Yes Ed you are absolutely right but I found contacting those responsible was just about like writing a letter and throwing it in the trash can. Probably contacting the media and more Audubon Society pressure to keep this from happening again would be good for followup.
Also promoting forest service management to specifically plant Shortleaf Pine stands exactly as they did in CCC days moving forward would be extremely valuable for the future of Brown-headed Nuthatches and eventually returning the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers to Kentucky as well.
There is a lot of history on this that I personally witnessed and photo documented circa 2000 when they removed the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and proceeded to harvest most of the Shortleaf Pine in the DBNF with the pine beetle excuse. I have a lot of it documented in my article on Brown-headed Nuthatch Range Expansion in North American Birds published at that time.
I can’t say for sure but I have a hunch there are too many in charge of these decisions with associations with loggers, sawmills etc. I bet someone along the line made a bundle off of that yellow pine harvest. I would not put it past someone to have gotten the state to put the road through there for that very reason. It certainly made no sense to put it there and the USFS certainly could have declined the plan if they wanted to.
I saw that when they harvested those pines at the other BHNU location with the excuse they needed more room for parking there while the Ranger Station was closed! This was when they knew they were supposed to be protecting that area for the Brown-headed Nuthatches. They had all those big logs stacked up and trucked out of there in a week! They have their own big field there as well which they could have easily modified for parking but they obviously wanted that timber!
My guess is they won’t be satisfied until all the pines are harvested that they can get their hands on. They probably did the same with the Shortleaf Pine stands at Land Between the Lakes unless that plan was changed. There are hardly any good stands of pines left in Kentucky now. And there is no adequate forest management to replace them either. Just doing burns and letting it go without management and actual thinning and weeding of the young pine stands until they grow tall enough to stand on their own does not work.
Frank Renfrow Fort Thomas
On Mar 30, 2024, at 5:05 PM, Ed Leathers <emleathers@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
If we stay silent when something like this happens, then it will most likely happen again in the future. They got away with this wrongdoing, even when they were told of the ecological significance. I think we should all write to the person responsible for allowing this to happen and tell him/her how upset we all are! Could you give us a name and an email address and some some details about what exactly they did with the exact location, so that we can do this!?
Ed Leathers
Franklin, KY
On Sat, Mar 30, 2024 at 2:33 PM Frank Renfrow <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:I just got a message that someone went by the London Ranger Station and almost all the pines except some on the periphery have been logged. So sad.
I was supposed to be updated by the USFS, and KY Fish and Wildlife but they did not inform me and I likely have unanswered emails to them from last year. This begs the question, why are public employees who are supposed to protect our natural areas so unresponsive to the public and also so unresponsive to protecting those natural areas?
I hope the Brown-headed Nuthatches find their way to some of the other locations I know about but have only revealed to a few. I hope those few keep those locations under their hats so the remaining nuthatches will not be bothered for checking off on lists purposes by birders.
Now I wish I had followed my first instinct and I had never told anyone where these locations are as from previous experience that seems to make them more targeted for logging than less so. So please do not give that info out if you got it from me!
If they take off in any of two or three directions they may need to reach another state before they find any such habitat as that was one of the last remaining really good Shortleaf Pine stands in Eastern Kentucky at least that I have been able to find.
It is very troubling the USFS decided to wipe out the pines to put in a new Ranger Station as I was informed otherwise the tragically placed road project may not have necessitated the removal of so many pines. And there was field acreage for sale Roth next door. As usual they destroyed the forest in order to save it!
Frank Renfrow
Fort Thomas
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