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Healthy Forests, Abundant Wildlife, Conservation Ethic

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The Importance of Alders for Grouse and Woodcock

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Exploring Our Love (and Hatred) of Alder Thickets

Maybe in your grouse hunting career, you’ve explored the edges of a tangled alder swamp while looking for birds. You’ve quite possibly shot at a grouse that flew into one, requiring you to trudge in after it. Perhaps you have even willingly adventured into one to see what secrets it keeps. No matter which of these is true, if you’ve ever had to navigate through an alder swamp or thicket, you know the misery that they can be. 

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Working Forests are Local and Sustainable.

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A Wisconsin ruffed grouse and woodcock hunter appreciates the local and sustainable nature of working forests.

 A few years ago, I was helping my neighbor, a contractor, frame up a house. Carrying 2 x 6s from the pile to the foundation, I noticed they were stamped MADE IN GERMANY. Here we were in the midst of Wisconsin’s Northwoods, in the midst of fine stands of red and white pine, and we were buying lumber grown and milled halfway around the world. This made no economic or ecological sense to me — it still doesn’t — that we would use lumber from so far away when we had usable and good trees within sight. The German wood shed new meaning on the term far-fetched.

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Giving Tuesday | Join The Movement

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Make a Giving Tuesday donation today.

Over the years, the American Woodcock Society (AWS) has supported ground-breaking research into this fascinating bird, the American woodcock. First, a migration study in the Central Flyway revealing key nesting grounds, migratory paths, and wintering locations. Now, a similar study in the Eastern Flyway. In 2017 AWS sponsored the 11th American Woodcock Symposium, highlighting work from the world’s leading researchers.

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Shell Appalachia awards Susquehanna River Valley chapter $25,000 grant for Pennsylvania habitat project

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Shell Appalachia has awarded the Susquehanna River Valley chapter a $25,000 grant in support of habitat work in Tioga State Forest designed to benefit wildlife and healthy forest regeneration.

The funding will cover the cost of fencing material to protect a 146-acre prescribed fire treatment area on state forest in the Shin Hollow area of Gaines Township, Tioga County. In addition, the grant will be used to purchase brood cover seed mix and seedlings, as well as hard and soft mast seedlings that will be planted within the project area.

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A Kentucky Grouse Hunter Travels “Up North”

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Mention the words “Up North” and it conjures up different images for different people.  For some it is the sandy beaches of Lake Michigan or any of the other Great Lakes, for others it is the snow of winter and the accompanying snow skiing or riding snowmobiles.  For the fisherman it is the lakes and rivers searching for trout, walleye, northern pike, muskies, or Lake Perch. For the football fans it is the Green Bay Packers or the Minnesota Vikings.  The waters of Lake Superior produce record size smallmouth bass. And mention the Upper Peninsula (UP) and thoughts turn to wilderness, wolves, and bears.

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Building a Conservation Network – RGS

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The Ruffed Grouse Society is among 35 of the nation’s leading conservation organizations that united to form the American Wildlife Conservation Partners (AWCP) nearly 20 years ago.

The coalition has now grown to 50 organizations, representing the interests of America’s millions of hunter-conservationists, professional wildlife and natural resource managers, outdoor recreation users, conservation educators, and wildlife scientists. As a coalition of organizations ranging from the Archery Trade Association to the Wildlife Management Institute, individual AWCP organizations have their own primary areas of interest, but we share a commitment to coordinated engagement with federal agencies and Congress to promote wildlife conservation and provide for sustainable public use and enjoyment of those resources.

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Voice Your Support for Sunday Hunting in Pennsylvania – RGS

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sunday-hunting-for-ruffed-grouse

The Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society previously notified members of a chance to gain Sunday hunting opportunities in Pennsylvania through Senate Bill 147.

This week, the House Game and Fisheries Committee added an amendment to SB 147, primarily to require written landowner permission for Sunday hunting. This amendment has alleviated some lingering concerns and created the best chance yet to allow hunters that want the opportunity for Sunday hunting to have that choice. The rundown of votes that passed the amended version of SB 147 out of the House Game and Fisheries Committee can be found here.

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Finding Your Next Grouse Cover – RGS

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Know Your Grouse Cover

You have waited all year for grouse season to arrive. Like many, you have your gear, maybe a new shotgun and shells, and the dog is tuned up and ready to go. Hard to tell which of you is more excited.  

Your travels lead you to familiar covers that have in the past held a promise of multiple flushes. As you and your dog work the grouse cover, anticipation is building for that first point and the explosion of wings. But it never comes, and your heart is sinking fast.

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2019 National Grouse and Woodcock Hunt Results – Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society

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October 16, 2019
For Immediate Release

Coraopolis, Pa. – The Ruffed Grouse Society (RGS) and American Woodcock Society (AWS) held the 38th Annual National Grouse and Woodcock Hunt (NGWH) on Thursday and Friday October 10 and 11, 2019 in and around Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Throughout the NGWH history, data have been consistently collected from all harvested birds by RGS/AWS wildlife biologists to provide historic perspective on population trends. Results this year showed increased harvest rates compared to 2018, and considerably improved grouse recruitment.

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A Weekend at Grouse Camp with Ruffed Grouse Society – RGS

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The day a German immigrant became an adult-onset hunter at RGS Grouse Camp in Wisconsin

Most grouse and woodcock hunters know this situation: standing in young Aspen cover with a shotgun in your hand. All you hear is the tone of the e-collar that tells you a dog is on point maybe 50 yards away from you. Slowly, but with determination, you make your way through the thick cover of late September, just to end up about 15 yards in front of the dog still strongly on point. 

Just six month ago I would never have thought I’d find myself in the Wisconsin North Woods, chasing the King of the Woods and the curious looking timberdoodle. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even know of the existence of either of these beautiful birds that are now so common to my vocabulary.

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