Barred Owl House - Forest Mgmt. Plan

Paulette said "It's time we put up a house for a barred owl.  If you have been following the blog, you know we have one and we hear others calling around evening time.  The owls look for a good spot in Fall and Winter and then nest in the Spring.  We built the house to spec last Friday and put it up in this tree near our western wetland after deliberating for an hour in the rain over which tree would be best.  This one will be shaded by trees to the south and relatively secluded as well as near water.  It is 15' plus a little up in the tree and secured with a longish cable that will allow the tree to grow quite a bit.

We got the forest management plan that I wrote as part of a nine week course, approved by a WA DNR forester.  It calls for us to plant several hundred trees next Spring and quite a few more than that the following year.  We will be applying for USDA assistance with the 2012 planting and do the 2011 one ourselves.   We also plan to set up a nursery for some soft mast (berries for birdies) plants on the property or maybe at home in Seattle, putting up bare root bushes in pots for a year or two then transplanting them out.   This will work for maybe 50 plants and practical at that level.  The trees we plant will be with a special skinny shovel and we hope at a rate of about a tree every two minutes.  That translates to 500 trees by one person in two days or relatively easily by two people in two days.  Stay tuned.

Dale