TThhee PlacePlace YYoouu CCallall HHoommee AA GuideGuide toto CaringCaring forfor YourYour LandLand inin thethe CatskillsCatskills A Northern Woodlands Publication Welcome Contents Our Home in the Catskills V ICKER Susanna Margolis 2 Pause Before You Plant S WHEN I LIVED IN MANHATTAN IN THE LATE 1970S, I had no idea where my & B Melissa Haertsch drinking water came from. All I knew was that it sure tasted good. Thirty years later, I 6 EECH Wood Lit know that the city’s water supply is both plentiful and pure largely through the efforts L 8 ER of people like you who own land in the Catskill watershed region. Calendar Spring 9 Although I don’t live in the watershed – my wife and I live on 95 acres of forest and What Do Animals Need? And Do Your Woods Provide It? pastureland in central Vermont – I share your experience in tending the land. And while Stephen Long 10 The Place You Call Home: I’ve spent the last dozen years writing about the Northeast’s forests, I was a true novice What’s to Become of Your Land? Conservation Agreements Help People A Guide to Caring for Hold Onto Land when we bought our land. Annette Lorraine 17 Your Land in the Catskills The first time my wife and I had logging work done on our land, we made all the Calendar Summer © Autumn 2006 20 classic mistakes: we were away when the work was done; we had no signed contract with Woods Whys: Can Your Woods be Too Tidy? 21 the logger; and we didn’t have a forester mark the pines to be cut. Tricks of the Trade: Spring Poles Editors When we returned the following summer, we were very discouraged, not having been 22 Sorting the Saplings: A Quick Guide to Winter Tree and Shrub Identification L Virginia Barlow prepared for what it would look like. Our sole consolation at the time was that we had OUI Ana Ruesink S Stephen Long shipped some of the white pine to a sawmill to be sawn and planed for our own use, and 23 B U Birds in the Brush: The Lowdown on Ground-Nesters Editoral Staff S as we built our house, we used the pine for wainscoting, window trim, and our living CHER Bryan Pfeiffer Chuck Wooster room floor. 26 Anne Margolis Consulting Foresters: What They Do and Why You Need One I’ve learned a lot about our woods over the years – the plants and animals in it, its Sue Kashanski Stephen Long 30 Carrie Chandler history, and its potential for wildlife habitat, recreation, and producing income – but The Look of Logging: Keys to Getting a Good Job Done one essential lesson was realizing that we needed the services of a forester. Our land now Design Stephen Long 34 has a forest management plan, developed by a consulting forester who spent the time to Under the Microscope: White Pine Weevil Liquid Studio / Lisa Cadieux walk in the woods with us and discuss strategies for creating grouse habitat in one stand 37 Forgotten Fruit: Apple Trees in the Wild and growing nice sugar maple in another. We have since had two more timber harvests, Contributors with a fine logger working under the guidance of our forester, and we have been thrilled Michael Snyder 38 Fields Among the Forests: Keeping Open Land Open Patrick Bartlett, Jim Block, with what’s been accomplished. Most of the trees that have been cut have been those of Betsy Brigham, Allen Bryan, poorer quality, giving the better trees more room to grow. The diversity of the wildlife Chuck Wooster 42 Madeline Bodin, Louis Buscher, Don’t Get Bogged Down! species has been increased because we have diversified the structure of the forest. David Cappaert, Kindra Clineff, Rose Paul A It’s been a great learning experience, and along the way I have benefited greatly 44 LL Marvin Davis, John Douglas, Tracking Tips: Dog or Cat? EN Eric Engbretson, Steven D. Faccio, from the expertise of extension specialists in agriculture and forestry. But I would have 47 B RY Silk Purse or Sow’s Ear? Sally Fairbairn, Diane Galusha, A been further ahead faster if there had been a publication like this one available to me. N Melissa Haertsch, Roger Irwin, The Place You Call Home: A Guide to Caring for Your Land in the Catskills is a collection Stephen Long 48 Eric Johnson, Kathryn Lund Calendar Autumn of material that will give landowners the information they need about their land and the Johnson, Paul Klee, David R. Lance, James 53 Lasdun, Kenneth R. Law, role it plays in the ecology, economy, and culture of the region. Healthy Rivers Are Made in the Shade Gale Lawrence, Gerry Lemmo, Even the most committed and effective tenders of the land are not born with a sense Stephen Long 54 Annette Lorraine, Susanna Margolis, Bruce Building Better Forest Roads McCandless, Rebecca Merrilees, Susan C. of stewardship, which only comes from spending lots of time on a piece of ground. By Madeline Bodin Morse, Tim Morton, Linda Neaman, Chris getting to know land in all seasons and in all weather, we develop an appreciation for it as 58 Olney, Dan Parent, the only constant: it preceded our ownership and will be here when our tenure is done. It Pays to Be Patient Rose Paul, Bryan Pfeiffer, Roy Pilcher, Karen It’s very easy to look at land simply as real estate, a certain number of acres, plus or Dan Parent 61 Rauter, Ana Ruesink, Woods Whys: How small a woodland is too small for forestry? Jeff Schneidermann, Eric Seplowitz, Joseph minus, that surround the house. But land is so much more than that – it is a tremendous 62 Smith, Michael Snyder, Ned Therrien, asset not only to the owner but also to the community. Forestland helps filter and store A Celebration of Dead Trees Adelaide Tyrol, Vickers & Beechler, Voscar, water so the supply of it remains plentiful and clean. It provides habitat for a stunning array Gale Lawrence V 63 ICKER Tom Kivlan Voss, of wildlife species, a broad diversity of habitat being the key to rich biodiversity. It serves as How to Grow an Oak from an Acorn Charles H. Willey, Robin Wimbiscus S the backdrop for our dazzling views. And it provides a supply of wood, the processing of Patrick Bartlett & B 66 which employs thousands of people in the communities of the Catskill watershed. Calendar Winter 68 EECH As more and more people are attracted to the mountains, the land is at increasing risk Notes from the Puckerbrush: Tending the Woods L Northern Woodlands Magazine, 1776 Center Road, 69 ER P.O. Box 471, Corinth, VT 05039-0471 of being divided into house lots. Town and state regulations and planning efforts play a Pruning for Profit Tel (802) 439-6292 Fax (802) 439-6296 role in directing the development to the most appropriate places. But in truth, the future [email protected] Virginia Barlow 70 www.northernwoodlands.org of this watershed is in the hands of the thousands of individuals who now call that land FieldWork: At Work in the Woodlot with Sugarmaker Doc Scranton POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to Northern home. The future is in the hands of people just like you. — STEPHEN LONG Eric Johnson 74 Woodlands Magazine, P.O. Box 471, Corinth, VT 05039- Resource Guide 0471 or to mail@ northernwoodlands.org. This publication comes to you through the Forestry Program of the Watershed Agricultural 76 A Long Tradition with Wood All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part Council. Collaboration with a number of other organizations and businesses, all of which are without the written consent of the pub­lisher is prohib­ited. Karen Rauter listed on the inside back cover, has been instrumental in making this publication a reality. We 78 For Northern Woodlands sub­scription information call A Place in Mind thank them all. (800) 290-5232 Sally Fairbairn 80 Printed on paper with 10 percent post-consumer recycled content. Northern Woodlands / The Place You Call Home Our Home in the Catskills By Susanna Margolis B n the Catskills, the landscape has always been the engine of economic RUCE value, so it’s no surprise that the ideal for regional partners is a working M C landscape that supports a viable local economy. A partnership of private C A landowners and public interests is today actively advancing this ideal – ND L E often against formidable pressures that can fragment the landscape and SS undermine the region’s rural character. This landscape, so richly expressed in the paintings of the Hudson River School, begins about a hundred miles north of New York City as a series of sharp escarpments overlooking the west bank of the Hudson, then sweeps westward across 35 summits that reach heights of 3,500 feet and above. In geological terms, this is a dissected plateau. It is cut by valleys, watered by six major river systems with their networks of tributary streams and wetlands and waterfalls, and carpeted by forests in which distinctive northern hardwoods are prominent. At the heart of the region is the Catskill State Park, an amalgamation of public and private lands totaling 705,500 acres across four counties that’s bounded by what’s known as “the blue line.” Despite being technically a state park, much of this land is owned by thousands of individual private landowners. Some of these owners are year- round residents, and some are “weekenders,” people who live in or near the city and head upstate whenever the opportunity presents itself.