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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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What is Highbush Cranberry (and Why Should You Care)? – RGS

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Photo Credit | Wiki Commons How Highbush Cranberry Could Help Your Grouse Hunting Growing up in northern Minnesota, I was strictly warned as a child about which wild berries I could and could not eat in the forest. The only “edible” ones were the ones my parents told me I could eat. Without their approval, I was not to sample them. But how is a kid supposed to learn if they don’t at least attempt something stupid? After trying and quickly spitting out several different wild berries, I distinctly remember finding a cluster of bright red berries that looked beautiful but smelled...

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Ruffed Grouse Habitat | Cost Share Planting for Private Landowners

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shrub-planting-grouse-habitat

How You Can Improve Grouse Habitat on Your Property I’ve always loved the idea of leaving a legacy. Not for fame or glory, by any means, but for something simpler. Being a biologist and a hunter, I fell in love with the idea of bringing my in-law’s property to its maximum wildlife potential. Over the years, we’ve cleared some wildlife openings, built brush piles, planted trails and food plots, and pruned dozens of apple trees. But I wanted to take it further by shaping it into a carefully planned grouse paradise, with the hope that my kids would someday enjoy it.  ...

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What We Can Learn from Grouse Drumming Surveys

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Photo Credit | Steve Oehlenschlager What exactly does a drumming survey tell us…or not tell us? There’s something special about that feeling you get in the grouse woods in springtime – that moment when you pause and can’t quite hear anything, but actually feel something thumping in your chest (besides your heart). Finally it becomes clear that it’s actually a grouse drumming from a hundred yards away. Drumming is done by male grouse as they beat their wings from an elevated log, stump, rock, or other platform. Contrary to what many people believe, they’re not hitting their wings against their breast –...

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