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Forest Habitat/Uses

Quick Reference         

Manage for Wildlife  Wood Product Uses  |  Tree Identification      

Manage for Wildlife

Wildlife and Your Land:  The Wildlife and Your Land series is designed to offer suggestions to you, the private landowner, on how to manage your land for wildlife.

Michigan Forest Management Wildlife Habitat Guidelines:  Forest management practices are a key to managing wildlife habitat and populations. These practices can produce the diversity of vegetation types required by numerous wildlife species that depend on specific forest stand conditions to meet their life requisites.

Wisconsin Woodlands: Wildlife Management:  This publication discusses some of the basics of wildlife management. It lists useful management practices and techniques, the steps involved in developing a wildlife plan management plan, and sources of additional information and assistance.

Incorporating Wildlife Needs into Forest Management Plans :  As a landowner, you have the opportunity to manage all or part of your land in a way that is sensitive to wildlife needs. If you have made the decision to harvest timber from your property, you can decide to protect important habitat components for wildlife while harvesting timber.

A Landowners Guide to Woodland Wildlife Management:  This publication was developed for the private landowner to manage your property for enjoyment and profit, for the betterment for wildlife habitat and populations, and for the overall sound stewardship of Wisconsin's natural resources. Emphasis is on Ruffed Grouse.

Trail Design for Small Properties:  Trail Design for Small Properties provides simple, inexpensive solutions for designing, building, and maintaining sustainable trails.

Coverts Woodland Wildlife Management Program:  "Coverts" is a Woodland Wildlife Management Program for Private Landowners (sponsored by University of Wisconsin).

Old-Growth Forest Network:  The preservation of unique and beautiful tracts of land as National Parks is often called America’s Best Idea. Now it is our turn to ensure that future generations can experience native forests in their mature diversity and complexity. On this site, you can search for forests in our Network for example: Dedicated, Candidate, Community or Private Forests.

Why I Blame Wall Street for My Lyme Disease  By Jim Harding Aug 28, 2018  published in Slate.

In August of 2017, I was diagnosed with Lyme disease. To be honest, I was surprised it took as long as it did for me to finally join the growing list of those who’ve contracted the nasty illness. I teach forestry to undergraduate college students, which means I’ve spent the better part of the past 25 years roaming through the woods of New England. During this time, I’ve killed legions of ticks that I found crawling up my pant legs, over blaze-orange hunting vests, or down my collar. Continue reading Jim's experience

Michigan DNR said it killed wolves to protect humans. (Article from Bridge Magazine: Michigan's nonpartisan, nonprofit news source)   The DNR has long insisted the wolves posed a danger to humans, citing an incident in the spring of 2016 where a wolf from the Ontonagon pack raced past a DNR employee to kill a calf on the Dykstra beef farm. The wolf’s aggressive attack in a worker’s presence was enough to secure federal approval to shoot the wolves, under an exception to the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Bridge’s report showed that the state agency’s justification for the wolf kills was false. No wolf raced past a worker that day to kill a calf, as DNR internal emails and other documents secured by Bridge made clear. Read More.

Can wolf reintroduction help stave off chronic wasting disease?   Proponents of Colorado’s initiative to reintroduce the predators suggest they could bolster herds against the disease.

Where the Wild Words Are:  Dedicated to literal wild things, wild ideas, and hopefully wild laughter. The Natural History Page has links to over 160 essays on parachuting beavers, thundersnow, horrifying 3-metre "Bobbit" worms, exploding trees, apple-core morality & more. Satirical bits on GMO bacteria which exude Milk of Human Kindness, & such-like are kicking around, too.

Wisconsin Tales and Trails:  George Vukelich was an outdoor writer, story teller, novelist, poet, essayist, radio announcer and jazz DJ. His career spanned from the mid 1950s until his death in 1995. Many of his Wisconsin articles appeared in the Wisconsin Outdoor Journal and Wisconsin Tales and Trails Magazine. You can see many of these articles at the papahambone.com.

Hiking to the Red Pine (Largest Red Pine in Michigan):   John Crumrine created a photo book of the hike that he and his wife, Susan, did last May to the largest Red Pine in Michigan. Click here to view the photo book.

 

Wood Product Uses

A Rocker Made From A Tree  Using a high quality Black Ash tree harvested from his managed woods, Forester and woodworker Bob Simeone describes the process of how he constructed a rocker made from a tree.

 

Tree Identification

Tree Identification in the U.P:  Upper Peninsula tree identification key from Michigan State University Extension.
Identify that Tree: 
Confidently identifying trees requires a good deal of knowledge to distinguish the characteristics of a particular genus of tree. Examining different tree parts will enable the searcher to identify the various trees located in the wild. 
Dichotomous Key Tree Identification:  A dichotomous key is one tool that can be used to identify trees. A dichotomous key contains a series of choices that lead the user to the correct name of an item. "Dichotomous" means "divided into two parts." Therefore, a dichotomous key will always give two choices in each step.

A Basic Guide to Tree Identification:  While trees are similar in the shape, all trees are not the same. Trees come in many different shapes, sizes, types of leaves and more variations. Also, depending upon where you are located, the types of trees that grow there can change dramatically. To assist you in identifying the various types of trees that exist, we have put together the following resources.

Natures Playground: Identify Trees, Flowers and Animal Tracks:  Studying nature is a wonderful way to recognize the beauty and brilliance of natural design. Whether you live in a rural country area or a busy city, you can find many different animals, plants, and trees that will help you understand how important nature is to our planet. 

Identifying Trees Around Your Home:  If you have an appreciation for nature and the outdoors, you may begin to wonder about the types of trees, birds, flowers, and other flora and fauna that you are seeing during time spent outside. Learning to identify trees is a fun and interesting way to begin your investigation. You can start to learn to identify trees visually by examining leaves, bark, and more.

Tree Ring Analysis: NY Times Article: The rings of trees offer a far more complete historical picture of climate variations. As they age, trees form new distinctive rings, outward from the center, and each year a new, distinct circle of dead wood is created around the trunk of most trees. In that ring, one can find information about precipitation, temperature and other data about that year.  Click here to read more about Tree Rings

TREE IDENTIFICATION GUIDE   It’s easy to go through life with what our third-grade teacher taught us about trees. What we ‘half remember’ is enough for us to happily relegate trees to the background of everywhere we go and everything we do.

Glossary of Terms Relevant to the Identification of Trees and Shrubs:   Learn about alternative leaves, ament, armament, axillary bud and much, much more.