I also agree well said Mark. I doubt the trimmers even knew the owls were there and the trimming apparently didn't disturb them or they wouldn't have returned. Maryland DNR does not have enough manpower to accompany BGE or any other utility company every step of the way while they do their job. The bottom line there is that the power companies have to maintain their transmission lines etc. and the DNR can't always dictate how they do that. I know that they typically do their trimming on a 5 year plan and they have a formula which they use based on the current height and species of tree to determine its projected growth in the next cutting cycle and it it reaches that magic number then they trim it. Last I knew if they had to trim more then a certain percentage of the tree then they were supposed to cut it down completely so as to avoid having butchered trees that would probably die anyway. Fact is people will rally to the wildlife one day but once everyone loses power during a major storm due to downed trees on the power lines then they'll start knocking the power company for not doing their jobs. Once again in this instance the trimming was minimal compared to some of the clear cutting I have seen performed in other locations and the trimming did not impact the actual tree the birds were using to roost in.
On 02/08/13, jflowers wrote:
Well Said Mark! These trimmers were just doing their jobs. And your right about owls and raptors choosing locations like this for easy in and out access and viewing of their territory from a concealed location on the woodland edge.
Thank you for taking up for us "hapless" photographers too! It gets very old very quickly for our craft to always be the first to be blamed for the least little thing. Perhaps we should start making a point to photographically document bad birding behavior from now on. I have certainly seen my share of it. I am both birder and photographer and yes we have our idiots on both sides.
Jim
--
--
|