Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Outdoors News Radio seven hundred WLW
Speaker 1: sinc an hip parked with you this morning. Last one,
Speaker 1: Tom Cross, he's probably hanging from his tree stand by
Speaker 1: now you know, went to grab something and fell out
Speaker 1: and now he's hanging by his harness. But you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully somebody finds him. If not, you know, well good
Speaker 1: luck to him. That's all I gotta say. Hey, we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk to the Ohio Division of Forestry this morning
Speaker 1: because I know all you people out there listening, or
Speaker 1: at least ninety five percent, are getting ready to head
Speaker 1: to the woods, whether it's your property, public land, a
Speaker 1: least property wherever it might be, to do a little
Speaker 1: deer hunting, maybe squirrel hunting. Uh, and you know all
Speaker 1: things woodsy out there. So let me bring in Aaron Cash.
Speaker 1: He is in a district of the Ohio Division of
Speaker 1: Forestry in south west Ohio. Aaron, good morning, and how
Speaker 1: you doing buddy?
Speaker 2: Hey, good morning, Chip. I'm doing well today and appreciate
Speaker 2: you having me on the program.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, so you're you are? Are you a regional manager?
Speaker 1: Tell tell folks out there you know who you are
Speaker 1: and what your responsibilities are with Division of forestry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean regional managers of a fair assessment. Technically,
Speaker 2: my title is the Southwest Service Forestry Coordinator, so I
Speaker 2: am one of four coordinators throughout the state. My day
Speaker 2: to day largely revolves around managing the Southwest District, which
Speaker 2: is an area of about twenty three counties that includes
Speaker 2: currently for full time service foresters, one ecological analyst. We
Speaker 2: have one vacancy at this time, so hopefully we'll be
Speaker 2: fully staffed in the coming weeks or months. Then beyond that.
Speaker 2: I also personally offer service forestry services to residents of
Speaker 2: Hamilton County, so I have our Hamilton County myself along
Speaker 2: with managing the staff or the other counties associated with
Speaker 2: the Southwestern Ohio.
Speaker 1: So you have a service forester for is there one
Speaker 1: for just about every county in in your district or
Speaker 1: the eighty eight statewide?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question. So the entire state, all
Speaker 2: eighty eight counties, has a service forester assigned to it.
Speaker 2: We don't have enough foresters for every county to have
Speaker 2: its own forest or similar to what you might expect
Speaker 2: with game wargs, but we currently have I think there's
Speaker 2: twenty five positions between four of those being coordinators, the
Speaker 2: other twenty one being service foresters. So any given forest
Speaker 2: or service forester, their project area that we refer to,
Speaker 2: it could range anywhere from two acres potentially up to
Speaker 2: eleven and that's largely determined by what part of the
Speaker 2: state they're in, how dense the forests cover is. Get
Speaker 2: into northwest Ohio, those projects get larger because the forest
Speaker 2: become a little more disperse.
Speaker 1: Okay, but then then you go over into southeast Ohio
Speaker 1: and you've got fifteen counties that are totally forested.
Speaker 2: That's correct. Yeah, that's that's where a lot of our
Speaker 2: more heavily forested acreages are found. And so you get
Speaker 2: down that way, most of the service foresters over in
Speaker 2: that part of the state are going to have two
Speaker 2: to three county projects just due to the demands on
Speaker 2: their time and the capacity that they have. For Southwest
Speaker 2: with my district, I think our smallest is four and
Speaker 2: then the largest project could be seven counties as you
Speaker 2: get into Champagne, Delaware or Hardin County up that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so everybody's winning. What does the service forester do.
Speaker 2: That's a great question, and we do a lot to
Speaker 2: ask you a lot.
Speaker 1: Of great questions.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, so what a lot of people don't realize
Speaker 2: with the state of Ohio, there's eight million acres of
Speaker 2: forested acreage statewide. Of that, six million is privately owned,
Speaker 2: and more specifically, it's like five and a half is
Speaker 2: what we call non industrial private forest owners. So these
Speaker 2: are guys or families that own a back forty that
Speaker 2: they go out and hunt. They might tap maple syrup,
Speaker 2: they produce timber. That's our focus. Service. Forestry is entirely
Speaker 2: devoted forwards private land management assistance throughout the state of Ohio.
Speaker 2: So we offer a lot of different things, but really
Speaker 2: what it boils down to is information education, technical services
Speaker 2: for people that want to learn more about what they
Speaker 2: own and how to sustainably and properly manage it. And
Speaker 2: that's through several different kind of key programs. But that's
Speaker 2: the over Yeah, I mean we are We're a staff
Speaker 2: of twenty five people trying to influence over six million,
Speaker 2: or just about six million acres of privately held ground
Speaker 2: across the entire state.
Speaker 1: That's a lot to bite off, but you hold that thought.
Speaker 1: Aaron Cash with the Ohio Division of Forestry, we got
Speaker 1: to hit a short break come back. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: programs that those of you out there owning property can
Speaker 1: use with that hitting a brake chip Park The Big
Speaker 1: Outdoors News Radio seven hundred WLW, Cincinnati, one of the
Speaker 1: best Bengals coverage. Back in a moment, Bloat, you're telling
Speaker 1: me they don't you pay, We're back The Big Outdoors
Speaker 1: News Radio, seven hundred WLW, Cincinnati, Chippark. My guess is
Speaker 1: Aaron Cash. He's a service forester with the Ohio Division
Speaker 1: of Forestry. And what we're going to cover, I mean, essentially,
Speaker 1: what we're covering, even though he is in a certain district,
Speaker 1: really has application to all of Ohio. And and I
Speaker 1: have a personal interest in this aeron because uh as
Speaker 1: a as a landowner and uh having timbered property. Uh,
Speaker 1: let's see three times in fifty years. You know there,
Speaker 1: there's really a lot that goes into it. If that
Speaker 1: happens to be your you know, your interests. But nonetheless,
Speaker 1: are you know your forest private or public? Really it
Speaker 1: really needs to be really it needs to be managed
Speaker 1: with that, you know, without question. So what are the
Speaker 1: you know, the kinds of programs that that would be
Speaker 1: available out there regardless of the property size.
Speaker 2: Yeah, state, statewide service Forestry. We there are several different
Speaker 2: things we helped facilitate and and we wear a lot
Speaker 2: of different hasks, but the core, the core pieces and
Speaker 2: what I feel is probably are our largest UH value
Speaker 2: to landowners in the States. What we call our call
Speaker 2: before you Cut program, and this is a service that
Speaker 2: is free to to landowners if they are thinking about
Speaker 2: conducting a timber sale, if they've been approached by a
Speaker 2: logging entity and they want to just slow down a
Speaker 2: little bit more.
Speaker 3: This weekend daylight savings time ends. Why because that's what
Speaker 3: Americans do. When we wanted to cook a frozen burrito
Speaker 3: in a minute, we invented the microwave and cook that
Speaker 3: burrito cost That's what Americans do. And when we want
Speaker 3: the sun to rise earlier, we change time cause that's
Speaker 3: what Americans do. So this weekend, set your clocks back
Speaker 3: one hour. Couse, that's what Americans do. You're a reminder
Speaker 3: from seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1: Hey, we're back the Big Outdoors News Radio, seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1: Since night Hippark. My guest is Aaron Cash. He's a
Speaker 1: service forester with the Ohio Division of Forestry. And what
Speaker 1: we're going to cover. I mean essentially, what we're covering,
Speaker 1: even though he is in a certain day district, really
Speaker 1: has applications to all of Ohio. And and I have
Speaker 1: a personal interest in this eron because UH as a
Speaker 1: as a landowner and uh having timbered property. Uh let's
Speaker 1: see three times in fifty years. You know there there's
Speaker 1: really a lot that goes into it. If that happens
Speaker 1: to be your you know, your interests. But nonetheless, are
Speaker 1: you know your forest private or public? Really it really
Speaker 1: needs to be it really it needs to be managed
Speaker 1: with it, you know, without question. So what are the
Speaker 1: you know, the kinds of programs that that would be
Speaker 1: available out there regardless of the property size.
Speaker 2: Yeah, State state Wide Service Forestry. We there's several different
Speaker 2: things we helped facilitate and and we wear a lot
Speaker 2: of different hasks. But the core, the core pieces, and
Speaker 2: what I feel is probably are our largest uh value
Speaker 2: to landowners in the state is what we call our
Speaker 2: call before You Cut program. And this is a serve
Speaker 2: us that is free to landowners if they are thinking
Speaker 2: about conducting a timber sale, if they've been approached by
Speaker 2: a logging entity and they want to just slow down
Speaker 2: a little bit before they agree to anything, or if
Speaker 2: they're just in the initial stages and they're going to
Speaker 2: go out and solicit interest. We love to be that
Speaker 2: first resource where we go out, we can walk the property,
Speaker 2: get eyes on the on the forest and the current condition,
Speaker 2: resource concerns, and pair that with what the landowner objectives
Speaker 2: are then determine does the timber harvesting really make sense?
Speaker 2: And so we view harvesting as a management tool and
Speaker 2: when used properly, it can have tremendous impact, positive impacts
Speaker 2: on your forest habitat. But you got to do it
Speaker 2: the right way. And I think oftentimes throughout the state,
Speaker 2: a lot of people undervalue what they own. They may
Speaker 2: not understand what they're agreeing to when they engage in
Speaker 2: a timber sale. What a lot of people don't realize.
Speaker 2: Ohio ranks number one in hardwood furniture production in the
Speaker 2: entire country. We're all, it's a it's a it's a
Speaker 2: big deal. And then also top in just in hardwood
Speaker 2: number production. So if you look at the entire forest
Speaker 2: products industry for Ohio, it has an annual economic impact
Speaker 2: of over thirty eight billion dollars per year. So it's
Speaker 2: it's not an insignificant industry. This is a this is
Speaker 2: a It's a powerful piece of the economic pie of Ohio,
Speaker 2: and most of it is held again with private landowners.
Speaker 2: So we we go out. There's no cost, it's it's
Speaker 2: unbiased advice to try to educate on what you have
Speaker 2: and depend on what you do what the outcomes of
Speaker 2: those decisions would be. Beyond that, we also offer a
Speaker 2: tax reduction property tax reduction program called Ohio Forest Tax
Speaker 2: Law Program that there are some parameters that if you're eligible,
Speaker 2: that essentially incentivizes good sustainable management by reducing one's property
Speaker 2: taxes applicable to their forest at acreage. There is a
Speaker 2: minimum of ten acres of woods to qualify, along some
Speaker 2: other things that they're interested in that they could certainly
Speaker 2: learn more from their service force. Or then we move
Speaker 2: into more just general guidance and assistance. So let's say
Speaker 2: you inherited a property from your grandpa and you've never
Speaker 2: been out there before and you don't know sugar maple
Speaker 2: from wide oak. You know, we could be that guidance
Speaker 2: to come out and teach about what you have things
Speaker 2: to be aware of what your options might be moving forward.
Speaker 2: And then the other piece that we spend a lot
Speaker 2: of time on sort of seasonally is assisting with federal costs.
Speaker 2: Are programs that are offered mostly through the USDA and
Speaker 2: specifically the Natural Resource Conservation Service, and those programs potentially
Speaker 2: can provide financial assistance to landowners to implement forest re
Speaker 2: improvement practices on their property. They're not our's not our contract,
Speaker 2: it's not our money, but we sort of serve as
Speaker 2: a subcontractor to implement and technical guidance for that. And
Speaker 2: if you're interested in that, you really have to start
Speaker 2: with the n r CS as the beginning steps to
Speaker 2: learn more.
Speaker 1: Well, you might you might want to wait till the
Speaker 1: government reopen since it's probably yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2: You're gonna be a lot of you know, you're got
Speaker 2: a lot of out of office messages right now. So
Speaker 2: so beyond that, we also do just technical implementation. So
Speaker 2: if you're interested in let's say you have a maturity
Speaker 2: stand we could do things like crop to release or
Speaker 2: timber marketing. It's a wide variety of services, it.
Speaker 1: Is, and I mean there's a lot there that benefit
Speaker 1: to you know, the landowners in Ohio, and you know
Speaker 1: there's things similar to this in every other state, and
Speaker 1: we're heard in thirty two states, so you know we're
Speaker 1: not speaking out of turn here, but it's pretty much
Speaker 1: something every state probably does. Aaron Cash, Ohio Divisional Foresterry.
Speaker 1: You sit tight. We got to hit a short break
Speaker 1: and everybody stick around to Gary Jeff and has cast
Speaker 1: the characters come after the news at the bottom of
Speaker 1: the hour. With that Chip Haart, the Big Outdoors News
Speaker 1: Radio seven hundred WLW, Cincinnati, home of the best Bengals coverage.
Speaker 1: You were tuned the Big Outdoors. There's radio seven hundred WLW, Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: Chip Hart, my guess is Aaron Cash with the Ohio
Speaker 1: Divisional Forestry. And quite frankly, I should have done this
Speaker 1: a long time ago and not sat on my hands
Speaker 1: for thirty years, but it was always a you know,
Speaker 1: we probably touched on it here and there, but anyway,
Speaker 1: we're here now we're gonna do something regular out there.
Speaker 1: Just a case in point, Aaron. You know, when I
Speaker 1: had timbered harvest done the second time I did it,
Speaker 1: I hired a timber manager, which actually was he was
Speaker 1: retired from the Ohio Divisional Forestry and he managed my
Speaker 1: entire timber harvest. And what a god Send and you
Speaker 1: know he crawled those hills and everything and did a
Speaker 1: had did a fantastic job. And I got to throw
Speaker 1: this out there too. You know, you don't just want
Speaker 1: to hire a logger to come in, Okay, especially not,
Speaker 1: you know, not just don't do it. That's my suggestion.
Speaker 1: You really got to do the things that that Aaron
Speaker 1: is talking about if you want to speak to that point,
Speaker 1: because you know that's I mean, that's a step you
Speaker 1: can't turn back in.
Speaker 2: Time, correct, I would that's a great point hip where
Speaker 2: timber harvesting, while it can be very beneficial, it's also
Speaker 2: a very easy way to uh you ruin your woods
Speaker 2: for generations, and so you could have the best of
Speaker 2: intentions and without the right guidance and knowledge, be making
Speaker 2: some really long lasting impacts that are going to adversely
Speaker 2: affect your ability to properly manage going forward. So loggings
Speaker 2: and loggers are important, and so we need, yeah, we
Speaker 2: need laggers to to come in, sell the trees, extract
Speaker 2: them using the best best management practices, haul those to
Speaker 2: the mill, and produce products with it. But I view
Speaker 2: foresters as a different skill set where it's almost like, uh,
Speaker 2: the analogy of an architect and a builder. You need
Speaker 2: both of those pieces to have a successful project. In
Speaker 2: my mind, you need both. You need both a forester
Speaker 2: and a logger with a timber sale. So while we
Speaker 2: the Service Forestry cannot appraise timber, we can't actively sell
Speaker 2: timber for you, but we can't teach you and help
Speaker 2: to seal, delitate and ultimately try to get you paired
Speaker 2: with a private consulting forester that can come in and
Speaker 2: assess the value of the timber and select the trees
Speaker 2: to come out and solicit bids and you want competition
Speaker 2: from buyers. That helps the marketability of the timber and
Speaker 2: hopefully you make more money that process. I used to
Speaker 2: do that before my current role now in celpus to Ohio
Speaker 2: and did a number of sales and what my experience was,
Speaker 2: even with my cost involved, landowners would always make more
Speaker 2: money through a lump sum bid process and then the
Speaker 2: quality to cut is generally better than what they would
Speaker 2: find otherwise with working with a logger directly, not to
Speaker 2: say you can't do that successfully, you can, but but
Speaker 2: you really have to know what you're doing and who
Speaker 2: you're working with, and understand the parameters and really stress
Speaker 2: the importance of what's on that contract that you're signing,
Speaker 2: because you can't you can't assume anything. It's got to
Speaker 2: be written down and agreed upon, and so details matter.
Speaker 2: If you get nothing else out of this, details matter.
Speaker 2: And that's why with our Department of Service Forestry, we
Speaker 2: love being that first wave, the first boots on the ground,
Speaker 2: so to speak, because there's no cost. We have no
Speaker 2: incentive whether you decide to sell or not, because our
Speaker 2: paycheck doesn't depend upon it. We just want to inform
Speaker 2: and give good advice and then ultimately the landowner gets
Speaker 2: to decide what makes sense for them, and I'm completely
Speaker 2: fine with that. They own the property, that they have taxes,
Speaker 2: they should have the final say. And so if we
Speaker 2: can support that in a sustainable way and try to
Speaker 2: steer the woods to becoming healthier, more productive, have good
Speaker 2: species composition, be conducive to goals, be wildlife, habitat aesthetics,
Speaker 2: a place that you want to be and recreate in.
Speaker 2: All those things can be done as long as you
Speaker 2: take your time and get educated and try to utilize
Speaker 2: the resources that are available to you through the Division
Speaker 2: of Forestry.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't think you could have put it any better.
Speaker 1: You know, we had to get a lot into this
Speaker 1: short half hour, which amounts to about twenty minutes the
Speaker 1: fastest half hour and radio here at the big one
Speaker 1: as I've been told. But how best for people to
Speaker 1: make contact with the division?
Speaker 2: Great, that's very important. We are available. We are accessible
Speaker 2: to find your service forester hop online, google how a
Speaker 2: division of forestry service forester and you'll find a map
Speaker 2: and that map will have a project assigned to it
Speaker 2: and naming a phone number and call that individual and
Speaker 2: get on their calendar.
Speaker 1: Well, that's fantastic. Garon Cash. I know we're gonna circle
Speaker 1: back probably a few times between now and spring, and
Speaker 1: I know I want to get back with you in
Speaker 1: about a month. We're going to talk about the health
Speaker 1: of our forests and things like that, and it's all
Speaker 1: great stuff for the outdoorsmen out there, you know, whether
Speaker 1: you hunt, fish or hike or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1: So Aaron, thank you very much, Thank you Chi all right,
Speaker 1: fantastic with that, got to hit another break and uh,
Speaker 1: some little tidbits for for you to think about in
Speaker 1: your in your tree stand this morning. Chip Harden seven
Speaker 1: hundred WLW through at w L w sin s Night
Speaker 1: chip Art with you for the next two minutes until
Speaker 1: Gary Jeff drags his cast of characters in and and
Speaker 1: you know he is a legend, and so is Michael
Speaker 1: k Allen with you know, he takes off his hat.
Speaker 1: He hain't got no hair. But that's that's okay. It's
Speaker 1: a you know, just uh, just miserable when it rains. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's all. Hey, interest big big news, Dan, he shut up.
Speaker 1: Big news. The reciprocal fishing agreements with Kentucky and its
Speaker 1: neighboring states for fishing and waterfowl hunting are back in place.
Speaker 1: So those affect the Ohio River, Dale Hollow, the Big
Speaker 1: South Fork of Cumberland, the Big Sandy tug Forth River,
Speaker 1: tug tug Fork River, Kentucky Lake, the Mississippi River. And likewise,
Speaker 1: if you have an Ohio fishing license, you can fit
Speaker 1: you know, fish on the Kentucky border includes all the
Speaker 1: dams and everything. So it's all back in place, people,
Speaker 1: So just uh. And likewise, for those of Kentucky to fish,
Speaker 1: you up, you know, the neighboring states you know that
Speaker 1: were there previously. So that's the big news on that
Speaker 1: on that front. Otherwise, Uh, the three counties and Athens
Speaker 1: Meagues of Washington. Here in Ohio, I've reduced their harvest
Speaker 1: of from three deer to two deer effective December one,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. Because of the just humongous EHD outbreak,
Speaker 1: A lot of people wanted to just close the season,
Speaker 1: but uh, there was I guess uh DNR didn't want
Speaker 1: to do that. But anyway, the responses there were over
Speaker 1: thirteen hundred responses on that, which is the biggest that
Speaker 1: the Wildlife Counsel's ever had. So that's your news this morning.
Speaker 1: Gary Jeff will have everything else that you need to know.
Speaker 1: I think with that, I'm out of here. Chip Hart,
Speaker 1: the Big Outdoors News Radio seven hundred WLW, Cincinnati'd be
Speaker 1: safe in the woods, safe in the water, and safe
Speaker 1: in that tree stand.
Speaker 2: It's CyberSecure.