Habitat

Featured Habitat Project – A Conservation Partnership Improving Ohio’s Last Intact Marshland

August 24, 2021 by Ruffed Grouse Society

Printed in Covers Summer 2020 Many of us at the Ruffed Grouse Society & American Woodcock Society often speak about the opportunities that diverse partnerships hold, knowing that many of our fellow conservation organizations share very similar missions and overall objectives when it comes to healthy forests and the diverse wildlife that benefits from them. The Northeast Ohio Chapter of the American Woodcock Society is leading the charge in diversifying these partnerships and unifying conservation organizations for the common good. This chapter recently began a multi-phase project at Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Area, located 35 miles north of Akron in northeastern Ohio...

FEATURED HABITAT PROJECT – Town Forests for Local Conservation

August 3, 2021 by Seth Heasley

Errol Town Forest and Milan Community Forest Printed in Covers Spring 2020 We derive great benefit from public land as a venue – for many of us, the only venue – for our outdoor pursuits. The RGS & AWS works with many federal, state and county agencies to improve grouse and woodcock habitat and access on national forests, state forests/wildlife management areas and county forests across the country. In northern New Hampshire, three towns have taken conservation into their own hands, each forming a town forest that’s actively managed for multiple uses. The towns of Errol, New Hampshire (population 291 in 2010),...

Featured Habitat Project – Seeking New Partnerships to Increase Impacts

July 20, 2021 by Jon Steigerwaldt

by Jon Steigerwaldt | RGS & AWS Regional Biologist Published in Covers Winter 2020 Nestled into the bedrock of the Grand Rapids, Minnesota, community for almost 120 years is a symbol of habitat creation apparent to any ruffed grouse hunter, both visiting or resident. As an inlet for raw wood from public and private land ownerships, UPM Blandin Paper Company helps create young forest wildlife habitat in the heart of the upper Great Lakes grouse range. Managing approximately 188,000 acres (most in Itasca County), Blandin was untapped potential to partner with and create hunting opportunities. When Blandin Forester and RGS member Adam...

Featured Habitat in Michigan: Pigeon River Country State Forest

July 14, 2021 by admin

RGS & AWS members work on habitat project in Michigan

Roger Moore RGS & AWS Chapter forged ahead with a key habitat project despite 2020 challenges and delays By Glen Blackwood, Eastern Great Lakes Director of Regional Development Originally published in Spring 2021 issue of Covers Magazine. “Conservation is NOT canceled” has been the overriding mantra of RGS & AWS, our chapters and membership during the past year. While the pandemic’s impacts caused fundraising and other chapter events to be postponed, our work on young successional forest management and wildlife habitat creation continued in 2020. Through everything, RGS & AWS members and staff forged ahead, ensuring that conservation remained a priority. One such...

Grouse are dangerously close to disappearing in the Southern Appalachians, but we can do something about it.

July 9, 2021 by admin

Looking out over the Southern Appalachian landscape from the Blue Ridge Parkway, one sees a beautiful landscape of rolling hills and vibrant green forests as far as the eye can see. The lush, closed canopy forests that dominate the region’s public lands are no doubt aesthetically beautiful, but they lack diverse forest habitat that many forest wildlife depend upon. In December 2020, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ (AFWA) Eastern Grouse Working Group released a report highlighting that ruffed grouse populations have declined by 71% since 1989 in the Southern Appalachians. The primary reason for this is a lack of...

Put Me In – Summer 2021 President’s Message

June 28, 2021 by Benjamin C. Jones

President’s message from Ben Jones, RGS & AWS President & CEO – originally printed in Summer 2021 issue of Covers Magazine As I write this, it’s mid-April, the sun is out, but it’s damp and chilly. That has me reminiscing about heading to the Pittsburgh Pirates opener at Three Rivers Stadium every year with my dad: The emerald green field as we emerged from the concourse, the smack of the ball hitting gloves during warmups and the cutting chill posed by the spring air and all that concrete in the old stadium. I still love baseball, although my own playing time...

Habitat

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