by Daniel Kutschied | RGS & AWS Forest Wildlife Specialist – Public Lands Georgia
Ruffed grouse in North Georgia are at the southernmost extent of their range in the Eastern United States and face unique challenges and vulnerabilities. Conserving and improving habitat through active forest management in North Georgia — at the fringe of their range — is critical to ensure the continued presence of ruffed grouse in the Southern Appalachians.
In the Chattahoochee National Forest (CNF), young hardwood forests with high stem density and herbaceous cover have become increasingly rare. Forest conditions are dynamic and can change rapidly. Common hardwood trees on the CNF include oaks, hickories, maples, and yellow poplars.
We know that young forest habitat is essential for ruffed grouse, for drumming, nesting and cover. Young hardwood stands provide protection from adverse weather and offer ample food sources, dramatically improving grouse survival rates. Over the last several decades, there’s been a heavy drop in even-aged timber harvesting on the CNF, leading to a drastic decrease in ruffed grouse populations. Surveys of breeding and drumming — and hunter harvests — have all documented the dramatic population decline.
The CNF Fightingtown Creek project’s goal is to increase forest structural and age diversity to benefit grouse and a broad suite of other forest wildlife. The area was once home to a healthy mosaic of forest age classes and an abundant local population of ruffed grouse. As with many national forests in the region, active forest management on the CNF has decreased since the 1970s, leading to decreasing stem densities, maturing forests and closing forest canopies.
There are many reasons for this change in management, among them public opposition, a shift in management objectives, budget constraints, the 1973 Endangered Species Act and legal challenges. The Fightingtown Creek project will help the situation through commercial timber harvests and noncommercial habitat improvements.
RGS & AWS is collaborating with the Forest Service to implement habitat improvements in the Fightingtown Creek area. We’re working together under partner agreements to increase capacity for implementing habitat treatments in the project area, and to benefit healthy forests and abundant wildlife more broadly throughout the National Forest.
To rehabilitate logging skid trails, we coordinated with the Forest Service to clear logging debris and open logging roads. The Forest Service went through and scarified the soil that had been compacted from logging operations and used a tractor with disk harrow to make it suitable for revegetation. Next, RGS & AWS worked with a contractor to seed, fertilize and lime the trails to facilitate herbaceous growth. These revegetated skid trails will provide hunter walking trails and access across the project area, while also providing important herbaceous foods for grouse and other wildlife and creating wildlife travel corridors between timber harvest areas.
The seeded areas were designed to create loops that go through the timber sale area and connect with established roads. The hardwood forests have been harvested so as to provide optimal grouse habitat. The corridors lead wildlife past mature oak stands adjacent to the harvest areas, and sections of oak forest that have been reserved with partial canopy retention. This system will provide foraging opportunities for acorns, clover and seeds, while providing birds better cover and opportunities to avoid predation.
Additional benefits to the road revegetation projects include:
- Controlling nonnative invasive plants will benefit native species. Left unchecked, disturbed roadways can become heavily populated by undesired plant species that are less beneficial for wildlife.
- Seeding will help anchor the soil and prevent erosion and runoff during rainstorms.
- Seeded trails will improve the visual appeal of the harvested area.
- Maintained trails provide better access points for future forest management, recreation and hunting.
We’re excited to continue our collaborative work with the Forest Service in the Fightingtown Creek Habitat Enhancements project. This year, an additional 1.54 miles (2.99 acres) of forest roads, roadsides and skid trails will be closed off and seeded, fertilized and limed, and an old half-acre log landing will be converted to wildlife openings. This will all be complementary to the 155 acres of commercial timber sales that the Forest Service completed that are already providing great grouse habitat!
RGS & AWS, along with the Forest Service, has plans for other habitat improvement projects within the Fightingtown Creek project area. Future actions include additional skid trail revegetation, wildlife opening creation (including roadside daylighting) and noncommercial habitat enhancements in forest stands, including patch cutting and thinning. Educational and informational signage will be added to entrance points detailing the collaborative efforts between RGS & AWS and the Forest Service.
Learn more about habitat projects in the Southern Appalachian Region here.
