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Featured Habitat in Michigan: Pigeon River Country State Forest

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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 project occurred in the northern region of Michigan’s lower peninsula; an area best known as the Pigeon River Country.

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

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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 forest habitat diversity at large scales, especially the loss of young forests from the landscape.

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RGS & AWS Congratulate Randy Moore on Appointment as US Forest Service Chief

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The Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society (RGS & AWS) are pleased to congratulate Randy Moore on his appointment as Chief of the USDA Forest Service by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Randy Moore brings over 40 years of conservation experience and leadership to the appointment. His Forest Service experience includes service in multiple regions, and assignments as acting associate deputy chief for the National Forest System and as national deputy Soils Program manager in Washington, D.C. Mr. Moore will also take a unique place in Forest Service history as the first African American to hold the role of Chief of the Forest Service.

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Put Me In – Summer 2021 President’s Message

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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 was cut short with the realization that it impeded on trout fishing and spring turkey hunting.

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SUMMER HATCH!

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Now is the perfect time to join RGS & AWS

We’ve got a special offer for you, but only through Wednesday, June 30

For this limited time only, if you join RGS & AWS at the $60 Conservation Membership level, you’ll receive a 20%-off coupon to the Upland Store. And! You’ll also receive a 60th Anniversary tee, along with your Covers magazine annual subscription. 

And that’s not all – If you join as an Advocate, Uplander, or Centurion Member and you’ll receive a 40%-off coupon to the Upland Store, 60th Anniversary tee, AND a Covers Magazine annual subscription. 

Don’t delay, because this offer ends 6/30/2021.

JOIN RGS | AWS TODAY


Coupons will be emailed shortly after a qualifying membership is purchased. Gift coupons expire on July 31st, and are applicable to store merchandise (i.e. not events or additional memberships). Please allow 4 weeks for delivery from the date of your t-shirt and magazine.

This Too Shall Pass – Things my Hunting Dogs Ate and Other Light Off-Season Reading.

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By Keith Schopp

Content warning: This post includes detailed descriptions of foreign object removal.

I was washing the truck while the five dogs played in our fenced yard, glancing over occasionally to ensure all was in order. That’s when I noticed Stella, my dominant one-year-old German shorthaired pointer, chewing on the collar of Emma, my three-year-old Labrador retriever.

My first reaction was that it was kind of cute. I decided to break it up, and upon closer inspection, Stella was chewing on Emma’s flea and tick collar! In fact, she clearly had chewed off a good chunk. I called the other dogs over and noticed that the flea collar on Lena, my nine-year-old German shorthaired pointer, was completely GONE!

[Read more…] about This Too Shall Pass – Things my Hunting Dogs Ate and Other Light Off-Season Reading.

Get the Picture: How to Capture the Spirit and Success of your Hunts

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By Nancy Anisfield

Originally published in Covers magazine – Spring 2019

Get creative with your photos! For example, interacting with dogs can show more than a typical pose. Photo: Nancy Anisfield

Many of us have been seduced by the convenience of cell phones and pocket-sized digital cameras. Unfortunately, we take our smart phone cameras for granted and as a result, we snap away without careful thought. We end up with a few blurry shots of a dog’s head, lots of empty skies, a skanky grouse hanging off a post or a grainy indoor photo too dark to see who’s who. We also forget to ask if a picture will pay tribute to the real spirit of the moment. It can be hard to develop an image that tells its own story.

Here are some tips to improve the quality and composition of the photos that capture our special moments.

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America’s hunters and anglers lead by example in the fight for conservation

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Global Connections of the Hunt Fish 30×30 Campaign

By Brent A. Rudolph, Ph.D. | RGS & AWS Chief Conservation & Legislative Officer

sunset canoeing
Photo by Brent Rudolph/RGS & AWS

Please consider signing the petition supporting the Hunting and Fishing Community Statement

In a report to the National Climate Task Force released yesterday (“Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful”), the Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, and the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality laid out the plan for our nation’s involvement in the Thirty-by-Thirty Initiative (Thirty-by-Thirty). The initiative is a global effort to establish a goal of placing 30 percent of the planet’s lands and waters under “protected status” by the year 2030.

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Wisconsin members: Your voice is needed!

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The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program in Wisconsin needs to be renewed and fully funded

Ruffed Grouse by Timothy C. Flanigan

Wisconsin’s Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program provides valuable funding to conserve wildlife habitat and natural areas, expand opportunities for outdoor recreation, and protect water quality and fisheries.

Over the past three decades, the Knowles-Nelson program has invested more than $825 million in nearly 7,000 projects across the state. Though diverse forms of outdoor recreation are supported by these projects that involve purchasing lands or easements and sustaining infrastructure, a program review  found 94% of lands purchased with Knowles-Nelson grants since 2007 are open to hunting.

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Defining the needs of our most beloved species

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We need to take bold action for Species of Greatest Conservation Need

By: Todd Waldron, Northeast Forest Conservation Director

Ruffed grouse by Timothy C. Flanigan (For RGS & AWS use)

Have you ever heard the term “Species of Greatest Conservation Need” or “SGCN” and wondered what that means? Or maybe you’ve wondered how it applies to the future of grouse and woodcock populations. How does it drive the RGS & AWS conservation mission?

You’ve likely seen our monthly updates in The Bellwether newsletter or regularly on social media: Ruffed grouse populations are declining across much of North America. The decline is due to habitat diversity decline and grouse are now listed as an SGCN in 19 states, while American woodcock are listed similarly in 29 states.

What exactly does a SGCN designation imply and what conservation action is needed to address it? We’ll get into that in a minute, but first, let’s cover some background information.

[Read more…] about Defining the needs of our most beloved species