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Healthy Forests, Abundant Wildlife, Conservation Ethic

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Ben Rhodes Promoted to Forest Conservation Coordinator for Southern Appalachian Region

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RGS & AWS is proud to announce the promotion of Ben Rhodes to forest conservation coordinator for the Southern Appalachian region.

In this role, Rhodes will oversee the growth and implementation of projects across the region. His leadership will help advance our mission to enhance wildlife habitat and promote healthy, diverse forests.

Rhodes has been with RGS & AWS for more than two years, serving as a forest wildlife specialist in Kentucky. During that time, he developed partnerships, led on-the-ground habitat projects and delivered measurable conservation results. His new position recognizes both his accomplishments and his ability to take on broader leadership responsibilities.

Sean Barry, forest conservation director for the Southern Appalachian region, praised Rhodes’s contributions and potential.

“Ben’s been a terrific forest wildlife specialist for us. He’s put in the work on the ground and earned the trust of partners and landowners across southeast Kentucky,” Barry said. “That experience makes his promotion to coordinator a natural next step. Field foresters are the heart of what we do, and Ben’s proven he can take that foundation and help guide our program across the Southern Appalachians. We’re lucky to have him in this new role, and I look forward to working with him to advance the mission of RGS & AWS.”

RGS & AWS Welcomes Two New Team Members Supporting Conservation Across the Upper Midwest

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RGS & AWS is expanding its conservation and development capacity in the Upper Midwest with the addition of two new team members: Emma Belling as forest wildlife specialist in Wisconsin and Brett Edstrom as director of regional development for the Western Great Lakes.

Emma Belling – Forest Wildlife Specialist, Wisconsin

Belling will serve in a collaborative partnership role based in Rhinelander with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Her work within a DNR service center will support both public and private lands across northeastern Wisconsin.

A Wisconsin native, Belling earned a degree in wildlife ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and brings professional experience in prescribed fire, habitat restoration, forest management and endangered species management. She most recently worked as an assistant tree improvement forester after serving as a wildlife area manager for the state of Virginia. Outside of work, she enjoys hiking, biking and kayaking with her husband.

Brett Edstrom – Director of Regional Development, Western Great Lakes

Edstrom joins RGS & AWS with more than 20 years of sales experience in the public safety and communications industry and a long record of leadership in the conservation community. He is the past president of the Goodhue County Pheasants Forever Chapter, the Minnesota Grouse Dog Association and the Minnesota Hunting Spaniel Association. He also served on the boards of the Chippewa Valley Grouse Dog Association and Region 19 of the Amateur Field Trial Clubs of America.

In his new role, Edstrom will focus on building and strengthening relationships with partners and supporters across Minnesota and Wisconsin in support of the RGS & AWS mission and the conservation of the woods and wildlife we all hold dear.

These additions strengthen RGS & AWS’ work to advance active forest management and build durable partnerships that benefit ruffed grouse, American woodcock and the broader suite of conservation efforts across the region.

2025 Society of American Foresters National Convention

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Overview

The Society of American Foresters (SAF) hosted its annual National Convention in Hartford, Connecticut, last week (Oct. 21-25). The convention marked the 125th anniversary of SAF and brought together foresters, researchers and policymakers to reflect on the rich history of forestry, share current advancements and look ahead to the future of sustainable forest management.

SAF National Convention Attendance

Sara Cerv, forest conservation director for the Atlantic Coastal Plain and Piedmont Region; Amelia “Melly” Napper, forest wildlife specialist for the Northeast Region; and Aaron Lewis, forest conservation coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Region, were in attendance.

House of Delegates

Cerv attended the House of Delegates (HSD) meeting representing the Appalachian Society of American Foresters. The HSD is a collection of representatives from each of the 30 SAF state and multistate societies. Its purpose is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information to improve SAF and serve as a key channel of communication between state societies, the SAF Board of Directors and national office staff. Discussions at the HSD meeting emphasized how collaboration across organizations can strengthen the profession and unite efforts around a common vision.

Presentation

Todd Waldron and Napper presented “Resilient Forests for Wildlife: Collaborative Habitat Stewardship in the Northeast United States,” which highlighted how active forest management and collaborative partnerships sustain wildlife populations and promote resilient forest ecosystems.

The presentation drew a full audience, with seating quickly reaching capacity and many attendees standing throughout the session. The strong turnout reflected the high level of interest in the topic and its relevance to professionals across multiple sectors.

In the Habitat Business

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by Troy Holcomb, Minnesota DNR Division of Forestry

It’s a frosty 10-degree morning in early February—the perfect time to find a northern Minnesota logger in their natural habitat.

“It’s a good time to be a logger,” said Gene Ruud of Timber Transport, and he has good reason. Consistent low temperatures and minimal snow cover made accessing timber harvest areas with heavy equipment easier than previous years. To loggers, cutting trees isn’t just a job– they carry out their mission with a zeal and passion akin to an experienced pointing dog in their prime. Each year across Minnesota, between two and three million cords of wood are harvested. How that comes to happen and the impacts that it has is a story that touches everything from paper products like the magazine in your hands to young aspen forests used by grouse and woodcock.

Logging has many benefits. From a forester’s perspective, logging is an efficient and effective tool to manage large-scale forest health issues, reduce wildland fire risk and keep watersheds healthy.

Economics are another huge driver. The forest products industry is the fifth largest manufacturing sector of Minnesota’s economy, supporting approximately 71,650 jobs, many of them in rural areas. All of those people created and sold nearly $25.3 billion dollars’ worth of forest products in 2022.

Ruffed grouse and woodcock hunters are one group that has a lot to gain from a strong forestry economy because, when it comes to wildlife habitat management in Minnesota’s Northwoods, the rubber really hits the road when the feller buncher fires up. The most efficient way to create the early successional habitat required by the King of Gamebirds is a well-planned commercial timber harvest.

A look at logging

“The forest products industry is critical for creating and managing wildlife habitat,” says Rick Horton, Executive Vice President of Minnesota Forest Industries (and former RGS & AWS biologist). “We can create landscape-scale habitat that isn’t possible through small projects. The economic driver of the industry provides funding and opportunities to create thousands of acres of critical young forest habitat annually.”

The work of timber harvesting in Minnesota is completed by loggers qualified through the Minnesota Logger Education Program. These professionals wear many hard hats: forester, businessperson, mechanic, accountant. They must be able to implement a harvest project according to a forester’s prescription to fill a volume quota at a wide range of mills in a dynamic environment of fluctuating weather, markets, labor force and fuel prices. The mills where the logs are delivered range from a local sawmill with a few employees to a large multinational paper company. Having these producers and consumers in place provides landowners a way to manage habitat and respond to forest health issues in a profitable way.

Forest managers in Minnesota work within a comprehensive set of Best Management Practices designed to guide sustainable timber harvest. Because of our strong adherence to responsible forest management, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) has been recognized by two different independent, third-party verification organizations: the Forest Stewardship Council and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.

Minnesota’s forest products industry capacity has steadily declined since its peak in the 1990s, most recently with the Verso mill closure in 2020. But forest growth is exceeding harvest, paving the way for potential expansion.

The story across the Lakes States is very similar. Even though wood is a renewable resource, changing consumer preferences is leading to reduced timber markets. In Minnesota, in recent years, just over half of the trees harvested went to making pulp and paper. As the use of paper declines, so, too, will the opportunity to conduct commercial timber harvests.

For species like ruffed grouse, American woodcock and golden-winged warblers that rely on young forest, the loss of a mill where a logger sells the timber they harvest will create a reduced ability to provide quality habitat. The strength and size of our timber markets have a direct impact on society’s ability to manage for wildlife habitat, reduce wildfire risk and respond to forest health outbreaks.

When it comes to creating grouse and woodcock habitat, aspen is king. It’s no coincidence that the range of ruffed grouse in North America closely mirrors that of our two native aspen species. In Minnesota, we use 22% more aspen than all other species combined. In 2022, the year for which the most recent data is available, 1.3 million cords of aspen were harvested from all ownerships. That equates to 52,000 acres of grouse and woodcock habitat created annually in a profitable way! Aspen harvest peaked in the 1990s with approximately 95,000 acres of aspen harvested annually. Interestingly, there was even a time in Minnesota in the mid-1980s where contractors were being paid to harvest aspen stands just to get the aspen to regenerate to maintain habitat diversity.

Due to long-term market trends, Minnesota is currently harvesting one million cords less annually than we were 30 years ago. In fact, our current harvest level of 2.77 million cords is significantly lower than the 4.1 million cords of naturally caused mortality occurring across Minnesota’s forestland, according to a 2020 U.S. Forest Service examination. Our forests are currently growing more than twice as fast as we harvest them each year. That’s a lot of opportunities for active habitat management!

Private woodland owners are key to maintaining healthy habitats

The ownership map of Minnesota’s forests looks like a patchwork quilt. Large tracts of public forests are managed by county, state and federal governments. The goals of these agencies differ slightly, but they’re all managing for the public good by offering timber for sale, protecting sensitive habitats and watersheds and providing recreational opportunities. On these public lands, foresters, biologists, ecologists and botanists develop long-range plans that guide what gets harvested, where and when. Emphasis isn’t just placed on what gets logged, but also what gets reserved. Tribal Nations and some major mills also own and manage forest resources. 

However, at 45%, the single largest ownership group are private owners. Due to their range of goals, smaller parcel sizes and potential lack of knowledge, this group may be underserved when it comes to managing their woods to meet their goals. This is important to understand because wildlife doesn’t care about the boundaries of a 40-acre parcel. Helping landowners manage their woods sustainably benefits all citizens – human and animal.

Woodland assistance is available to landowners from a variety of sources that each have their own niche: local Soil and Water Conservation Districts, private forestry consultants, state forestry agencies, outreach foresters with the university extension service and even RGS & AWS staff all help landowners access the education, motivation and assistance they need.

All this lead to the Timber Transport logging on this private parcel today. The landowner recognized that he had a property growing almost exclusively mature aspen. In search of advice to help meet his goals of maintaining game species habitat, he reached out to his local MDNR Forestry office. The forester explained to the landowner that while stands of older timber can be good habitat for furbearers and cavity nesting species such as woodpeckers and owls, aspen at the end of its lifespan is also highly susceptible to trunk rot and windstorms. Together, they developed a plan to conduct a series of harvests over the next 10 years to diversify the age class structure of the woods, harvest the volume of wood before the trees die and fall over and generate revenue. The forester helped the landowner advertise the timber harvest for bids to a group of loggers and get a contract signed.

This regeneration harvest will allow sunlight to reach the ground. In response, berry producing shrubs will flourish, and the aspen will sprout back vigorously from the stumps and roots. This will provide great nesting and brood rearing habitat for ruffed grouse and woodcock. As the “root suckers” and stump sprouts shoot up, they become the primary food source for deer and moose through long, cold winters. Through active management and collaborating with a forester, the landowner was able to meet his goal and create a more diverse and resilient forest.

So, it’s clear that while logging may be a big business to the local and statewide economy, to hunters, logging is habitat business. Wildlife biologists, loggers and foresters are the boots on the ground, keeping our woods healthy and productive. And, because we have been able to hang on to our forest products industry, we can continue this work in a way where everybody benefits.

Troy Holcomb is a private lands assistance forester for the MDNR Division of Forestry. His favorite hunting dogs are pudelpointers.

Ted Williams – The Hitter and The Hunter

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by Craig Mitchell

Ted Williams was one of the best baseball players to ever play the game. A player of epic proportions and, at times, equally as divisive, Williams would rely on the rivers, streams, fields and forests to escape and find a reprieve from the constant media scrutiny. His passion and knowledge for the outdoors led him to sign one of the largest endorsement deals of the time, lending his name to a series of shotguns and sporting goods for Sears department store. It was Ted’s scientific approach to hitting that helped him achieve success at home plate and it was that same approach that led him to be an incredible shooter. Ted was a passionate hunter, a self-described “gun nut,” honing his hand-eye coordination while simultaneously reducing the distractions within the ballpark by shooting the pigeons of Fenway Stadium – metaphorically killing two birds with one shot.

The Hitter

Williams was known as “Teddy Ballgame” for his tremendous ability to hit home runs and to be the only player in the history of baseball to have a .400 average to finish a season. He played his entire 19-year career with the Boston Red Sox, primarily as a left fielder from 1939 to 1960, with his career interrupted twice for military service. During his tenure, he was a multiple time MVP, 18 time All Star, Hall of Famer and one hell of a shot with a shotgun.

In 1959, Fleer baseball cards released a special Ted Williams collector’s edition with one of the cards featuring him bird hunting. The 1959 Fleer Ted Williams #10 Duck Hunting card reads “… not only for the enjoyment of hunting but mainly to keep his legs and eyes in first class condition.” Ted loved hunting, using wing shooting as a unique training tool to help improve and maintain his hand-eye coordination.

Everyone from Derek Jeter to Warren Buffet has tried to dissect Ted Williams’ scientific approach to hitting. In a nutshell, William’s strategy boiled down to one important fact: wait for the right pitch, or in the case of wingshooting, the right shot. Williams looked to use that same scientific approach that made him such a fantastic hitter into other areas of life, like hunting and shooting. When he was patient and waited for the right pitch, he realized his success rate skyrocketed; if he rushed and was impatient, it plummeted. As Williams famously said, “Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of 10 and be considered a good performer.” With that mentality it’s no wonder that Williams was an eager upland hunter.

The Bird Hunter

Williams considered himself an outdoorsman first and a baseball player second. After spending some time bird hunting with him, well-known outdoor writer Jack O’Connor wrote in the Minneapolis Daily Times on Nov. 28, 1941, “He’d rather go hunting than drive out the clinching homer in the ninth in the last game of the World Series. Which gives you a rough idea about the guy. Nuts about hunting – ducks, deer, moose, field mice.” Later Williams told O’Connor, “Me … I’d rather be duck hunting than eatin’ and eating is one of my favorite recreations.” As outlined in a Sports Illustrated article from 2002, his fishing guide Lee Harmon once asked Williams what his biggest thrill was, what made him the most excited, expecting an answer related to baseball. Instead, it was “calling in his first turkey. That’s the thrill he remembered best.” This was a man who even during the intensity of the baseball playoffs still had bird hunting on the brain.

Even while on active duty in an overseas war zone, Williams was never far from a shotgun or birds. Whenever he and his buddies weren’t dodging enemy jets they’d take off in one of the company’s jeeps and hunt the local rice paddies for birds, either pheasants or ducks. Williams found a few shotguns that his predecessor was leaving behind and bought them for $20. They had the cooks clean and prepare the birds he shot and then invited the air crew for dinner – in attendance was the future astronaut, John Glenn.

Upland Hunting at Fenway Park

It’s not a mere urban legend that Williams, who didn’t like the messy, cooing birds of Fenway Park soiling his outfield, took it upon himself to reduce their numbers by shooting them on the wing.

Local papers reported that he “sat in a chair near the Boston bullpen yesterday and sharpened his hitting eye by shooting at every pigeon that cruised within range.”

Williams often brought friends or teammates out hunting with him. Jim Atkinson, a teammate of Williams, detailed the experience to the Syracuse Post-Standard, “I showed up and he had a gun for me. The guns were sitting there in the outfield in a cart. He had some young buck bring them out there for us. And we started shooting for about a half hour … Williams was a tremendous shot.”

Many years later, Williams would be a guest on Conan O’Brien’s late-night show where he happily regaled Conan with tales of target shooting birds at Fenway.

What more could Ted Williams want? He was about to combine his three passions in one activity: firearms, hunting and baseball.

The Ted Williams Shotgun Endorsement

Following his retirement from baseball, Williams signed a six-figure deal with Sears, Roebuck and Co. to create a line of hunting shotguns and outdoor gear. Shortly after, he was hired to be a product development manager who would provide insight and advice for product development on outdoor products. Williams’s vast experiences in the outdoors hunting and fishing were compiled and published into a series of how-to pamphlets, including tips on bird hunting. For pheasants, he recommended a rather unorthodox approach: “For pheasant hunting, try tying little sleigh bells to a heavy chord and then tying the chord from one hunter’s belt to the other. As the bells rub against the top of the cover, the ringnecks will simply erupt. They can’t stand the noise that close.”

Not only did Williams lend his name to outdoor gear like rods, reels, hunting jackets and all manner of other equipment, he was best known for a line of hunting shotguns. By the end of his endorsement, he’d helped develop and produce a series of hunting shotguns, including an autoloader, a pump and a bolt-action offering. Ted Williams shotguns were made by Winchester in Japan for Sears and Roebuck. The pump action version offered a state-of-the-art “six position adjustable choke” that provided the shooter with multiple offerings for a variety of hunting scenarios. Coupled with the ability to replace or change barrels, it provided customers a utilitarian and adaptable offering for the field or forest.

Offered in 12- or 20-gauge and in two finishes, the plain version was marketed as the Sears Model 200 while the upgraded version bore the name and endorsement of Ted Williams. He said of the Williams Model 200, “It’s one of the smoothest pumping shotguns I’ve ever used and one of the best balanced too.” Today, a Ted Williams Sears pump gun is valued at around $200 to $350 with some of the double barrel varieties fetching closer to double that price.

Years later, after his death, Williams’ hunting trophies as well as pieces from his firearm collection were auctioned off by his family. Some of the shotguns included in his estate were a “rare and exceptional” custom made Winchester Model 12 side-by-side, a pre-war W.W. Greener 12-gauge side-by-side factor case shotgun, a first-year production Winchester Model 21 side-by-side shotgun, a Browning Auto – 5 Ducks Unlimited Sweet Sixteen shotgun and a custom-made Antoni Zoli over/under set. Even in death, Ted William’s most prized items were his firearms and his hunting memories.

Craig Mitchell is an Outdoor Education Teacher from Toronto, Canada, who spends his free time hunting and fishing in Northern Ontario with his family and Wirehaired Pointing Griffon named Clover. Before becoming a teacher, Craig was a backcountry guide and grew up camping and fishing. When he’s not on an adventure with his young family or planning his next upland hunt, you’ll find him introducing his inner-city students to the great outdoors.

Improving Woodcock and Quail Habitat on the Delmarva Peninsula and in Southern Maryland

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Developing new collaborations in the Atlantic Flyway 

by Ben Larson, Mid-Atlantic Forest Conservation Director 

During my time at RGS & AWS, I’ve focused on heavily forested parts of the Mid-Atlantic, including northern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. However, for the last year and a half, I’ve started to develop partnerships and projects in the partly forested parts of the region, particularly the Delmarva Peninsula (an abbreviation of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia) and southern Maryland (southeast of Washington, D.C.). 

The reason is simple: for migrating woodcock, the Delmarva Peninsula and southern Maryland provide critical stopover habitats along the Atlantic Flyway. The American Woodcock Conservation Plan, developed in 2008 by the Woodcock Task Force through the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, emphasizes that in the Mid-Atlantic portions of the Atlantic Flyway, “stopover habitats available as feeding covers are critically important to migrating woodcock.” 

Comprised of an equal mix of farmland and forestland, the Delmarva Peninsula and southern Maryland are similar to southern New Jersey and the Coastal Plain and Piedmont regions of Virginia and the Carolinas.  

Integration With Our New AWS Forest Conservation Director and AWS Chapters

Our woodcock habitat work in the Delmarva Peninsula and in southern Maryland will augment the work of our new Carolina Coastal Plain and Piedmont Forest Conservation Director, Sara Cerv, and our RGS & AWS chapters. Habitat restoration and management efforts in the Carolinas will prioritize the establishment and maintenance of early successional forests, providing critical wintering grounds for woodcock.  

In southern New Jersey, our Jersey Shore RGS & AWS chapter has completed woodcock projects for years with New Jersey Fish and Wildlife. Our Central Maryland chapter members are involved in our southern Maryland collaboration, eager to roll up their sleeves to help with a habitat project. I’m excited to work2 with our new Piedmont Virginia RGS & AWS chapter on habitat projects. And, with Emily Sliski, our Mid-Atlantic engagement coordinator, we look forward to forming am RGS & AWS chapter on the Delmarva Peninsula.

Complementing Quail Habitat 

Our woodcock habitat work will complement ongoing quail habitat work. When I spoke with partners about my interest in woodcock habitat in these areas, they said I should connect with Quail Forever because quail hunters often flush woodcock. And, more broadly, the increasing recognition of the need to diversify forest habitats in Maryland grew out of the well-established consensus and collaboration to improve early successional habitats in grass-based ecosystems, primarily for quail, but also for nongame birds and other wildlife.  

Quail share a need for dense woody cover – either shrubs or saplings. While quail obviously need a mosaic of native, fire-maintained, warm season grasses and fields, they also need dense brush or thick stands of young trees for escape and thermal cover during winter. The quail community in Maryland has identified the lack of shrubs and stands of young trees as one of the critical challenges quail are facing, despite significant progress on promoting and establishing warm season grasses in focal areas.  

With interested landowners, we’ll establish shrubs and early successional stands of trees mostly through plantings, but also with some management of existing stands. With the University of Maryland (UMD) Extension and the Maryland Forest Service, we’ll promote the planting of eligible shrubs and small trees through Maryland’s 5 Million Trees Initiative. 

Though we’ll work with state and county agencies that own and manage lands for habitat, our work on the Delmarva Peninsula and southern Maryland will focus on private lands, which are critically important since most of the land in the region is owned by private landowners. To deliver technical and financial assistance to private landowners, we’re meeting with landowners and connecting with Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff, Soil & Water Conservation Districts, and foresters and farm managers.  

New Funding 

Thankfully, our approach has attracted partnerships and funding. We partnered with the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDDA) on a $500,000 National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant to improve habitats for rare and declining species on working lands across the state – an unusual example of coordinated assistance for farmland and forestland. RGS & AWS will receive about $100,000 to assist private landowners with forest management in one of our three landscape-scale projects.  

Along with the Maryland Forest Service, we and other partners will help implement a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Forest Service, made possible with Inflation Reduction Act funding, to plan for landowner outreach for three landscape-scale focal projects.

In western Maryland, RGS & AWS is helping The Nature Conservancy plan and implement a dynamic forest restoration block around Jennings Randolph Lake and Dan’s Mountain Wildlife Management Area (WMA); Tall Timbers will lead planning and implementation of their landscape-scale project in the northern areas of the Marshyhope watershed; and in southern Maryland, RGS & AWS and the UMD Extension will coordinate landscape-scale projects along the Patuxent River.  

Landscape-Scale Quail and Woodcock Projects Work on the Delmarva Peninsula and in Southern Maryland

On the Delmarva Peninsula, Tall Timber’s game bird biologist and prescribed fire coordinator Kyle Magdziuk, UMD Extension’s Luke Macaulay, Quail Forever, the Delaware Department of Environmental Control and Natural Resources, the Delaware Forest Service and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) are working on several focal projects on public and private lands, including a landscape-scale collaboration, promoting the use of prescribed fire, in the Marshyhope watershed, crossing the Maryland/Delaware line and connecting Taber State Forest in Delaware and Idylwild WMA in Maryland.   

In southern Maryland, we’re building on the remarkable vision and skill of Quail Forever’s first ever national volunteer of the year, Eddie Beck, who, in partnership with Macaulay, pulled together dozens of county and state agency staff and conservation organizations to develop a collaboration along the Patuxent River, which roughly bisects southern Maryland. Going forward, RGS & AWS will provide ongoing staff support to coordinate the collaboration, which includes Prince George’s County Soil Conservation District, UMD Extension, MDNR, MDDA and others.  

Our work with Quail Forever on the Delmarva Peninsula and in southern Maryland is an example of how we can successfully implement our April 2024 Memorandum of Understanding with Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever that seeks to “join conservation networks and build capacity for impactful solutions at a landscape scale for management-dependent species.”  

Within the large watershed of the lower Patuxent, we and partners will identify four to five focal areas, usually anchored by a county or state property, and focus our outreach on nearby private landowners. We also look forward to applying woodcock migration data to help identify critical habitats in this portion of the Atlantic Flyway.

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