"Black Bear Bottom"

abruzzi · May 28, 2006

I am looking for some general references that will serve as a guide to stewardship of a site I recently bought and plan to build and live on.

I bought the last 15 +/- acres of a 30-acre tract of rolling land in the South Hills section of Charleston, W Va. The former owners developed the other 15 acres into 13 lots of 1.X acres each. I plan to keep my property in a single unit as long as I can.

The tract is bounded on the lower, northern border by a small creek, and abuts a residential development to the higher south boundary. This bottom area has had black bear on it in the past, which inspired its name on the subdivision books: "Black Bear Bottom."

The entry to the tract is listed as a public road but has been cabled off from traffic for years, and has only been used by the local utilities. The road is used by no private land owners and ends by just dumping into the forest. The result is a pristine site with a wide range of trees, some very old and some mere saplings, but incredibly dense. By July it is impossible to see ten feet into the forest.

I have just begun cutting saplings to get the lay of the land visually and pick a building site. But as I progress I realize I don't have the sligtest clue what I am doing from the point of view of the trees. The approach to date has been to cut down virtually all of the 1" - 4"+/- trees and leave in place the larger trees that get up to 3' and 4' dbh.

Some of the 3" saplings we're dropping are 20-30 feet tall, and removing them is letting in tons more light, and allowing different undergrowth to start -- ferns that don't appear in great numbers on the site. But I want to insure that the magic of this little forest remains when I'm finished -- that's why I bought it in the first place.

I should add that this is a wild site in every way. There are large boulder formations at random throughout There are deer in pretty good number, racoon, squirrels and lots of other critters including the flying types: woodpeckers, hawks, etc.

I have laughed off suggestions from buddies that I get a D-7 and clear it in a weekend. As matters go right now I and one pal with the two smallest Stihl chainsaws in hand, and a small BearCat chipper on its way, are picking away at it.

I'm trying to follow the so-called rule one of medicine: first, do no harm.

Thanks for any leads.

ShoerFast · May 28, 2006

Abruzzi

Welcome to the site!

If I may? To start with, I have no idea what you need to do in that area to stimulate natural growth, but from the hip, removing some of the bigger culls may free up some of the undergrowth?

Some pictures would be nice, just as a point of curiosity on my behalf.

I would spend some time there, camp-out in different areas, find were you think it's the best to wake up at, what areas catch the best summer breezes and shun the winters brisk winds?

It sounds like your going to have a lot of fun with your project!

Kevin

What I do know, if you want to have a problim with the bears? Just feed them! (as you will notice, it is like feeding trolls here!)

abruzzi · May 28, 2006

Plat, Trees, Hooter & Barn

Here's a pdf plat of the property with some comments, a jpg showing a typical example of the timber stand (maybe 75 to 90 feet tall, the first 55 to 60 feet straight as an arrow) and a hooter, spotted today as I left the site with camera ready - a really big owl, wing span may 3 to 3 1/2 feet. Made me realize what I'm trying to do - make a habitat for me without destroying theirs. Last pic is of a local barn, too dilapidated to move, but capable of being cloned and constructed on site. And, yeah, I plan to spend a few weekends out there this summer camping out and picking a spot.

1I'dJak · May 28, 2006

you're situation is one i've always dreamed of...managing my own little stand..
i was involved with a project here on vancouver island where we were thinning riparian zones surrounding creeks that had been logged 40-50 years ago... since it was second growth the stand was dense and there was little light penetraion and vegetative undergrowth... our job was to thin the stand out, mimicing 'old growth' patterns... so from a stand of roughly 1000+ stems per hectare were were thinning to 350-450...(bout 2 1/4 acres to a hectare)... our thinning was not to be uniform and though we were encouraged to leave the healthiest specimens were were encouraged to leave a diversity... especially rare deciduous trees.... we were also to scar areas of bark on a certain number of trees to induce decay, encourageing wildlife tree creation. so if i were you i'd look at what average density of mature stands in that area are, focus towards that... cut out openings, leave clumps of trees, keep it variable ie old trees and young trees... even aged stands are more prone to pests and disease...and make sure to leave some nice big standing dead/dying trees as these tree are essential for habitat bugs, birds, bats, bears etc... obviously don't leave them where you may be putting a building... feel free to dump and nice big tree to mill up or sell...good luck, I'm envious!

coveredinsap · May 28, 2006

I would recommend using some of the different onlite satellite and arial photo map viewers (such as google earth or terraserver) to help you get a better idea of the lay of the land...combined with USGS maps (also available online) should give you a better idea of what you're dealing with.
Personally, I've used the above plus a Magellan handheld gps to plot/draw maps of the features of similar parcels, i.e. ponds, meadows, forest, bolder fields, building sites, etc.

Looks like a nice parcel. The challenge is to keep it that way.

By the way, that barn looks to be not in too bad of shape, and certainly restorable. I'd make that my 'home base' for starters.

abruzzi · Jun 3, 2006

Thanks for helpful suggestions -- and here are a few others

Thanks. Your ideas are helpful, and I have begun to implement some of them, particularly the idea of mixing it up, clearing here, dead tree there, untouched around the corner. I plan to camp out there frequently this summer to discover the wildlife in the AM and PM. Will post any worthwhile pics.

And I've begun walking around with a Palm Pilot/GPS combo from Garmin, the iQue 3600 to start taking positions on landmarks on the property. I may start taking positions on individual trees, at least the big ones.

Also thought others might find useful some resources I found in a google led surf. I've attached several pdf's from a Wisconsin DNR site that provide very pragmatic suggestions about how to cohabit with and promote wildlife -- there are even more on their web page at

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/wildlife/publ/wildland.htm

And I've attached a somewhat more ponderous, but still useful, tome from the Ecological Society of America's site at www.esa.org

Last my girlfriend, a serious bird watcher, "inspired" me to buy a new book by Stephen W. Kress, The Audubon Society Guide to Attracting Birds: Creating Natural Habitats for Properties Large and Small, available from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/ for 15 bucks.

I also used my Crary Bear Cat chipper for the first time this week (mod 70080), the search for which initially led me to this site. Thumbs up on this tool. It sucked in the downed trees like a vacuum cleaner. Flawless. And I am now hip deep in mulch.