Gorgeous photos, Rubberhead.

I was in FMNF for both RCWs and Bachman's Sparrows. The old pines snapped right at the RCW's nest cavity as often as not. It was a surreal landscape.

All the NF's in the SE were shifting to managing for more open, not less open understory. Largely due to RCWs but also other species of plants and animals. However, their abilities to burn have been dramatically hampered by climate change. The number of days that meet safe burning conditions is much less than it used to be. At least that was the case when I left that part of the world for the last time.

Hugo blew the roof off of FMNF and with that, a lot of light started hitting the forest floor, so dog hair thickets and worse were to be expected. There was no way they could manage to make it what it was when the whole architecture of the place changed overnight.

I wasn't at FMNF much. Most of my time was further inland on the bomb plant.

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BrentD, (Professor - just for Stan)

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]