I live in the Bankhead and I'm gonna have to agree with CNC on the burning issue and rodents. I think CNC is the 1 that posted on the issues of rats/mice. Anyways when you travel a 5 mile dirtroad you start to take notice. As most of you know the Bankhead is mostly a predominantly hardwood forest but since the burnings have taken place on this area I see plenty of rabbits and rodents crossing all the time, very rare in the past. I see lots of coyotes and it's been a long time since I've seen a skinny one. I used to rarely see a rabbit but never seen rats/mice. I will have to admit that I'm against the burning because of the timing they choose to do it. I will say that this year the burns were a little bit better common sense wise. They know what time they need to burn for it to be beneficial, times I've seen them burn way into May but they have a job and I understand that but as I mentioned common sense goes a long way in prescribed burns. I can't tell you how many rabbits and rats I see now and the raptors are out of control. You will not drive down my road without seeing hawks and owls, yes owls in the daytime. I don't know how 1 single poult makes it but I know how nature works. No matter what happens in this forest whether it be some supposedly college educated kid that's all the sudden a know it all about everything person or biologist as they label, they do no studies on foot only from a vehicle. The road used to have several gates on it and it's down to 2. I have tried and tried to get things better for the wildlife in general in the Bankhead but I get the same answer each time and its lack of funding. If the hikers or leftists bunch needs anything done it gets done. The wildlife go without and I've witnessed this for years and I can prove it. The whole road I travel has 11 greenplot openings and not a 1 has been planted in years. I have no idea where the money is going but I contacted the DCNR and NWTF and the Forest service and I was promised that they would fix the gates and plant the fields, lies is all I get. The lady I talked to at the DCNR knows how to do 1 thing and that's to feed you full of ideas that will never happen. She has some major issues because she knows nothing about wildlife until she sends me some link from Google that pertains to 0. I know alot of you won't read this but this is something that needs to be addressed asap. It's our money that is suppost to go to wildlife but I've not seen it happen in years. Doing what is right is not that hard but until these snail,bat,salamander and eagle loving folks in Montgomery are gone then turkeys number one are in trouble. I hope the lady that I talked to at the DCNR sees this and chimes in because I know she is on here. The patches that haven't been planted has brand new bat boxes in them, I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure bats bring in 0 revenue compared to deer/turkey. Long story short our DCNR needs a good wakeup call. To my original point on burning I will be glad to agree with it if it's done at the right time but it hardly ever is, therefore I'm gonna have to be against it.

I even offered to use my own equipment to plant the openings and pay for everything and never heard back from them. Her excuse at the time was the seed vendor hadn't come through on their end but I was lied to because I know who the vendor was.

Sorry for the long post but our states DCNR is a cluster of Dems.

The person you are referring to does his job to the best of his ability and whatever happens in his free time I could care less.

Doesnt a growing season burn promote more forbs and legumes and less grass??

It can yes.

That’s what I was thinking…….……Maybe some of the management areas could try to incorporate more growing season burns in the future in late May and June.

You won’t get much of a burn right now at night simply due to the humidity climbing at night. Finer fuels like straw and dead grass might would carry at night, but I’ve had a hard time getting fire to carry at 2 pm lately from the humidity and green foliage. Depends on the site and fuels.

I wonder how a night burn would behave right now under the current conditions??

Be a little better on the hen and poults, atleast death would be less cruel. CNC let's discuss the raptor population.