutting? I did most of my hunting there in the 60's-70's.  

I got my bear near there Bings.  The "secret" to finding game around that area is to hunt the thicker cover.  Every year we see legal bucks in bear season.  More than a few rear their heads in gun season.w_w.

26 acre clear cut. Have to see what happens they plan on sending semis hauling 50ft trees off the hill on the snowmobile trail.

S 10, I am a Forester and I feel the same way you do. They should be making 2-300 acre holes in the ANF. Small clearcuts get devastated by what few deer there are around. In the 80s I was buck hunting the last few days of buck around Sinnamahoning. The first couple days I was seing one or two deer/day. Then I came upon ~30-40 acre clearcut and the whole thing erupted with deer. ANF is similar and I have 50+ acres that borders it. The Gipsy Moths devastated it in the late 80s. We did a salvage+ cut a year when the oak trees left had a terrific mast. That winter we had long snow cover protecting those acorns. The next year the woods were carpeted with Oak Seedlings. That winter the deer must have camped there as the next summer on the 50 acres I could only find a couple seedlings in amongst the tops. They didn,t make the next winter. At a conference I asked a ANF Forester if they were planning on any cuts close enough to take the pressure off our property. He said as long as the deer were so numerous they had no plans of cutting. Well the deer are not plentyfull, what few are present  have nothing to eat in that mature forest. If there is food they will come from a long way. To the Foresters defence, they have to legally fight for any cutting they do on the ANF. If the organizations that fight the management policys on the federal land were held monetarily responsible for "our" lost revenue perhaps the Foresters could truely show the public multiple use management. Plus we could all benifit from the revenue.

bingsbaits, I have never cared if all the wood and lowgrade was taken out. However in select cut situations I do require that the trees that are not cut do not get pinned by tops, and the trees that are marked to be cut I want droped. I had a Job recently that a horse crew worked. They must have decided that some sections were to long of a skid and merely girdled all the painted trees. Half the trees were perfectly healthy trees I was merely releasing some others. I didn't realize what he did untill the job was done and he wanted his bond back. He must have spent a day girdeling trees at the end of job when he gave up cutting. I would have told him to just leave that timber alone and I would include it in the next sale. Now I have ~6000ft of dead standing sawlogs in the woodlot. I was going to cut them but never got to it. Three years standing dead and soft maples to boot, they are dangerous cutting now.

bingsbaits, I agree completely , girdling does create a safety  problem.! And I hate trying to drop standing dead trees that are rotten, it really gives me the creaps. I don't climb trees with my climber around dead trees,as I have witnessed to many fall even on still days. A big dead oak fell close to me second day of buck last year, it was quite impressive.

T.T.
Girdling can be a valuable tool for cavity dwelling birds and mammals.  As far as the hunting goes in the ANF, I saw 4 legal buck, shot the 3rd one which was a nice 8 point.  However, I have a good spot.

Everyone is so paranoid about clearcutting after the whole turn of the century thing here that we are neglecting it as our second best management tool........If you want to grow a really nice forest burn 5-600 acre parcels...it sweetens the soil and all kinds of things will pop up.....fire has been suppresed for too long....Talked to a few ANF employees who says they have started burning in some places but they have to be very quiet about it as you can imagine the stink it causes.