With the assistance of Natural Resource Conservation Service EQIP grants, SKLT has been carrying out forest improvement and habitat conservation projects along its 2.25 mile Browning Woods hiking trail. In accordance with our 2009 forest management plan we created a 3.5-acre forest clearing to enhance wildlife habitat diversity in our 260-acre refuge and to provide a more age-diverse tree population. Last fall and winter SKLT staff and volunteers began carrying out a second element of the forest management plan—a light to moderate forest thinning in a six-acre area in the northwest corner of the property. Staff members Mike Bontecou and Clark Collins and volunteer Lodowick Collins are taking out poorly formed and unthrifty trees that block sunlight from more promising stock. We are now stacking the production in four-foot lengths to be sold after seasoning. During spring 2013 our plan is to begin a similar 4-acre wildlife habitat enhancement and timber stand improvement effort adjacent to the old Browning Homestead site along the east side of the Browning Woods trail loop.
