Date: 6/4/25 9:22 am
From: Angela Battle <argusbee23...>
Subject: [ia-bird] Indeed
I hear everything you say with saddened heart and have seen similar impacts
to Stevens State Forest near me. Additionally county practices along rock
roads to 'bush hog' and apply pesticide is also occurring seemingly with
some of the same goals in mind and whatever others they may have and has
increased ten fold over the past four or five years no matter what road you
travel anywhere in the state and so there goes even more crucial edge
habitat.

The edges of rock roads used to sustain all kinds of nesting birds and I
could walk the road and count the nests. There were so many prairie remnant
plants along these roads too that are now replaced by noxious weeds that
seem to thrive in poisoned soils, those seeds spread wide and far by the
bush hog blades.

In the old days before these newer roadside initiatives began in earnest
these edges supported birds and it might also be said, healthy populations
of reptiles, amphibians and small mammals not to mention the insect
diversity so essential to it all. I could walk the road I live on and count
the nests, name the remnant prairie plants and dodge the bumble bees and
garter snakes and toads. All of that is nearly gone now - palpably so.
Heartbreaking.

It matters to know that the increase in noxious weeds along roadways is a
direct response to all of this over management too as such weeks love
disturbed ground either by clearing or poisoning so, those areas mentioned
by Clayton Will are now ripe ground for further disturbance and so will
require further pesticide and clearing management. All these practices are
doing is creating a vicious cycle of misguided treatment that only seems to
reinforce the need for such in the first place. They create the thing they
attempt to manage over and over again.

I am happy to add my voice and concerns all based on evidentiary experience
over seventeen years of being an observer in wonder at the wild world
around me.

Angela Battle
Rural Clarke County

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