Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 09:37:23 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Glen Lovelace III Subject: logging Hello All, I have an issue to sound off on if I may get up on my soapbox for a couple minutes. First let me explain the situation. My grandfather has = a 50 acre farm that straddles the DE/MD border at Oak Grove. I have maintained a list (a 1 mile radius) for the area for 7 years or so and ju= st recently got my 150th bird there. The farm has a RR that runs along one side and at the back, the RR runs into a woods which is unfortunately not part of the property. The woods has a good variety of birds all year including Pileated Wood, Ovenbird, one pair of Worm-Eating Warb, good for warblers in the fall w/o any water source or funnelling effect. I try to walk to area every Sunday morning. My last walk on 5/14 had 55 species. This week's walk got rained out, but I did go in the afternoon to check m= y bluebird boxes. And to my horror I saw that the woods on the other side = of the railraod had been clear cut in the past week. Needless to say, I was not happy. Here is where I get on my soapbox. I my work I deal with replacing bridges. We are being required to schedule our construction around bird nesting season through enforcement of the International Migratory Bird Act. Our activites affect maybe 3 species (Phoebes, Barn and RW Swallows= ) and in the grand scheme it is a limited number of birds at a limited numb= er of sites. Now here come the loggers and destroy acres of woods, affectin= g 20 or 25 species of nesting birds and multiple pairs of each. Plus the woods is now fragmented with the adjacent pieces. It seems to me that a much more beneficial enforcement of the Migratory Bird Act would be to limit logging operations between April and July. I do not know what the regulations are for MD. Does anyone on the list know what is required legally for logging operations? Are permits required and what are the restrictions? Who would be the appropriate contact to get some information? I looked at the forestry section of the dnr website but I could not find the info I was after. Any assistance inpursuing this matter will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Good Birding, Glen Lovelace III glovelace@mail.dot.state.de.us Seaford, DE ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================