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Ecology

The Beaver Brook Integrated Restoration Project: RGS & AWS plus partners host training for natural resource professionals

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by Luke McNally, RGS & AWS Champlain Region Forester  The name woodcock – wood bird – almost limits its many personalities. Those of us in the know have observed woodcock in a multitude of environments. We work to establish young forests to provide a variety of cover for woodcock and ruffed grouse through careful successional planning and management. However, we often still ask the question: How can we make our cover even more different? We don’t know nearly as much about the “Ws” as we know about the ruffed grouse. The “Ws” are a suite of conservation priorities that include American woodcock,...

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RGS & AWS Joins Memorandum of Understanding Supporting Wildlife-Based Recreational Access

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The Ruffed Grouse Society & American Woodcock Society has joined the U.S. Forest Service, Boone and Crockett Club and fellow conservation organizations in supporting a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) focused on advancing public access, wildlife conservation and outdoor recreation opportunities across National Forest System lands. The agreement highlighted a shared commitment to sustaining and enhancing access for hunting, angling and other wildlife-based recreational activities while supporting habitat stewardship, conservation education and active forest management. Under the framework of the MOU, the Boone and Crockett Club will convene collaborating partners to identify, develop and implement opportunities that improve recreational access on public...

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Know Your Cover: Lesser-Known Woodcock Covers Along the Atlantic Coastal Flyway 

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by Ben Larson, Mid-Atlantic Forest Conservation Director  The Atlantic coastal flyway includes some of the most densely-populated and highly-disturbed landscapes in the county, but it’s also a critical migratory pathway for woodcock. Along the Atlantic coastal plain, the American Woodcock Conservation Plan emphasizes that “stopover habitats available as feeding covers are critically important to migrating woodcock.”  With the region’s historic conversion of forests to farms and cities – and the more recent reduction in forest management – woodcock are finding and using whatever covers they can, which we’re identifying with migration data and partners. We’re getting innovative, too, creating habitats in new...

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Featured Habitat Project – Wisconsin Forest Wildlife Specialist Program

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by Jon Steigerwaldt – Western Great Lakes Forest Conservation Director and Jared Elm – Wisconsin Conservation Coordinator This year marked eight years of our Forest Wildlife Specialist Private Lands Program in Wisconsin – a first of its kind partnership between RGS & AWS and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in the nation. With 58% of forestlands in Wisconsin in private ownership, private lands play an important role in landscape-scale habitat restoration, especially where they interface with public land ownership. According to Forest Inventory Analysis data collected by U.S. Forest Service over the past 120 years, the largest decline in young aspen,...

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MeatEater Podcast Asks: Can Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock Be Saved?

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A recent episode of the MeatEater Podcast takes a thoughtful look at a question many upland hunters and conservationists are asking: What does the future hold for ruffed grouse and American woodcock? In Episode 845, host Steven Rinella explores the challenges facing these iconic upland birds and the landscapes they depend on. The episode also features insights from RGS & AWS VP of Conservation, Karl Malcolm, who discusses the critical role healthy, diverse forests play in sustaining grouse and woodcock populations. The conversation highlights how changes in forest age structure across the eastern U.S. have reduced the amount of early successional habitat...

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Severe East Coast Winter Weather Results in Woodcock Die-offs

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The Cape May Peninsula in New Jersey has long been known as an important migratory stopover site for a myriad of birds in the Atlantic Flyway, including American woodcock. A recent bout of extreme weather on the East Coast led to the death of more than 170 woodcock at Cape May Point. The tragic event serves as a stark reminder of the fragile balance these birds maintain. A Perfect Storm Cape May Average Temperature for the Month of January 2026  The daily range of reported temperatures (gray bars) and 24-hour highs (red ticks) and lows (blue ticks), placed over the daily average high (faint...

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