January 29, 2023: Eagles Soar over Wicwas

This week there were four large birds soaring high over the Lake Wicwas.  Our first thought was eagles because they were so large, but we don't usually see eagles soaring in groups, so then I thought maybe turkey vultures, but they aren't this far north in winter.  As they circled closer we could see they were in fact bald eagles - four of them, all mature.

And they didn't seem pleased; they were acting aggressively and as they got even closer we could hear them calling.

Beaks open, squawking at each other.

I don't know much about eagle behavior but perhaps this was two pairs arguing over territory.  Eagles are territorial and will defend their home turf.  Eagles mate for life, and breeding season starts in late winter so newly formed pairs need to find a nesting territory.  Whether it was an eviction or not, after one pair left, the remaining pair settled down into the same tree they used to watch over the deer carcass on the ice a few weeks ago.  

Two perched eagles.  They seem to like this particular white pine tree.

White pine is the preferred nesting tree for bald eagles - it would be exciting to have a pair of bald eagles nest on Wicwas!  Well, maybe not for the loons....  This was another new experience for me, a result of the rebounding eagle population, enabled by work to protect endangered species and proof that such efforts can be successful.

The bald eagle isn't the only species that appreciates the attributes of white pine.  This week I toured a logging project with the forester and got to witness the latest method of responsible logging in action.

Freshly cut and trimmed logs beside a logging trail.

This project is using a technique known as "cut-to-length" which greatly reduces the impact of the logging process on the soils as well as the trees that are not harvested.  The other common method of logging large areas is “whole-tree” logging where the entire tree is dragged out of the forest along a skidder road with the branches removed and chipped at the log yard.  In this method trees, standing trees beside the skidder roads often incur basal damage that weakens the tree, and makes it sick and rot, if not die.   I toured the Chemung State Forest after its cut in 2021 and was dismayed to see dozens of trees with such damage.

Basal scarring from whole-tree logging in the Chemung State Forest in 2021.

This tree will surely die.

This damage is caused by trees being dragged out of the forest, especially on the inside of corners as the skidder drags the whole tree, branches and all, out to the log yard.  Another negative of whole tree logging is that the entire tree is removed from the forest. In cut-to-length, much of the bio-mass is left in the forest to be recycled back into the soil.

In the cut-to-length logging process I observed, three specialized machines are used to do the harvesting. The first machine, called a feller-buncher, cuts trees marked for harvesting and places them near the trail. 

Here is the machine in action:

Next, a powerful yet adept machine called a processor picks up each felled tree with a massive tool that quickly cuts off the branches, then measures and cuts the trunk into the desire lengths in a single step.  The operator then lays the processed trunks along the edge of the trail for the final piece of equipment, the forwarder.  It was fascinating to watch. 

The processor stripping branches from a tree.

The business end of the processor.

Here are a couple of videos of the processor stripping, measuring, and cutting a tree.

Finally, the forwarder is another tracked vehicle which has a crane to pick up the processed trunks and place them on a flat bed to bring them out of the forest where they can be loaded onto a logging truck to be brought to the sawmill. The forwarder hadn’t started taking out the trees yet so I hope to go back next week to see the final step.

All of these machines are on tracks rather than wheels to better distribute their weight. They don’t form ruts in the soil, and have enough traction to not spin like wheels which can dig holes in the ground. Furthermore, the branches, after being removing from the trunk, are placed on the logging roads and the tracked vehicles drive right on top of the branches, further protecting the underlying soil. Wheeled vehicles can’t manage that kind of rough, uneven terrain.

Tracks limit damage to the soils and allow traveling over brush than directly on the ground.

I'm not pretending that logging on this scale doesn't damage the forest - it does.  Cut-to-length still removes literally tons of biomass from the forest, impacts habitats, increases erosion, and damages soils along the logging roads.   It also can impact small streams and wet areas that are crossed.  But if planned and executed carefully the impact of cut-to-length is significantly less than whole-tree logging with skidders.  It’s always hard for me to see logging on this scale, but trees are a renewable resource and will likely be harvested as long as humans (and beavers) are on the planet, and if it has to be done, this is the best process I’ve seen yet.   Even horses and hand saws did their damage to the forest, let along the logging railroads of the 19th century.

Horses drag trees from the White Mountains.  Photos from the Museum of the White Mountains.

Mad River Log Drive, Campton, NH.

Things have improved.  The logging I saw this week was removing only a fraction of the trees, but opened up the canopy enough to provide smaller trees sunlight to grow strong and healthy, and left many large trees to reseed the areas newly opened to sunlight.  And next year will be a good seed year for white pine.  I learned from the forester that it takes two years for a white pine cone to mature and release seeds.  Last year the pines flowered and formed tiny cones:

This tiny cone was formed last year and will mature and release seeds this fall.

These will stay on the tree though the winter and create the large cones we are familiar with which will drop their seeds this summer.  And there will be plenty of large pines on this property, tall and strong, ready to host a nest for eagles looking for territory to claim as their own.