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Healthy Forests, Abundant Wildlife, Conservation Ethic

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Archives for July 2017

RGS & AWS – Forests in the Farm Bill Coalition

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07/27/17

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PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 25, 2017) As Congress begins writing the next iteration of the Farm Bill, the Forests in the Farm Bill (FIFB) Coalition, a group of 92 forest organizations, recently released a set of forest-related recommendations that would improve the bill’s ability to support private and family-owned forests and the benefits they provide.

The Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society (RGS/AWS) endorsed these recommendations, as they make it easier for landowners to implement scientifically sound wildlife habitat improvement and promote healthy forests.

[Read more…] about RGS & AWS – Forests in the Farm Bill Coalition

WHY WE HUNT, Member Drew Phipps

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” . . . it is disturbing to me that there are so few grouse left in the woods here. I often wonder if I will be the last person to walk some of the coverts I hunt. I wonder how many before me have had the same thought? I take hope in the fact that there are still a few folks with dogs fighting the laurel and would like to see more of those people in the future.”

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I was asked by a friend a few weeks ago if I enjoyed failure. This was shortly after I recounted the highlights of last year’s West Virginia grouse season. I laughed it off at the time, but it does make me wonder, after a season of several hundred miles of walking and no birds taken . . .  was it worth it? My answer now and I hope always is: absolutely. The reason I hunt grouse has nothing to do with birds in hand. I hunt grouse because I’m an adrenaline junkie. I have yet to find a sensation that can match the electric moment just before a flush. The moment when dog, man and bird are all awaiting the same release.

[Read more…] about WHY WE HUNT, Member Drew Phipps

National Monument Review

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07/18/17

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July 18, 2017

For Immediate Release

On National Monuments:

Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society Address Neglect of Wildlife Habitat

Coraopolis, PA – The Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society (RGS/AWS) recently provided public comment urging the Secretary of the Interior to commit to providing young forest habitat when setting expectations for national monument management. The input emphasized the need for even-age forest management to sustain abundant game and non-game wildlife, provide high quality hunting, and benefit local timber and outdoor recreation economies.

“Our comments provide advice for specific steps Secretary Zinke could take and offer our support to help establish the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument as a precedent-setting model of sustainable forest and wildlife management,” said RGS/AWS President and CEO John Eichinger.

[Read more…] about National Monument Review

WHY WE HUNT, Member Morgan Wolfe

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” . . . and part of the reason I hunt is because I love the bonds that this sport creates. The bond between a man or woman and a dog, the bond between fellow hunters, and the bond between the hunter and the hunted. Being able to share a hobby and passion with the ones I love means everything to me.” RGS Member Morgan Wolfe

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I remember the first grouse flush I ever saw.  It was in a New Hampshire cover we call “Spilled Milk”.  The dairy farmer who owned the land passed away a long time ago, but before he did he left an old milk can down by the river.  It’s on its side as if it spilled the milk, and it’s near a tremendous amount of Japanese knotweed.  We find woodcock are in there, but further up where the feeder stream joins the river are some old apple trees.  We always work the cover counter-clockwise beginning with the knotweed and woodcock and closing out with the apples and grouse.

[Read more…] about WHY WE HUNT, Member Morgan Wolfe

WHY WE HUNT, Member Jim Gray

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I might have arrived late to the grouse hunting scene, but I am determined to do everything I can to “pay it forward” and leave it in better shape than I found it.

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Why do I hunt? I really didn’t have any choice, and I have been eternally grateful. My dad was a quail hunter. He started taking me when I was four or five years old. When I got too tired, he carried me on his shoulders. We hunted the sand hill scrub and pine/palmetto woods of Florida. I got my first shotgun, a JC Higgins .410 single shot for Christmas when I was 10. About that time, quail hunting lands began getting scarce as the hills and pine woods of Central Florida were bulldozed for orange groves. So, we shifted to dove and duck hunting.

[Read more…] about WHY WE HUNT, Member Jim Gray