MFA HOSTS PRO SILVA TOUR
by Bill Botti

One day last spring we had a call from MFA member Claude Rowley, of Hudson. Claude had attended a European forestry tour a few years ago sponsored by a group called Pro Silva. Pro Silva is a European federation of foresters who advocate forest management based on natural processes. It was founded in 1989 in Slovenia.

Claude’s call was to inquire as to whether MFA would be interested in hosting a group from Europe who might like to visit Michigan. I answered that we would, indeed, be interested in hosting such a visit.

Shortly after my conversation with Claude I received a call from Si Balch, a forester in Maine, and the United States’ connection to Pro Silva. Si had a few more details about the trip – it would be in September. There would be two people coming; both from France. One is a forester; the other a large forest landowner. They would be interested in seeing any research areas we have related to the management of our northern hardwoods.

Michigan has two outstanding research sites that fit the description perfectly – the Dukes Experimental Forest on the Hiawatha National Forest, and the silvicultural trials at the Ford Center owned and operated by Michigan Technological University at Alberta, about 40 miles south of Houghton. So we began to make plans to visit Dukes and Alberta in September.

One of our two French guests was Roland Burrus, a retired businessman whose family owns several thousand acres of forest. Roland oversees its management working with a forester and others. Roland speaks very good English and served as an interpreter for the other French guest, Roland Susse.

Roland Susse is the head of a consulting forestry business. He is also the president of Association Futaie Irreguliere (AFI), The Association for Uneven-Aged Forestry (my translation). Both these gentlemen are active in civic affairs as well as forestry related organizations.

Rounding out our traveling band was Dean Reid, of St. Ignace. Dean is a long-time MFA member and member of the Michigan Tree Farm Committee. He spent many years managing a state forest in Mackinac County and now works as a consulting forester.

Our first planned activity was to be a barbecue and visit to Nick Thoney’s Tree Farm near Daggett, about an hour’s drive southwest of Escanaba. We were to meet Si, Roland and Roland at the airport and drive them to Nick’s place. Sadly, the plane was an hour late and the weather was rainy, making it next to impossible to get to Daggett before dark. A phone call to Nick helped us make the difficult decision to scrap that part of the trip, so we had a quiet dinner at the Best Western in Escanaba. MFA board member Bill Cook joined us for dinner. Bill is the MSU Extension Natural Resource Agent for the Upper Peninsula.

Sunday morning we met Lauri LaBumbard, a forester on the Munising District of the Hiawatha National Forest. Lauri is just completing her training as a silviculturist. She led us to the Dukes Experimental Forest and gave us a tour of the cutting trials established there in 1926. Several approaches to tree selection were demonstrated. First, we looked at diameter-limit cuts, in which all trees above a certain diameter were removed. We also looked at stands reduced to different basal area levels. The treatment that led to the recommendation for northern hardwoods was the removal of overmature and defective trees, leaving 70 square feet per acre of basal area. MFA board member Bill Cook and his wife, Betsy, were with us for the Dukes tour; they brought pasties for lunch, along with some homemade salsa and local wines.

After leaving the Dukes Forest, we drove up to Baraga with a stop at Canyon Falls. The fall color was good, but not quite at its best. Still, Roland and Roland were impressed – they evidently don’t see the reds and oranges in Europe. We ended the day Sunday in the company of MFA board member Chris Hohnholt, who welcomed us with a wonderful steak dinner provided by the School of Forestry and Natural Resources at Michigan Tech’s Ford Center – on his birthday, I might add.

Monday morning we returned to the Ford Center for a tour of Michigan Tech’s cutting trials. Before the cutting trials, however, we looked at a study of root growth in a sugar maple stand related to soil temperature and the effects of increased temperature. Graduate student Mickey Jarvi has set up plots with infra-red lighting warming the soil by 4 degrees C during the growing season. This is intended to simulate conditions if global warming should continue for a century or more. After two years of study, there are some changes showing up – increased microbial activity in the soil and increased plant respiration. These effects could be stressful to the trees, but sugar maple handles those conditions in the southern part of its range. “It will be interesting to see whether these maples can adapt and how they will do it,” Jarvi said.

Our tour of the Michigan Tech northern hardwood cutting trials was led by graduate student Wilfred Previant. This is a study begun in 1956 on a site harvested 20 years earlier by then-owner Ford Motor Company. Findings tend to support those of the Dukes trials – removal of overmature and defective trees is the best way to maintain stand quality. Studies of tree ages in the Michigan Tech trials suggest they may not be getting the regeneration of maple that is needed for true stand sustainability. Thus, the need for further study.

Michigan is fortunate to have these two research sites where studies have been going for 85 and 55 years, respectively. These are good places to visit to dispel any doubts one might have about the effectiveness of forest management.

After lunch with the students at the Ford Center, we began our return trip to Escanaba. On the way we stopped at Gwinn, where Department of Natural Resources foresters Jim Ferris, Kevin LaBumbard (Lauri’s husband), and Ben Travis led us to a northern hardwood stand on state forest land where extensive deer browsing has destroyed all forest reproduction and led to an understory carpet of Pennsylvania sedge. A lively discussion ensued as we stood in the rain listening to the recommendations of the French forester and landowner. Their suggestion was that we should shorten our entry cycle from the current 15 to 20 years down to 6 or 7 years. That, they said, would allow less light to penetrate to the ground and would offer less encouragement to the sedge. How to deal with the sedge that’s already there is another question.

Monday’s activities ended with a whitefish dinner at the Buck Inn in Wells, near Escanaba, sponsored by MFA. Bill and Betsy Cook rejoined the group for dinner. On Tuesday morning Roland, Roland and Si boarded a plane for Boston. It was a very enjoyable and enlightening visit; we hope it is the first of many such exchanges.

WOODLANDS FOR WILDLIFE
PROPOSED BILL WOULD PROTECT HUNT, FISH RIGHTS ON PUBLIC LANDS
by Don Ingle

Sportsmen and recreationists in Michigan and nation-wide are giving a newly proposed congressional bill a close look. So far, most seem to like what they are seeing.

Introduced in late August was the “Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage and Opportunities Act,” a proposed act that will assure that hunting and fishing opportunities will become a priority on 440 million acres of federal public lands including Michigan’s national forests.

The bill was introduced by Upper Peninsula Rep. Dan Benishek (R-MI) and Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK). Cosponsors of the bill include Reps. Don Young (R-AK) and Mike Kelly (R-PA).

The bill is also supported by other key members of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, members of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, and the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance.

Under this bill, a vast pubic land base would be managed to assure future use by sportsmen and women. The acreage affected is managed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), federal lands found from coast to coast. These land are used – and relied on – by many public land hunters, trappers, shooters and anglers.

This bill was championed by the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA) and other leading angling and hunting organizations. It would establish in law that recreational fishing, hunting (which includes trapping), and shooting - all important and traditional activities to be continued on these public lands. It notes that fish and wildlife conservation is improved by protecting these activities.

A coalition of outdoor recreational organizations is joining together to support this landmark effort. These include the American Sportfishing Association, TU, NWTFA, National Rifle Association, Safari Club International, and the Congressional Sportsmen Foundation.

“The USSA has strongly encouraged such legislation for over a decade to spell out in law that fishing and hunting on federal public lands must be protected from the rising animal rights lobby,” said Bill Horn, USSA director of federal affairs. “This bill will provide needed protection for years to come.”

Recreational anglers, hunters and shooters have been, and continue to be, the foremost supporters of sound fish and wildlife management and conservation in the United States. The proposed bill further highlights that hunting, fishing and recreational shooting occurs on Federal public lands and waters, without adverse impacts or effects on other uses or users.

In Michigan, with four national Forests and considerable BML lands, those public lands and waterways offer outdoor recreation the envy of many surrounding states with less available public lands for recreation.

The act’s features are similar to the designation of fishing and hunting as priority public uses on national refuge lands in the 1997 National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act.

This proposed bill would expand these concepts to USFS and BLM lands. The Refuge Act has curtailed attempts by antihunting groups to stop hunting on some public lands where hunting has traditionally occurred.

Sportsmen say that the act would protect traditional fishing and hunting, and is needed since animal rights activists continue to press for fishing and hunting closures on public lands. These assaults against hunters take several routes. Some courts require the land’s managing agencies to actively consider wholesale hunting and shooting closures to appease this fringe group. In other cases, fishing, and hunting get treated as “new” activities which cannot be authorized (and continued) until numerous lengthy and costly environmental reviews and land plans are completed. This new bill will block these threats.

“It’s important to note that the new bill recognizes that recreational shooting is also an important and traditional activity in which millions of Americans participate,” said Horn, “and establishes that safe recreational shooting is a valid use of federal public lands. Participation in recreational shooting helps recruit and retain hunters and contributes to wildlife conservation through taxes and assorted programs.”