Some people have probably seen this devastation on Connecticut Hill on Tower Rd. I stumbled on it yesterday. I know there were some lovely hiking trails across this area that I used a lot so it’s painful to see the mess left after the clearcut. This is equipment from a very large operation. We saw them last winter over on the Hector Backbone and now they’re here on Conn. Hill. I am documenting the tree removal…that’s all. 12″ x 12″ using pencil, gouache and watercolor on Arches paper. $100 unframed
Painter on a Bicycle 
What a beautifully executed painting of this terribly sad destruction of beauty and nature.
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Thanks Sara. I must try to trust the management talk. But I’m skeptical for sure. Sent from my iPhone
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Hi Tommy, I have just discovered and immediately love your work. About the logging on Conn Hill. My husband and I own the log cabin just up the road from this cut. We walked this area before it was logged and were able to see the trees marked for the cut, so now we are seeing the job done. I love woods, and compulsively study (informally) the details of forests for their health and structure and the age of the trees and the composition of the understory etc. It is one of the few pure joys I indulge in, walking in woods. My husband has taught himself the entire biome of central New York forest in the last 2 years (he’s on iNaturalist, the one with several hundred observations on Conn Hill lol). He’s also teaching himself the practice and “logic” forest management. It is painful for us to see this cut, but he’s come to understand some of the reasoning behind the management. I begrudgingly admit it is not all bad. But I think what pains me most (besides the cutting of 90 year old trees) is that the forestry management is (1) for wildlife only (the kind you hunt), not for the health of the forest as a whole, or for the ecosystem as a unit that can be healthy and resilient vs. attractive to turkeys but an ecological mess, and as a result (2) absolutely no thought or effort is given to the fauna of the forest floor (think salamanders and spring wildflowers) or managing the huge influx of invasive species that follows in the wakes of these sorts of cuts. You can see the consequences in spades if you drive further up to the other cuts on the ridge road up there. It is such a clear oversight, like all the other environmental oversights “we” have made over the last 100 years and beyond, and seem doomed to continue making until this planet is unlivable for the most delicate and beautiful of the lives on this planet.
Thank you for your work. Kim
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