WILLOW WOOD – Wayne National Forest employees met with bordering landowners Monday at the Lawrence Soil and Water office to discuss future projects and answer the community’s questions.

Tuesday, March 20, 2001

WILLOW WOOD – Wayne National Forest employees met with bordering landowners Monday at the Lawrence Soil and Water office to discuss future projects and answer the community’s questions.

"We are a national forest," District Ranger Mike Baines explained to the group after questions from the community about projects in the federal forest. He added, "we are responsible to customers from the East Coast to the West Coast and to our immediate neighbors."

Baines explained the difference between the federal forest and the state forest service. He said, "we have to follow different rules than the state…we have to follow rules that come from Washington D.C."

Baines gave an update on the movement of gypsy moths into the area. He said the larvae eat the leaves of healthy trees especially oak sweet gum and willow trees.

Baines said the feds and the state agriculture department will spray a chemical pheromone from the air. The pheromone mimics the scent given off by the female moth and male moths will be attracted to the chips that contain the scent. The male moth will not leave the scented chip, Baines explained, therefore the male will not be able to reproduce. He said these spraying efforts will slow the progression of the moths.

Baines said moth blight is concentrated in 39 Ohio counties. These counties are considered "generally infested" by the Ohio agriculture department and limitations have been set on wood shipped from these counties. He said the moths have been found in low numbers in Lawrence County.

Fish biologist Becky Ewing updated the group on watershed management projects underway.

Ewing also spoke on stream bank management projects. She stressed the importance of developing a riparian area along the stream bank. A riparian system is an area of trees planted along a stream bank to provide stability to the land and filter the water. She said the forest service is working on streams in the district’s area to bring back riparian buffer strip.

She also said the forest service is working with private land owners to find abandoned mines that may be contributing to increased acidity of the water. She said old-mine water was a major contributor to acid-water runoff. She said the forest service is looking for mines that add to the pollution.

This meeting was one of several meetings the rangers hope to have with the public this year.