H. Rose Schneider reports in The Altamont Enterprise that the Department of Environmental Conservation wants to create a young-forest habitat in part of the Partridge Run Wildlife Management Area in Berne in southern Albany County. The DEC will explain the proposal at a public meeting at 6:30 p.m., Jan. 18, at the town of Berne Community and Senior Services Center, the old Grange Hall at 1360 Helderberg Trail. The DEC hopes to convert about 11 percent of the mostly-forested area into young forest in the next ten years. A young forest contains young trees, shrubs, and grasses, so it is a bit of a mix between an established forest and open fields. Currently two percent of Partridge Run's 4,590 acres is young forest. Shrubland would also increase by about 20 acres, while forest would decrease from 86 percent of the land to 77 percent. The transition would aid the ruffed grouse, blue-spotted salamander, Karner blue butterfly, chestnut-sided warbler, hermit thrush, indigo bunting, wood turtle, bobcat, black bear, white-tailed deer, and the New England cottontail, which thrive in young forests. Read the full story in The Altamont Enterprise.