I know what you mean about the shooting ranges on the pipelines. And the competition w/ food plots. My camp has 2 pipelines near our borders and the clover is outrageous. No apple trees on them though - WE have the fruit trees ! Apples, crabapples & pears. But the pipelines have cut down on our plot usage. That's why we altered our plantings a bit. We planted winter wheat & winter rye and 2 plots of brassica for when the cold makes the clover go dormant. Hopefully we'll have the greens to draw 'em in when the pipelines get matted down. So far our fall/winter plots look pretty good, but usage is not much right now - too many acorns in the woods. As the acorns start to decay, business should pick up.
As far as the shooting on the pipelines goes, the biggest, smartest bucks have gotten wise it seems. The first year in our area, when the clover was just getting started, bucks of all sizes were seen in daylight. Not so any more. Now, on many trips around my mountain area, at last light I see young bucks & does w/ fawns. Same at first light. Like any other situation, the older & wiser ones get picky about sticking their necks out. My concern is road shooters. Pipelines in my area run right along roads and there's no way to screen them. But the other side of that coin is with gas traffic on those roads all the time, it would be a risky trick to poach one & not get caught. From my experiences the last 3 - 4 yrs., I think the gas workings and daylight attention given around the pipelines has driven the best bucks into the thickest, heaviest cover. I believe completely that areas w/ the best cover will hold the better deer.
I agree with your take on the " Sock " state forest. As in many places around the state, management for timber crop does little for ANY game animal. The " telephone - pole " woods loaded w/ hay-scented ferns is a habitat disaster. No food or cover for anything except acorns which are seasonal at best - and scarce in some years. Fern - infested areas are super tough to get tree regeneration going because of ferns' dense root system. Foresters have told me this in person. We've also had a lot of logging/timber sales over my way. One BIG problem is the overabundant amount of striped maple taking over where logging has been done. Timber & food - wise it's a worthless tree. A weed essentially. It out - competes other more desirable tree seedlings trying to get a foothold. I talked to a forester on a ridge-top near my camp and he was going off the road to look at a " clear-cut
fail " as he called it. The state had done a clear-cut some 20 years prior and it was taken over by ferns and a sea of barberry. No tree regeneration except scarce red maples. I agree with you logging is needed. That helps ALL animals. I just worry about the follow-up care given to the forest once logged.
