Roger's Outdoor Notes

OUTDOOR NEWS:   Well, this past Saturday up at NWTC the 2017 Northeast Wisconsin Woodland Owners Conference was held. This was my fourth or fifth time attending the conference and trust me, if you even have 10 acres of woods, you can really get a lot of nice ideas how to manage it.  There is plenty of handouts and people from the DNR, Forest managers, and Paper Mills and Loggers available to talk to about your property. There is one person who I really like to listen to and that is Linda Williams who does a program called FOREST HEALTH UPDATE. She talked about the Spruce Budworm Outbreak in the state, Lecanium Scale control, Columbian Timber Beetle, Gypsy Moth, Beech Bark Disease, Heterobasidion Root Disease, Oak Wilt and how to control it, and the one that is effecting all of us today is the Emerald Ash Borer. Lots of discussion of Woodlot Ash Management.  If anyone reading this is interested in these issues and want more, contact Linda at the following:  Linda.Williams@wisconsin.gov. There was also a Panel for Assistance to Woodland Owners. There was a Master Logger/Forester, DNR and a large Paper Mill official. It was very interesting to see how to manage your woods and how to get more out of it. One of the other topics they talked about was: Cougars, Bears and Wolves.  Cougars are in Wis. and every one reported is investigated to make sure it’s not a house cat. Do not laugh, some reports did turn out to be a house cat, a huge one at that. Most of the cougars are males looking to mate with a female and they travel large distances to find one. Most of the cougars are coming from the Dakotas. Bears are numbering near 28,850 in the state this year. They are going to be issuing close to 11,500 permits in 2017. Once again, they like to wonder around and look for new areas to live. That’s why we see some in our county once in a while.  WOLVES, back in the 1800 there were between 3 to 5 thousand wolves in the state, mainly northern Wisconsin, Upper U P and Minn. In the 1960’s there was very few wolves left in this state. During the 1970’s and 80’s the population of wolves started to grow. There was only 25 packs than.  Now in the State of Wis. we have 222 packs of wolves with between 866 to 897 wolves. The DNR is using tracking collars on some of the wolves and one wolf was tagged in Northern Wis, traveled to the Upper U P, for a while then headed south towards Beloit, WI, and turned around to settle in the Tomah area where he is living now. A pack of wolves will need an area from 20 miles to 120 miles in diameter.  So next year watch for the ads for the conference or this blog site and you will really enjoy the time you spend there listening and learning about how to improve your woodlot. It runs all morning long from 9am till about 12:30pm.