by Todd Waldron | RGS & AWS Forest Conservation Director – Northeast
Did you know that, according to the Land Trust Alliance, there are 506 community-based and regionally active land trusts across the seven Northeast states? Land trusts are nonprofit organizations that permanently protect, steward and manage conservation properties. And while their focus and objectives can vary widely, there’s a great opportunity to engage key land trust partners interested in the ecosystem service benefits of forest habitat diversity and wildlife. A strategic priority for the Northeast Ruffed Grouse Society & American Woodcock Society conservation team is to expand our partnerships with these key land trusts across the region.
In November 2022, RGS & AWS, in partnership with Downeast Lakes Land Trust (DLLT), was awarded $18,150 from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund.
DLLT has contributed to the long-term economic and environmental well-being of the Downeast Lakes region since 2001 through the conservation and exemplary management of its forests and waters. DLLT sustainably manages the 57,703-acre Downeast Lakes Community Forest for wildlife habitat, sustainable forest products and public recreation.
Funding and support from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund grant went largely toward getting important habitat work done on the ground. Habitat diversity was of paramount importance for this project. The purpose was to work toward a forest that has multiple tree ages and a variety of tree and shrub species that are good for wildlife.
The first objective was to implement 31 acres of woodcock habitat restoration patch cuts on DLLT’s Daugherty Ridge and Musquash compartments. DLLT and RGS & AWS had already been collaborating on the project planning and design. The first entry on Daugherty Ridge occurred in the winter of 2012 and 2013. Twelve patches were cut, totaling approximately 20 acres. Spring singing ground surveys conducted from 2015 to the present indicate that woodcock have used all the harvested areas during the mating season. Anecdotally, grouse have been observed brooding in the summer in unharvested areas between the patches, and in fall, bird hunters reported finding small but reliable numbers of grouse along the edges of the patches.
The 2023 habitat work was completed on the DLLT’s Daugherty Ridge and Musquash compartments between late December 2022 and early February 2023. Fieldwork was completed by a local contractor who started the tree-felling portion of the project on December 21, 2022. This was strategically timed to optimize frozen ground and favorable operating conditions for the equipment. The first habitat patch was completed the next day, felling and bunching trees, and adding tops and branches from the delimbing process to skid trails to minimize ground disturbance, and leaving strategic perch and wildlife trees.
By December 27 the first three patches of Daugherty Ridge were complete. The work continued into the first three weeks of January, when the remaining patches were cut, drumming logs for grouse were left in strategic locations, wildlife cavity trees were protected and the operator used careful skill to minimize the operational footprint both on the ground and around the nearby stands of trees.
The second objective of the project was to collaborate with DLLT to dovetail this work into their broader forest conservation approach via the Focus Species Forestry framework and create a replicable model for how other community forests across Maine can do the same – managing for umbrella wildlife species and balancing wildlife and forest stewardship objectives.
One of the project attributes that we at RGS were most excited about was the potential to replicate and scale these kinds of land trust partnerships across Maine and New England and to strengthen future partnership opportunities with DLLT. Being able to participate and support forest conservation planning on a large scale is immensely important to our mission, and projects like this have already begun to strengthen these opportunities.
Additionally, using this project as an example of how RGS & AWS can work with New England land trusts, we were able to support Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust in Athol, Mass. to secure a $25,000 Cornell Lab of Ornithology Land Trust Grant for similar habitat work on their Guiney Memorial Forest property in Mass.
The third objective was to develop a public outreach and engagement deliverable associated with the project. RGS & AWS will collaborate with DLLT and partners on signage, educational messaging and public outreach. This was central to the project and together with DLLT, we arranged these opportunities before, during and after the work was completed. The first public outreach event was a field tour that took place in October 2022 in anticipation of the work. Seven community members joined myself and DLLT staff to walk the project areas and discuss questions and opportunities.
I’ve also conducted two in-person outreach workshops at the State of Maine Outdoors Show in Augusta on April 1 and 2, 2023, where 55 attendees learned about this project along with our other work in the region, and our workshop was advertised to more than 10,000 attendees.
The eight educational signs planned for the Musquash Esker Trail were installed in early July 2023. In addition to these signs, which provide details about the project, RGS also provided a dozen 12×18 habitat project signs to supplement the larger versions and expand project and partnership awareness. If you’re working with a regional land trust in the Northeast, or if you know of opportunities for us to engage partners interested in forest habitat diversity initiatives, please contact Todd Waldron at ToddW@RuffedGrouseSociety.org.
