Compass Points: After the Loggers Leave, Nature Wastes No Time Moving In
A hard-cut two acres looks like a disaster — until you know what to look for.
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This article comes from writer Tim McKay, published in The North Star Monthly out of Danville.
McKay — a conservationist, woodworker, and tree farmer in Peacham — walks a hard-cut two acres next to his own land and finds, beneath the slash and stumps, the first stirrings of what foresters call early-successional habitat: the berries, brambles, aspen shoots, and rotting logs that a disturbed patch throws up on its way back to forest.
It’s a quietly persuasive piece, and it lands squarely inside one of the most active debates in Vermont right now — whether disturbance builds healthier forests, or whether the better path is to let maturing woods grow old and wild.
McKay writes from the first camp. For the case the other side makes — proforestation, wildlands, and the fight over H.276 — see our earlier reporting: Vermont’s Trees Are Dying at Alarming Rates. So Why Is the Legislature Moving to Ban the Tools That Could Help?