The Trip Home...

Late last fall after finishing the job in Oregon, I was able to get some excellent pictures illustrating numerous edges in nature on my way home to Texas. I had to head south to Riverside, CA, to drop off some things that we had used in Oregon. Then, I headed east across AZ and NM, stopping overnight at my cousin's house in Tuscon.

As I made my way across NM, I decided to take a slightly different path than usual, traveling up over the continental divide at Cloudcroft, NM, and then along US 82 into Texas. I had never been that way before from Alamogordo to Hobbs, but I'm so glad I chose that way.

The pictures here will document a lot of my trip as I traveled home. I have been trying to figure out a way to tell the story and tie it in to Edge Habitat, but I guess the best way is by showing the pictures.

As I prepared to leave Oregon the week after Thanksgiving, snow threatened to close I-5 at Siskiyou pass. But it was open when I got to Ashland, so I was able to get over and out of Oregon w/o traveling the coast highway, as I had feared.

As it turns out, the post holiday traffic on I-5 was a much larger obstacle than any snowstorm could have been. Wow! What an idiotic mess! If there was ever an example of "territorial imperative," that was it!

When I got just south of Yreka, CA, I was able to get these shots of Mt. Shasta as the clouds would open up just enough to show me the mountain. If you've never witnessed Mt. Shasta before, it is truly another of nature's majestic mega-edges. Stratovolcanoes have an aura anyway, but Mt. Shasta is at the top of the class, IMO. One day it will blow again, like St. Helen did, and it will show it's power to all the world. But many of us can feel that awesome power every time we get near it.

Further north in Oregon lies Mt. Jefferson, and further south and east is Mt. Lassen. But nether command the aura of Mt. Shasta, at least to me anyway.

Mt. Jefferson

Mt. Lassen

After stopping in Riverside, CA, I continued across to my cousin's house just north of Tuscon and west of the Catalina Mts. The pictures below are from her back yard just before dawn.

Looking SE



More southerly

  As I traveled across southern AZ and NM later that day, I decided to get off the freeway at Truth or Consequences and head over to Alamogordo and then top out over US 82 at Cloudcroft. As the following pictures will illustrate, it was a great idea to see some country and critters that I'd not seen before.


Climbing up toward Cloudcroft and looking back toward Alamogordo



Mule deer just over the top on the east side (The tint is due to my not having time to open my PU window.)



Elk cows and beef cows... a little further down the hill...

Altogether, it was a great trip home and a great 3 months spent out west. And, hopefully, a graphic illustration of how edge effects and edge habitat exist everywhere we look... if we look closely enough.

Point is, we need to preserve and develop such edge, as best we can, to improve our environment for wildlife AND human life. Awareness of the need is what Edge Habitat is trying to improve... along w/ whatever we can do to physically nurture the habitat along the way...
 

Bighorns in the Columbia Basin...

Back in September, just after Labor Day, I was traveling to the Portland, Oregon area to work for the next three months at my day job in order to pay some bills. I had lived in the Pacific Northwest for 15 years as a younger man, and my boss had asked me to run a couple of crews for him on a new contract. I was coming from Texas, and I had spent the last night in a motel in Pendleton.

Arising early, I had left Pendleton before daylight. Traveling west on I-84 I had dropped down into the basin making my way toward Portland. It was a cloudy day mixed with rain... nothing unusual for this area.

As I was driving along something happened to catch my eye across the freeway and about 200 yds up the hillside to the south. Son-of-a-gun! It was a full curl bighorn sheep just standing there looking out at the river below. A real grizzled looking old gray bearded rascal with massive bosses... What a surprise!

As I said before, I used to live in the Pacific Northwest and part of that time I worked for the Washington Game Department in Spokane. I was unaware that bighorn sheep were now inhabiting the bluffs above the Columbia River. I surmised that they had been planted in recent years by the Oregon Game Department, but later I found out that they had migrated on their own from the John Day Canyon to the south and west. They had, indeed, been planted in the John Day Canyon, but these had moved into this area on their own. What a success story!

The bighorns are usually seen between Phillipi Canyon and the mouth of the John Day River

As I continued, trying to digest what I had just witnessed, I spotted a group of ewes and younger rams side-hilling westward parallel to the freeway and about 400 yds up the bluff. This was probably 2-3 miles further than the old solitary ram that I had first seen.

That was it! I had to call Doc, a hunting buddy of mine, and tell him what I had just seen... sort of a "share the moment" reaction. I had seen bighorns near the road or crossing the road before in Colorado and Montana, but I never dreamed of seeing such a sight in the Columbia River Basin.


Columbia River  from up on the bench where the bighorns live

On a later trip to visit my uncle in Spokane, I stopped along the way and climbed up on the bench above the river to see what I could find. I had spoken on the telephone with an Oregon wildlife biologist about what I had seen, and he had given me additional information about the sheep and how they happened to be there. The land here is Corps of Engineers land, and I was not trespassing. But up and over the top of the bluff is private land.

As my luck would have it, the sheep were nowhere to be found on this day, at least from my observations. (They were probably watching me struggle to climb up to the bench all the time.) But I did find a well used game trail and some fresh sheep tracks to validate my claims.



Blunt toed sheep tracks look more like a hog's track than a deer's.

Skeptics will, no doubt, say those tracks could just as easily be deer tracks, but deer tracks have a more sharply pointed toe than sheep tracks. Bighorn tracks will more resemble a hog's track, than a deer's track.

So if,by chance, any of you are ever traveling I-84 between Biggs Junction and Arlington, Oregon, be alert along the south bluff between John Day Canyon and Phillipi Canyon for a possible sighting of bighorn sheep. They are thriving along the edge of the river in another classic edge habitat that has not been artificially restored, but simply allowed to develop unmolested. How awesome that we have a window into such an environment while traveling along between our own destinations...

Living on the Edge... a day at the beach...

I awoke for no good reason at 4:30 AM. Don't ask me why, except I think God had something to show me that day. In retrospect, I can't even tell you what day of the week it was or what day of the month it was. I remember it was in early October. But I was wide awake and could not go back to sleep. So I decided to go to the beach.

I was working a job in Oregon, and I was staying at an extended stay hotel in Salem... so it wasn't far to the beach. I think it took me about an hour to get down to Lincoln City, where I stopped for breakfast hoping that the heavy fog would lift while I was eating. It didn't...

Daylight was trying to break through as I left the restaurant and started south down the coast highway toward Depoe Bay, and then Newport. I had no idea where I was going or what I would find, but I had my antiquated 35mm SLR, and I was going to get some pictures of one of the most awesome edge habitats in the world, the Pacific coastline. Funny how edges draw people to them... and animals...

Later that afternoon at Depoe Bay

  When I got to Depoe Bay, daybreak was trying to cut through the fog. But it wasn't having much luck. I stopped on the seawall in downtown to watch the surf pounding the rocks below the road. I could see only about a hundred yards, but you could tell the sea was angry.

I parked beside a car with a lady sitting in the passenger seat with her window rolled down. As I got out of my PU, I said something to the effect that the sea was really kickin' butt this mornin'.

She got out and stepped up to the rail beside me with no concern at all about me being a stranger and it being the crack of daylight. She was in awe of this raging sea, same as me, and we stood there talking about it and why we were both there at the same time.

Maybe 45 minutes later, her son awoke from the backseat and stepped out to join us. Turns out they had been traveling north up the coast highway when the fog got so bad that they pulled over here and waited till morning for the fog to lift.

Our chance meeting and conversation became, what felt like, a friendly connection between strangers. We didn't exchange names, but I could tell that she had enjoyed the connection too. And when she left we shook hands and said as much... I knew it was going to be a good day...

A window to the surf between Depoe Bay and Newport

As I traveled further south down the coast toward Newport, the fog began to fade in and out allowing some views to open up ever so slightly. It would tease me just enough to get me excited about what was unfolding around me. Man, what a day this was going to be...

When I got into Newport, I stopped and asked where I could park near the beach to get some pictures of the surf when the fog lifted. They pointed me in the direction of a county park just a few blocks off the main drag, and off I went.

The park was a small parking lot with a public bathroom and a circular pavilion overlooking a bluff over the mouth of the bay... but the fog had it socked in... However, the surf was definitely audible below, probably 200 yards away. It was a surreal experience, to say the least, but it was just getting started.

There was a crew of roofers putting a new roof on the pavilion in the fog that morning which interrupted the scene regularly. But they simply added to the background noise, which was muffled constantly by the sound of the surf.

Sitting on a bench at the head of the sandy trail down to the beach was a clean shaven middle aged man wearing jeans, a hooded camo jacket, and a baseball cap. Beside him sat a neatly packed large backpack, the kind that might be used if going camping in the mountains.

I asked him, if he minded, if I sat on the bench beside him with my camera to watch and wait for the fog to lift and expose the surf below. And thus began 4+ hours of conversation between this guy (turns out a homeless man) and me.              


The two pictures above were taken from the bench where we sat.


The conversation started out slow with mostly small talk, but soon progressed into another friendly connection between two complete strangers. The guy's name was Bartley (the only Bartley that I've ever met in 63 years), and you would never guess that he was a homeless man even though he carried a pack. He was too clean and neat...

I thought, at first, he was simply trekking the beach with his backpack for the experience. Only after he found out where I was from and found out that I knew where he was raised (Soper,OK) did the conversation evolve into a more personal one about his past and his current situation. It was truly a fascinating morning...

  Bartley was a welder, by trade, and a good one too, according to him. But he had climbed into a bottle several years back following his son's suicide after returning from Iraq.

Subsequently, he had determined that he really did want to live and that the bottle was surely killing him. So he quit! And he was doing his best to pull himself up by his boot straps and become a contributing citizen again.

 And he shared his perspective of his situation with me that morning in a way that changed my whole idea of how homeless people cope. But what impressed me the most about Bartley was his apparent integrity. And the fact that he had any...

Becoming a good welder again isn't always easy when there's a huge hiatus in your resume where you've been living among the Redwoods for 5 years+. And the unemployment office only wants to re-train you... or at least that's the best plan they can devise for you.

 We talked, as I said before, for 4+ hours while waiting for the fog to lift. Bartley filled me in on many things about the area as the fog lifted that day. Some of which I will share here before I'm done.

But the main thing that I learned from Bartley that day was that homeless people are people, just like the rest of us, that find themselves in a life predicament that has them boxed in... not trapped, but boxed in... And some of them, like Bartley, will find their way out of it.

I have no doubt that Bartley will be fine. He told me as much... after he declined my offer of a ride somewhere. We shook hands when I left, and I wished him luck. After all, this stranger had just shared a lot of his life with me... along with some of his vacuum sealed smoked salmon from his pack...

The Yaquina Lighthouse was one of the places that Bartley recommended that I see while I was there. As you can see the fog was rolling back in when I was there. The lighthouse is just out of Newport on the way back north on the coast highway.




Right up to the Edge... looking down from the lighthouse area...

 

As the fog lifted, the breakers were pounding the rocks out in front of the lighthouse. This is the northern point of the bay, and it catches the full fury of the Pacific. I will hope to return someday when the view is not obscured by the fog, but this day was still a powerful experience. The Pacific never ceases to amaze me...

As I traveled back north toward Lincoln City and eventually Salem, I stopped again somewhere near Otter Rock, south of Depoe Bay. I believe it was Otter Crest, but it might have been the Devil's Punchbowl. I can't remember... I've slept since then, don't you know...

But I remember a large parking lot and a rocky point that jutted out to where these breakers were putting on their show. This was mid afternoon and the fog was all gone, but the power in the breakers was still there.

These pictures were all taken with a 22 year old Minolta SLR with a telephoto lense. Not bad for a fat old man who can barely afford to pay for the development anymore of 35 mm film... IF I can find someone who still develops it. Talk about feeling antiquated...

Finally, I made one more stop in Depoe Bay where daybreak had found me talking to that nice lady and her son. The very first picture in this post is from that spot and so is the next one to follow here. You can see the same rock outcrop in the top of the picture below that was in the first shot at the top of the post.

No doubt, some of you may wonder what all this has to do with Edge Habitat. Edge in nature refers to the edges of ecosystems. The Pacific Ocean/ Continental Shelf is a mega-edge where two powerful ecosystems collide, each composed of smaller edges and ecosystems within them. Bartley was a guy living on the edge in more ways than one. I have no direct evidence to prove it, but I believe from the conversation with the nice woman at daybreak that she and her son were on an edge of sorts.

Point is, people are drawn to edges of all kinds in life... So are animals... And so are plants... Edges are powerful phenomenons in nature... These pictures are proof of some of the most powerful examples that I can provide. Be aware of the things around you. They are all tied together to make this world where we live.

This country is on the edge right now as well. And we as Americans, not Republicans or Democrats or whatever, need to realize that everything we do creates an edge that becomes a part of the whole of things.

Albert Rasch Chronicles Interview...

Some of you may have already seen this interview posted a couple of weeks ago on the Albert Rasch Chronicles. However, I thought it might give those who haven't seen it some insight into what Edge Habitat is all about and what we are trying to accomplish. Maybe there's a little chest thumping involved too, LOL, but I'm sure you will understand...

The pictures and graphics did not copy and paste, but the interview came through just fine. The pictures were taken from this blog anyway. I guess I'm just not computer literate enough to show the complete work that Albert did, but you can link to his blog spot and see the original piece if you like...

A Chronicles' Interview with Bo Parham and Edge Habitat

Folks, once again a great hello and good hunting to you! Today we are adding to our splendid interview series “The Outfitters Chronicles.” Though Bo and Edge Habitat aren't in the outfitting business, habitat management is an integral part of game management, and it is only fitting that we interview them as only the Chronicles can.
Our interview today is with Bo Parham of Edge Habitat. Bo and I worked on this over a series of e-mails. I had bumped into Bo's blog some time ago, and like many things, it kind of went on the back burner. Through a series of "Blog Hops," I bumped back into Bo's blog, and started our correspondence again. I've always been interested in reclaiming damaged environments, and wildlife conservation management is right up my alley.

EH: Albert, first, let me say thank you for taking a special interest in what I'm trying to do.

TROC: Bo, it's my pleasure to sit down and talk to you about habitat restoration and design. After twenty years of construction and related activities, I am super pleased to finally meet someone with the knowledge and ability to either design new wild spaces, or restore damaged ones! But before we go into that, please introduce yourself to our readers.

EH: My name is Jerry Boswell Parham. My Mother and the cops call me Jerry, but most everybody nowadays calls me Bo, a nickname my Dad gave me.

TROC: Then Bo it is! I started right off with how pleased I am to discuss habitat improvement and restoration with you. As a student of biology, it's exciting to know that with a little bit of knowledge and some hard work, you can actually reclaim damaged environments, or improve marginal ones.

EH: That's absolutely correct, Albert. And even in incremental steps, you can make a difference in the quality of the habitat around you. So much emphasis today is placed on feeders and food plots for wildlife, and those concepts certainly have their place. But improving habitat is much more than feeding the animals. And it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg for hi-protein feed sprayed from automatic feeders or high priced food plot seeds planted in a man-made clearing in the middle of the woods. It can be done by simply utilizing the existing natural seedbank and the existing edges on the landscape. And it doesn't have to necessarily look unsightly to be effective.
As I see it, the closely manicured landscapes that we see today have eliminated far too much habitat that could be utilized much more appropriately. Man and wildlife can co-exist, but man can't keep destroying the habitat without destroying the wildlife. This sort of thing has become a passion with me. It's more than just being in tune with nature or having a place to hunt. It's not taking from the environment or taking it for granted, and it's giving something back.

TROC: I think that a lot of folks would like to do something, but have absolutely no idea of where to start. How did you "educate" yourself in Wildlife Conservation Contracting?

EH: I studied biology in college, but where I could afford to go had no formal wildlife biology training. It was more of a pre-med curriculum, but I managed to work in my own independent studies, when I could. I almost got a 2nd major in geology, and I studied agriculture independently. So, officially, I'm not a wildlife biologist, but it's where my heart lies.
Quite frankly, I am a synthesizer of other peoples research at this point, but I aspire to help improve or restore habitat in any way I can, whether by writing about it, or offering advice or personal labors. I didn't start Edge Habitat to make money, but to spread the word and to improve wildlife habitat. That is why I welcome any feedback from people who know more than I do.

TROC: Tell me Bo, where are you currently located?

EH: I live in Clarksville, Texas, Red River county, between Texarkana and Paris. It's right on the edge of the blackland prairie and the piney woods. North of the Red River lies the Kiamichi Mountains and the Ouachita National Forest in Oklahoma. To the west of Paris lies the Caddo National Grasslands. It's a diverse environment, filled with excellent habitat in many places and opportunities to improve habitat in many others, not unlike other places I'm sure.

TROC: I'm certain that you've quite a bit of outdoor experience too. How did your outdoorsmanship get its start?

EH: Hunting and fishing have been ingrained in me since childhood when I could walk out my back door and go hunting, all day... Or fish in the neighbor's stock ponds or the creek a couple of miles away. Unfortunately, those times are long gone, and so is that environment in far too many places. Some of the lucky ones can still enjoy that type of experience, but they are few. It is from those roots that my love of nature and the outdoors has grown.

TROC: I've gotten a little hunting in over the years, no where near enough as far as I am concerned. My problem is mostly that of access. I've seen areas that were once readily accessible and well stocked with game, both large and small, become subdivisions almost over night. I see you've done quite a bit of hunting. What are some of your successes?

EH: As for my hunting and fishing successes, they have been adequate. Besides the 140-class WT pictured on the blog, I have a 6X7 bull elk (unscored), a 160-class mule deer, a half a slam so far in turkeys (best being a 23 lb. 11-in. w/ 1.25 spurs)and 3 double digit largemouth bass (best being 10.96) as my personal best trophies. But Albert, as you well know, every encounter in the outdoors, no matter what, makes you live longer...

TROC: You mentioned that you worked in the medical field for quite some time, how did you get from scrubs to overalls?

EH: I did spend the majority of my life in health care, both as a pharmaceutical representative and a radiology technologist. However, in '08 I was injured moving a patient in the hospital. I lived in Spokane, Washington as a young man, and I worked as a packer and a cook for an outfit in the middle fork of the Salmon River country in ID. Then I went to work as a Hunter Safety Coordinator for the Washington Department of Game in Spokane. There I was able to assist habitat specialists and others in their work. I developed a working knowledge of the subject, along with a sincere love and respect for that type of work.
When I became injured and forced into semi-retirement, I sat down and asked myself, "What assets do I have that I can use to make my way and be of service?" and "What would I be most happy doing with the rest of my life?" From that, Edge Habitat was hatched. So, honestly, Edge Habitat is a fledgling enterprise created to try and be of service to both the landowners and the wildlife. It doesn't hurt that it might help an old outdoorsman survive as well!

TROC: What sort of projects have you been involved with?

EH: There have been a few small projects, but nothing special to recall... yet!. Most have been erosion control or bank stabilization projects. I have been trying to get the mayor of our city to hire me to manage the grounds at the local city lake for wildlife; but, there again, there is no money in the coffers. This would be an excellent project, since it's just across the main highway to the east of me; and it's in dire need of some help.
The largest thing that I've done is to advise a friend about how to maintain habitat and prevent erosion post logging on some inherited property of hers. But that was pro bono, and I was happy to do it. It allowed me to put into practice some of the ideas I had been developing, and observe the results over time. Local TX P&W biologists have called me a couple of times about their projects, but nothing has yet to come of that either.
That's why when you emailed me about this I was pretty discouraged. But that doesn't mean that I don't still think it's a good idea that needs to be pushed. It's a tough sell, especially in this economy, but I haven't given up on being able to get something going.

TROC: Bo, I am always curious, tell me, how did you get started blogging?

EH: The blog idea was a suggestion of my sister to help with cheap advertising. But it soon became a way to express /vent some things and gather information too. Frankly, Albert, the blog, as minuscule as it is, is more successful than the business at this point. People will talk to you about your ideas about the land, but they can't spend the money to do anything in this economy. If they do, they do it themselves; and utilize your ideas or what NRCS or TX P&W has suggested to them.
As for suggested projects that people can do on their own, the Edge Habitat blog has got numerous posts to that effect in the archives. Edge feathering, strip disking, regenerating the seedbank, comes to mind. All of these can be done with minimal expense and mostly just some work. I am always open to anyone who might have a question to be discussed; but, mostly, I find I'm talking to myself...

TROC: You know Bo, I used to feel that way also when I first started blogging. But with time, you develop a network of readers and followers. Before long you will be the subject matter expert that folks come to for advise on reclaiming land for wildlife! Now, what would be a dream project for you?

EH: The ideal situation for me would be to land a job with an absentee landowner who has deep pockets and several hundred / thousand acres to manage for wildlife. And I would thoroughly enjoy an opportunity to write about wildlife, habitat, and the outdoors. I think that would be both pleasurable and desirable at my age! But then, there are plenty of younger people out there with more specific degrees in wildlife / habitat / ranch / forestry management to fill such jobs, don't you know. But maybe, just maybe, I can do something by synthesizing information and spreading the word to interested people that will help me find a way. And, like the song says, "Get by with a little help from my friends."

TROC: Bo, I wish you all the best in your endeavours. We need more people in the field that can help us maximize the available habitat, restore damaged habitat, or create habitat out of areas that have been destroyed or altered. We will continue to keep in touch and it is my hope that we can feature some of your writing right here on The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles!

EH: Albert, Thank you!

Once again I would like to thank Bo Parham of Edge Habitat for taking the time to interview and introduce Edge Habitat to us.

If you would like to know more about habitat reclamation and habitat restoration. please see Bo's blog, Edge Habitat.

You can also reach Edge Habitat at:

edgehabitat@windstream.net


Best Regards,

Albert A Rasch

Langford Creek Lake - A lack of habitat management...

Across the state highway from where I live is Langford Creek Lake, a small city lake that has been mismanaged for at least the 7 years that I have lived here... both for people and for wildlife. From the pictures here you can see that the area surrounding the lake is a naturally diverse ecological area that has been stripped of much of it's native vegetation and supplanted with tall fescue over most of the landscape. I have expressed my opinion on tall fescue in earlier posts so I won't go into it here. Suffice it to say it's only functional use here is as erosional control, and there are other choices that would be much better wildlife habitat.

Looking Northwest

The fescue covers most of the acreage on the property aside from a strip of wooded area along the north-eastern side of the lake and a small wooded area in the northwestern corner. This fescue includes two softball fields, a couple of poorly kept soccer fields, an area surrounding an old tennis court, and across and below the dam to the other side of the lake. I'm not sure at this time how many acres there are on the property, but I would say 200 acres+, including the lake. A little more than half of the acreage is lake and the rest is split about equal between woods and grass.

The mayor of the city likes to keep things mowed as best she can with the fiscal problems she faces in today's economy. She says it costs $1500 every time the area is mowed, mainly due to the offset mower required to mow the steep dam.

She obtained a grant last year to have all the brush and trees removed from the above area and the dam (pictured below). Trees along the dam were quite tall and blocked the sun from much of the reed undergrowth, keeping it from growing very thick. There were trails along the dam's water edge where people had been fishing. It was a nice native habitat that provided shade for the fish, animals, and people using the area, but the tall trees blocked the view from the road along the top of the dam... so they had to be cut down. But they were not killed. The stumps were left cut off at ground level.

Looking Southwest

Today the shoots have grown back to about a 10' height. And since the sun shines all day on them now, the reeds are so thick you can't get to the water's edge (see picture). Wouldn't it have been better to have left the trees standing tall to shade the area and provide a natural habitat for the critters and shade for the fishermen... and saved the money wasted on an ill conceived project? Maybe just trimming the trees back so that the views would be preserved, at the same time shading the water's edge and preventing the thick growth of reeds.


Early successional growth the next season.



 As you can see the native vegetation will grow here if it is left alone to do it's thing, providing excellent habitat for wildlife. But it could certainly use some nudging in the right directions to utilize the landscape for the best benefit of wildlife.

And the people could still have their park and ball fields and tennis court... but with an excellent native habitat intertwined with nature trails instead of open fields of periodically mown tall fescue. My idea is to remove the tall fescue and develop, over time, a native habitat conducive to attracting all types of wildlife to the area. I won't go into all the steps here, but I thought about studying the area as I have time and subsequently posting my thoughts.

There was at one time, I'm told, deer and turkey in the area, along with other smaller birds and wildlife. But there is very little, if any, deer or turkey activity in the area at present. There is some waterfowl activity, but there could be much more. The total wildlife population would require considerable study, I'm sure, but the area certainly does not presently approach it's potential...

When I approached the mayor last year about the possibility of Edge Habitat providing the city with habitat management for the area surrounding the lake, I was told simply that there was no money for such things. She did take my card and said that she would talk to others about the issue, but I have never heard a word from it.

However, this week when I took these pictures, I spotted these trees and brush piles where someone had been trimming the brush from around the trees, and piling it (see pictures); removing what might be nesting cover. There was a guy there, who I had met before, who told me there was a mexican that had been cutting and piling the brush. Another one of the good mayor's beautification projects, I surmise. But there is no money for habitat restoration... I wonder if the mexican man is here legally? 

To me, the problem here is the same problem encountered on private land when discussing habitat management for wildlife. People think that it's a nice idea, but there is no money for it. But they want to keep it all neatly mowed so it looks nice, never thinking that they are robbing wildlife of their environment. It's a matter of priorities, don't you know... where the money goes...                                                                                                                                            

Utilizing woods roads for wildlife...

Following the previous post concerning the size of a habitat project, the shape of it isn't necessarily important either. Woods roads may wind throughout a piece of property offering excellent opportunities to improve habitat. And if edge is so important to wildlife, then woods roads offer considerable more edge to be utilized than do food plot fields.
Woods roads may include anything from long driveways (well traveled) to old skid roads to newly opened paths between tracts. Depending on how much traffic the road gets, measures can be taken utilizing different methods and plants to prevent erosion and stay away from such traditional erosion control plants like tall fescue and orchardgrass, which are not beneficial to wildlife.
Habitat improvements may include daylighting the roads to let in more light, feathering the edges to create cover and aid w/ the daylighting, planting food plots along or on road beds, or simply light disking (just before spring green-up) every other year to stimulate early successional growth from the existing seedbank.
Plants need to be shade tolerant plants like white clovers and wheat. The wheat (thickly planted) acts as erosion control as well as serving as excellent brood cover. Wheat also germinates quickly to prevent erosion allowing the clovers and other forbs and grasses to take hold.
It is still best to utilize all the steps needed to develop a quality food plot, i.e. soil testing, mowing, selective herbicides, etc. But if you can provide enough sunlight ( about 4 hrs/day) onto these roadbeds, they can be excellent sources of habitat improvement throughout the property w/o clearing land for food plots and sacrificing valuable timber.

How large the habitat project?

          

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

These are a couple of shots of my field out back showing some of the native grasses and forbs (weeds) that are flourishing.

Recently, it was suggested to me that you could make a difference in habitat w/ as little as 10 acres. IMO, that is true, but it doesn't have to be that large either. In fact, IMO, even back yard projects can make a difference, especially when several people in a neighborhood work together on such things. But anything that you do to improve habitat makes the world a better place.
In fact, the field that I have been talking about here is merely a 3 acre field behind my house. I began the project last year and it will remain a continuing project. But I have already seen an increase in bird life that even my neighbors are noticing too.
This 3 acres is adjacent to a small cattle ranch that has very little, if any, large game other than too many coyotes. But it is connected by corridors of fencerows and creek beds to other habitat that does sustain large wildlife. Hopefully, in time, the larger animals will find a way to my little project and make themselves visible.
I never plan to hunt them here, as I have too many close neighbors on 3 sides. But having a small creek on my western border w/ the ranch acts as an excellent corridor from other areas. Most of the people here have 1-2 acre lots and they keep them pretty well mowed, so there is little other habitat or cover to attract much more than birds near them.
But the closer neighbors have noticed what I'm doing and some have asked about it. When I explain, I'm not too sure they can appreciate the idea; but maybe when some larger animals start showing up, they will change their thinking... But, then again, maybe they will see the results of my labors in other ways too... For now, at least I can enjoy it...