conservation

RESEARCH CONFIRMS RUFFED GROUSE CAN SURVIVE WEST NILE VIRUS INFECTION

June 27, 2022 by Ruffed Grouse Society

Providing High-Quality Habitat may be our Best Option to Protect Ruffed Grouse by Ashley Peters Bird hunters in Minnesota provided scientists with hundreds of ruffed grouse samples throughout 2018 and 2019. These samples were then tested for active West Nile Virus (WNV) infection and antibodies indicating infection with WNV. The results of that study were published earlier this year in The Journal of Wildlife Diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that WNV is the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the U.S. Humans can catch WNV through mosquito bites, which can cause flu-like symptoms. However, WNV isn’t usually lethal...

Stewart Makes Huge Contributions to Grouse and Woodcock During Career

May 27, 2022 by Ruffed Grouse Society

By Jeff Helsdon When Al Stewart was 12, he started woodcock hunting. Little did he imagine his passion would turn into a remarkable career. Al retired on April 1, 2021, as the State of Michigan’s Upland Game Bird Specialist and program leader. His career with Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources spanned an incredible 50 years – from student to retirement – with more than 20 as Upland Game Bird Specialist. Al made his mark in the upland bird world, not only in Michigan but continentally and internationally. It seems only natural Al came to upland game birds. His first experience with upland hunting...

Great Lakes/Upper Midwest Featured Habitat Projects

May 19, 2022 by Ruffed Grouse Society

Jon Steigerwaldt | RGS & AWS Forest Conservation Director – Great Lakes/Upper Midwest In Support of Land Acquisition “Land, they haven’t found a way to make that out of plastic yet.” These were the words I was left with after a recent conversation with a Chippewa Valley Wisconsin Chapter member of RGS on the scarcity of land and the need to conserve it. That conversation got me thinking more and more about the support RGS & AWS provides to organizations and agencies for their land acquisition goals and endeavors. Support isn’t always seen by our members, but it’s incredibly important to highlight conservation...

Restoring the role of American elm in Upper Midwest Forests

April 27, 2022 by Ruffed Grouse Society

Written by:Linda Haugen Plant Pathologist State and Private ForestryUS Forest Service – Eastern Region RGS & AWS is committed to developing and maintaining healthy forests, including involvement in the restoration of tree species that have been affected by invasive pests. In 2020, RGS & AWS supported the determination of the nonregulated status for the Darling 58 American chestnut, a blight-tolerant American chestnut that could maintain all of its natural traits, 100% of its original genes, and resume its original ecological niche since the destruction wrought by chestnut blight. Without human intervention, the American chestnut was on the brink of...

Getting to the Heart of Conservation

March 8, 2022 by Todd Waldron

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...

Presidents Message: Winter 2021

February 8, 2022 by Benjamin C. Jones

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...

conservation

Footer