ZERBE TOWNSHIP - For nearly seven years, Rebecca Coutlee has enjoyed the view of the wooded mountains off in the distance behind her Trevorton Road (Route 225) home from the quiet comfort of her back porch. In fact, it was one of the primary reasons she and her husband purchased the property.
One morning earlier this month, however, she heard a loud noise out back, went to her favorite spot and saw machines cutting down the trees. In a matter of a few weeks, huge swaths of Little Mountain, from top to bottom and 50 yards-plus wide, had been stripped. Eight such tree-less stretches are now evident along the mountain in just a few miles from the Coal Township-Zerbe line west to Trevorton.
"It broke my heart," Coutlee, 59, of 747 Trevorton Road, said earlier this week. "Instead of seeing a beautiful mountain of trees, I see a defaced mountain."
It may look defaced, but the timbering is a healthy necessity, said Warren Harris, of Dallas, Pa., regional forester of the northeast region.
"We are professionals and we're not doing anything stupid," he said in response to criticism of the timbering.
The work is taking place on State Game Lands 165, which includes 1,190 acres in Shamokin, Coal and Zerbe townships.
Creating a new stage
Creating a new stage of growth is important for diverse wildlife, Harris said.
"Different stages of forest growth have different values to different wildlife. Every critter has different needs," he said.
Mature stages of growth - full forests - provide cavity for different birds, squirrels or bears to live in, and older trees produce seeds for more growth and food.
Another important growth stage is called the brush stage, or early successional habitat, which is the strategy the game commission is using on the mountain seen from Trevorton Road. Bear and deer use this stage as cover, while grouse, woodcock, golden-winged warbler and others use it as their primary habitat, Harris said.
The third stage is the pole stage, the transition between brush and mature.
Significant timbering taking place elsewhere, including on the west side of Trevorton, and behind Geisinger-Shamokin Area Community Hospital, involves private land.
Cuts studied first
Before cutting takes place in any of its forest land, game commission foresters meet with biologists and land management staff to assess the recreational opportunities for sportsmen and conduct a Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory check to determine if there's any rare or endangered wildlife, as well as to assess soil, water, infrastructure and other various factors.
"We will determine what the current stage is and what the future habitat conditions we desire. We will determine what we need to do to get from point A to point B," Harris said. Near Trevorton Road, the goal is a mixed successional forest with all three stages to "balance certain growths to maintain a certain age structure," he said.
There are 54 acres of cut strips on the mountain and another 17 acres that can't be seen from the highway. There are no Northumberland County projects planned in fiscal year July 2012 to June 2013.
"Logging isn't pretty. Let's face the fact; that's what most people are concerned about," Harris said. "In its initial stages, it's like making sausage: the benefits are good, but you don't want to be there when it's happening."
In the end, however, "It will benefit the wildlife and it's for the greater good," Harris said.
$15,110 collected
Coutlee and others theorized the timbering was done to ease state government's financial pains.
It's not that money didn't change hands, Harris answered, but it wasn't the game commission's primary concern, he said.
"If we were in it to make a buck, we wouldn't be doing it here," he said. "We are conscious of the value of the material we're selling, but the highest value is the habitat."
A&L Wood Inc., Mount Pleasant Mills, won a competitive bid and paid $15,110 for the right to do the work and collect the timber for its own use. As part of the contract, the company is required to bulldoze any access roads that are built and to spread lime and fertilize and seed the area for future growth.
Their work is complete, Harris said.
Good for wildlife, but ...
Dave Kaleta, founder and president of Habitat for Wildlife, the Shamokin-based nonprofit, said such work is ultimately a positive.
"It's one of the best things you can do for game and to regenerate the forests. Most of the small game like the thick, brushy areas of new growth," he said.
He noted many people don't understand habitat management.
"A lot of species need these young forests. Over the last 100 years, there's been a lot less timbering and a lot of brush fire control, and we lost a lot of early successional habitats," he said.
Much of the forest is mature, but both habitats are needed, he said.
Kaleta, who hunts for grouse and woodcock, said the successional habitat is ideal.
"It (wildlife population) should increase tremendously," he said.
But that's of little concern for Coutlee and neighbors who can see the mountain from their homes.
"As large as the game lands are, I think they could have done it in a non-populated area where there's not people enjoying the trees every day," she said.