06/16/09
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RGS News
RGS is pleased to make available PDF’s of two important documents. For Internet distribution, both have been converted into 8 1/2″ x 11″ PDF’s printable on any printer and downloadable and emailable to your hunting partners, school ecology teachers and others.
The first is a reprint of the Summer 2009 Ruffed Grouse Society magazine article, which appeared on pages 40-42, The Other Silent Spring: Disappearing birds of young forests by Steven Backs, Wildlife Research Biologist, Indiana Fish and Wildlife Department of Natural Resources. The first pull-quote for this article states: ‘These three birds [the American woodcock, the ruffed grouse and the whip-poor-will]…are “coal mine canaries” telling us by their absence that young forest habitats are quickly disappearing. Are we listening? Do we hear the emptiness? Will we listen?’ CAN YOU AFFORD NOT TO?
The second is a new publication made available by RGS and authored by Dr. Michael Zagata, RGS CEO, Placing Wildlife At Risk By Ignoring Ecological Principals: The Need to Manage Public Lands. Its original format is a four-page tabloid size paper publication. Dr. Zagata references the “State of the birds” report issued in 2009 by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative, which indicates that many Eastern forest birds dependent on disturbed or early-successional forest or natural disturbance (including pine barrens) are suffering consistent and troubling declines. These include golden-winged warbler, whip-poor-will, prairie warbler, Eastern towhee, and field sparrow, and popular game species such as Northern bobwhite and American woodcock. Take the time to learn the principals as they relate to the species we care so much about. CAN YOU AFFORD NOT TO?
Too often well meaning individuals and organizations favor mature trees over seedlings and saplings. RGS has a saying ‘Little Trees Need Hugs, Too!’. Both of these documents should be obtained, read, “digested” and the principals passed along by any grouse and woodcock aficiando, as well as by any outdoorsperson or those teaching others about nature. Both authors explain skillfully, in laymen’s terms and easily understood, colorful graphics, what has happened to our forests and the species that depend on early-successional stage forests.
CAN YOU AFFORD NOT TO?
