Nick Buggia and Michigan staff highlight the great work happening in Michigan
[Read more…] about Michigan Updates from RGS & AWSMichigan Updates from RGS & AWS
Working Forests Model
Potential Forest Management Impacts from the Changing Climate on Climate Change
by Brent A. Rudolph, Ph.D. | RGS & AWS Chief Conservation & Legislative Officer Beliefs and attitudes on climate change vary considerably among Americans. However, regardless of personal opinions, the future of forest management will be substantially impacted by climate policies. An opportunity exists to leverage those policies to benefit forest health and wildlife. The Ruffed Grouse Society & American Woodcock Society is actively working in the policy arena to harness these initiatives to help our conservation mission. Without our involvement, the outcomes could be quite different and not conducive to the active forest management that we know benefits wildlife so...
Getting to the Heart of Conservation
I’m a person whose life continues to be shaped by forests. When I was young, my family lived in the six-million-acre Adirondack Park, next door to the hardscrabble farm where my mother was born in the late 1940s. I grew up spending most of the summers with my dad’s parents on their 45-acre woodlot outside of the village of North Creek. It was here that my love for forests originated. My grandparents taught me how to identify birch and spruce. I learned about fisher and mink tracks – emblematic signs of the Adirondack forests surrounding us. Sitting under a big...
New Forest-Product Industry Partnerships Help Us Scale Up Our Habitat Improvement
Post originally printed in Covers magazine – Winter 2021 The refuge manager paid hundreds of dollars per acre for a crew to thin 6-8” pine trees by hand. And then the thinned pine, scattered as it was on the ground, made it harder to get prescribed fire back into the stand. But the procurement forester from a nearby pellet mill determined there was enough volume of pine pulpwood for a logger to do the thinning commercially. A commercial harvest meant the logger could make money from the delivered wood chips, the thinned pine was turned into a useful product, and the refuge...
Updates from RGS & AWS in the NE Region
Todd Waldron and Nate Kennedy highlight the great work happening in the Northeast Region Nate Kennedy, Regional Engagement Coordinator (left) and Todd Waldron, Forest Conservation Director – NE (right) Chapter Engagement & Events: We’re engaging chapters and members across the Northeast, and it’s inspiring to see that folks have had a productive hunting season, happy holidays, and are back in action for another year of conservation greatness! Chapters are setting dates and planning events — we’ve got Birds & Brews, game dinners, and banquets in the works (keeping COVID safety in mind!). In addition, some chapters are getting creative in the new year....
Presidents Message: Winter 2021
Winter Magazine 2021 – Dynamic Forest Restoration, by Benjamin C. Jones, RGS & AWS President & CEO A “sea of sameness” is how one RGS & AWS Forest Conservation Director, Ben Larson, described many of the landscapes where we are working. You know the view – a vast expanse of trees, all the same age, same height, canopies touching. Although hidden from our view when overlooking forested scenic vistas, the shaded understory below lacks plant diversity and isn’t meeting wildlife habitat needs. Healthy, wildlife-supportive forests are age-diverse, like a family with multiple generations of young and old. Yet, it’s not enough to create...
