LOUDONVILLE – A plan to revise the management plan for Mohican Memorial State Forest has raised concerns among some area residents.
The Ohio Division of Forestry announced last week they would have a public meeting Monday to unveil the draft of the amended five-year plan for Mohican. The meeting will take place from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Mohican Lodge and Conference Center, 1098 Ashland County Road 3006 in Perrysville.
Eric Miller of North Central Ohio Land Conservancy is concerned about some of the wording used in the draft and the short notice the state gave about Monday’s public meeting.
“Looking at it from a preliminary basis, we’re concerned with what we see and it’s apparent they need to hear from any citizens who are concerned about keeping Mohican protected,” Miller said.
One word in the draft that is particularly troubling to Miller is “inventory.”
“They’re looking at Mohican in inventory. Most of us around here look at it as just a great place to take the family for vacation. Most of us look at it as one of the nicest stands of contiguous forest left in the northern half of our state,” Miller said. “So at the outset, we’re certainly concerned that it’s being looked at as inventory, rather than a destination and a location that is special and needs to be protected.”
What people think of as “Mohican” is actually divided into three separate areas: the 23-acre nature preserve, the 1,200-acre state park and the 4,800-acre forest.
“The bulk of what we think of as Mohican, as well as the most private and wild-feeling parts of it are in the forest,” Miller said.
According to the draft plan, the forest currently is divided into three zones. These management zones were created in the mid-1990s by an ad-hoc committee. Miller said the 1998 plan was formed after nearly three years of monthly meetings involving a citizens group and representatives of the Division of Forestry.
Zone A covers approximately 2,067 acres and was set aside to encourage the development of “old growth” by avoiding purposeful, human-caused disturbance. This zone does not allow harvesting of trees damaged by catastrophic events.
Zone B covers approximately 1,823 acres. This zone was intended to maintain continuous forest cover that would eventually become part of Zone A. Maintenance and promotion of old growth forest characteristics is a priority in this zone. Un-even aged management, single-tree selection harvesting is allowed in this zone provided that it promotes old-growth forest characteristics.
Zone C covers approximately 743 acres and its purpose is to provide education about forest management and to serve as demonstration areas.
“This was just a five-year plan but they worked more than two years hammering it out and it’s been a model for protection of Mohican ever since then. And now they come along and it looks like they’re upsetting that plan, they’re abandoning it and they’re doing so on very short notice,” Miller said.
The new draft plan says that changes in technology and forest inventory data over the last several decades have resulted in several issues, including that the current zoning does not match the actual forest condition or follow topographical or other land features. It also says that the current zoning does not give the Ohio Division of Forestry the ability to react to forest health events or catastrophic weather events, or to manage the forest to established scientific and silvicultural norms.
According to the draft plan, the changes in management zones were created using recent forest inventory data, new and updated GIS technology, a review of natural heritage data locations of RTE species, a review of archaeological data locations for specific sites, and input from credentialed scientific experts. The plan states that the revised zones place a greater emphasis on public safety, allows for better reaction to forest health issues or weather events and retains large acreages that will develop old forest characteristics.
The amended plan states that pine trees account for 40 percent of the forest area in Mohican. During the Depression and World War II, the Civilian Conservation Corps planted nearly 1,800 acres of pine trees to prevent soil erosion from marginal and degraded farm land. The hope was these plantations would conserve the soil long enough for a future native hardwood forest that would be created through the management and eventual removal of the pin trees. Managed pine tree plantations create understory vegetation of hardwood trees and shrubs. However, the unmanaged pine plantations are dense with little or no sunlight reaching the forest floor. This has created an understory devoid of plants or animals.
According to Division of Forestry policy, harvesting cannot equal more than 50 percent of annual growth. At Mohican, the annual harvest limit would be approximately 189,000 board feet of hardwood sawtimber and 4,000 tons of white pine timber. The plan emphasizes that this is a harvest limit, not a harvest goal, so numbers could be lower.
But Miller still wants to hear more clearly from officials what the harvesting plan is and hopes others will voice their concerns.
“Mohican is something that should be preserved, not chopped down, and I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way,” Miller said.
The revised management plan divides the forest into seven different zones, each with unique purposes and limits on tree harvesting.
The new zones would be:
Zone 1A- High Conservation Value Forest, Natural Area
Zone 1D – High Conservation Value Forest, Restoration Area
Zone 3A – Resource Protection Area
Zone 3B – Aesthetic Area
Zone 3D – Demonstration Area
Zone 4A – Intensive Recreation Area
Zone 4B – Administrative Areas
Miller is concerned because so far all the public can see is an 8.5-inch-by-11-inch map showing the new zoning designations that is difficult to read.
“So one can’t tell clearly just by looking at it what they have in mind,” Miller said. “We would have it evaluated by competent stakeholders who can look at it from a variety of perspectives, and that’s what they’re not giving us time to do. To really understand their proposal, there needs to be a timeframe for us to react to it.”
According to the plan, the proposed changes will undergo a multi-step process, including the consultation of available datasets, direct consultations with regional and statewide conservation groups, and public input at open houses. Following this consultation process, the changes will be reviewed by the Forest Advisory Council and the Chief of the Division of Forestry before being implemented.
