So basically you only care about 2 species that by all measures are in fantastic shape and can be hunted right across the road from the cuts that upset you?
It sound like you aren't concerned about habitat as much as sentimental about places that you used to hunt.
What about rabbits, bobwhites, and grouse? What about prairie warblers, yellow breasted chats, white-eyed vireos, indigo buntings, and whippoorwills? Fox squirrels? Raccoons may not den in it, but they're using young forest and early successional cover as well. If they weren't using the same habitat that quail and turkeys nest in they wouldn't be vilified as nest raiders. Even the turkey research says we have a brood and nesting habitat shortage, not a winter roost shortage. The wildlife in the worst shape right now are the ones that don't need big, old trees but native prairie plants.
I'm not saying cut it all down but we damage a forest irreversibly by not managing it. And filling in Kentucky Lake? In my best Joe Biden impersonation- come on, man! That's just tree hugger hyperbole.
To try to pull it back to the original topic, diversity is important in habitat and hunting opportunity.
