Last year Nick Adair and his team at GDIY: Gun Dog It Yourself produced a fantastic series interviewing the Southern Appalachians Forest Conservation Direction Nick Biemiller and for a few episodes, our President & CEO Dr. Ben Jones.
The result is a masterclass walking you through how RGS & AWS work with public and private entities, what the alphabet soup of terms mean and how the orchestration of the working forest model moves our mission forward. We highly recommend you give it a listen!
This is the first episode of a new mini bonus series featuring the Ruffed Grouse Society. I’ll be joined by Nick Biemiller once a month to try and breakdown all elements of the process or model that RGS follows in their effort to create more habitat for the birds that we love to chase. In this first episode we introduce Nick and let you all know what we are going to cover in future episodes as well as why we decided to do this mini series.
Nick Biemiller is back in the 2nd episode of this series to break down as many of the terms and players involved in the RGS process. No matter who you are, its a bit much when trying to get involved and figure out how everything is supposed to work. Between all of the people, NGOs (non governmental organizations), government agencies, and all of the alphabet soup acronyms any army soldier could ever possibly want. This episode is our attempt to try and put a simple breakdown of all the players involved in one location. Next month’s episode we will be jumping into more detailed topics and conversation!
Nick Biemiller joins us again for the 3rd episode of the RGS Series covering the differences between State, Federal, and Private lands. What are the differences between each land ownership? Which is the easiest to manage? Which is the more challenging to manage? The benefits of private projects to public projects? Private land assistance (Technical as Financial) State vs Federal public land How does Pittman Robertson funds fall? Why not just focus on State instead of Federal?
Nick Biemiller joins us again for the 4th episode of the RGS Series covering Stewardship Agreements. What are stewardship agreements? Agreements between the forest service and RGS Are these tracts just unsellable tracts coming from the Forest Service? Mutually benefit for RGS and the Forest Service How do these agreements measure up to the revenue produced prior to the “new model?”
We are joined again by Nick Biemiller, Southern Appalachian Forest Conservation Director of the Ruffed Grouse Society, but accompanying him this episode is Ben Jones, president of RGS and AWS. This episode we discuss everything involving chapter involvement. RGS is a member supported organization. What does that mean? Changing from “event centric” to more of a sustainable model How have the new forester positions worked out for RGS? The changes have brought monetary success but what about the membership base engagement? Engagement coordinators New in person events and ideas by chapters Local chapters still funding local projects!
We close out the Ruffed Grouse Society series round table style with Nick Biemiller and Ben Jones of RGS/AWS but also Michael McCord, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) Small Game Coordinator. We put a book end on the series with a discussion all about Silviculture! What is Silviculture? A forest is NOT a monoculture crop! “Demand per acre is rising and more difficult than ever to manage” Public and private land management diversity Silviculture not only “grows trees” but also manages/controls invasive and undesirable species “Herbicide” is not always a bad word Grouse + Acorns Shelterwood Cuts or Clear Cuts? Not all trees are created equal Climate control and how early successional forests help Series Wrap Up
