The Rattlesnake Hill Wildlife Management Area is a 5,100 acre upland tract, situated approximately eight miles west of Dansville, New York. Roughly two-thirds of the area lies in southern Livingston County, while the remaining third lies in northern Allegany County. The tract was purchased in the 1930’s under the Federal Resettlement Administration and is one of several such areas turned over to DEC for development as a wildlife management area.
The area is appropriately named after the Timber Rattlesnake, which may be occasionally found in the more remote sections of the “Hill”.
The area offers an interesting blend of upland habitats such as mature woodland, overgrown fields, conifer plantations, old growth apple orchards and open meadows.
The area is inhabited by a variety of game species and is open to public hunting. The white-tailed deer, wild turkey, ruffed grouse, grey squirrel, cottontail rabbit and woodcock are found on the area. An occasional snowshoe hare may be observed adjacent to thick creek bottom brush or conifer plantation habitats.
A number of small marsh units have been developed and provide limited hunting for waterfowl. Some of the area’s furbearing species such as mink, beaver and raccoon may be occasionally viewed at these marsh units.
For many years I would never go to John Boyd Thacher State Park. I never really liked the place — I thought it was too developed — too surbanized — too packed the gills with obnoxious people. Not a place to go for relaxation or scenic views but to be run over by joggers and bicyclists while taking in the view or doing nature study.
My hatred of John Boyd Thacher Park wore off over the years. First in 2003, I started go occasionally to the back part of the park off of Beaver Dam Road after my college class let out for the day — usually once a week. It was nice going back there, especially around the ski hill in the evening, as you would never see to many people back there. Mostly undeveloped, wandering around the cleared paths in the brushy woods that were full of wildlife.
Then I “rediscovered” the OSI parcel, which is some “wild” lands to the north of the park. Especially on weekdays, and to certain extend on the weekends this area is quite nice, quite and wild. Most of the surburbanites in their SUVs avoid this area for the developed parcels with the picinic tables and rails to discouage them from heading to close to the edge. But the OSI parcel is a totally different experience.
While I like the OSI parcel with its views, if I have other choices I’ll go to other wild lands with even fewer restrictions. I don’t like how Thacher Park closes at dusk, you can’t go for moonlit walks or camp there like on state forests. There just seems to be so many restrictions compared to other wild lands around to explore.
I think a lot about lead, chromium and arsenic in food. Mainly because I use a lot of spices like cinnamon and turmeric, which are infamous for using lead to enhance color to increase the appearance of quality in food. But on the other hand, the health benefits of eating good quality food, and using spices like cinnamon and turmeric both for taste and health benefits outweight any disadvantages. Processed foods will kill you certainly with all the fats and sugars, small amounts of lead, chromium, arsenic and other metals are far less harmful.
Love they neighbor, the roadside sign said in this era of hyper-partisanship. Maybe in the era of bigotry that exists as the prime alternative to technocracy that’s what we really need. Not politics but love and respect for our fellow man and nature alike.
I don’t own a television. I listen to subversive music all day from Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Malvina Reynolds and Tom Paxton. Our country needs more subversion not less.
Some people I know think government is a force of good. But I’m not sure I agree. I think government may be necessary, and evil sometimes required, but still an evil. We should do everything in our power to shrink our government.
It’s kind of interesting how local people I have talked into in Maryland and Virginia – especially women – have Southern accents. In West Virginia, at least in the northern part, don’t have much of an accent or if they do its mostly a rural Midwestern accent as is common in much of Rural Upstate NY, especially the western part of the state.
The federal government will just become more and more ineffective with grid lock and states will start to do their own things. States will become more distinct in their policies, with blue states and red states relying more and more on Interstate compacts rather than the federal government. There actually is a lot of incentives for states to encourage people to freely relocate to states of their ideological persuasion, so the incumbent politicians can further cement their power and implement their desired policies.
