10th National Woodcock Symposium
 
Senior Biologist Dan Dessecker and Regional Biologists Mark Banker and Gary Zimmer attended the 10th National Woodcock Symposium in early October.  This symposium, held at the Michigan DNR's MacMullen Conference Center near Roscommon, brought together some of the world's top American woodcock researchers and managers to discuss the future of this unique game bird and its close relative, the Europeon Woodcock.  While the symposium was filled with a variety of information, presentations about the recently completed American Woodcock Conservation Plan and the fledgling Northern Forest Woodcock Habitat Initiative hold hope for woodcock populations.  RGS will continue to have an important role in each of these ventures.  Gary Zimmer presented a paper he co-authored with former RGS biologist Rick Horton entitled, Challenges to Woodcock Conservation in the Great Lakes Region.  Below is an abstract from a paper presented at the symposium that I thought would be of special interest to FAN members. The complete proceedings of all papers presented at the symposium will be available in the near future. 
 
Magnitude and Spatial Distribution of American Woodcock Hunting Pressure in a Central Minnesta Wildlife Management Area
By David Andersen, Matthew Reiter, Kevin Doherty, and David Fulton

 
Abstract: Hunting is considered a potential factor influencing American woodcock (Scolopax minor) population dynamics, yet little is known about the magnitude or spatial distribution of hunting pressure.  In 2004 and 2005 as part of a larger telemetry study of fall movements, habitat use, and mortality of woodcock in central Minnesota, we investigated distribution of hunting pressure and hunters in a wildlife management area recently opened to woodcock hunting.  We measured hunter use of the area by recording how many vehicles passed access points (2004 only), interviewed hunters as they prepared to hunt, asked hunters to carry Global Positioning System (GPS) units while hunting, and recorded information in post-hunt interviews about hunting success and methods.  Over the 2-year period, we obtained information from 48 hunts where hunters carried GPS units.  On average, individuals hunted approximately 2.3 hours and shot and retrieved 0.54 woodcock and 0.18 ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) per hunt.  Most hunters (77%) employed dogs while hunting.  Trips averaged just over 4.7 km and hunters on average traveled < 1 km from their vehicle, with the majority of hunting pressure close to existing trails.  Most woodcock hunters employed dogs, but there was no association between hunting success and use of dogs.  Woodcock hunters exhibited the strongest preference for aspen (Populus spp.) forest, even though this cover type had the highest abundance on the study area.  Our results suggest that even in an area managed and well known for upland bird hunting opportunities, hunting pressure was not widely distributed and woodcock harvest rate was low.

Ruffed Grouse Conservation Plan Finalized

 
The Ruffed Grouse Conservation Plan for North America was approved in September by the Bird Conservation Committee of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. The Ruffed Grouse Conservation Plan is the culmination of over 3 years of work by over 50 natural resource professionals from throughout the range of the ruffed grouse in the United States and Canada. Dan Dessecker, Senior Wildlife Biologist for the Ruffed Grouse Society, coordinated the development of the Plan as its principal editor. "The ruffed grouse is North America's most widely distributed small game bird and it's pursued by approximately 1 million sportsmen and women across the continent," says Dessecker, "the Plan is designed to help secure the future for this incredible king of gamebirds and his sidekick - the timberdoodle, and the hunters who pursue them with such passion."
The Plan provides a comparison of ruffed grouse habitat conditions and populations between a base year (1980) and 2005.  It also identifies habitat availability and management objectives required to sustain populations or restore them to 1980 levels.  A link to the Plan is available on the RGS website http://ruffedgrousesociety.org/index.php?env=-news_article:m6--1-4-s::n-239--&_event=&n_event=

Ruffed Grouse Society sides with US Forest Service in Lawsuit

PRESS RELEASE

451 McCormick Road, Coraopolis, PA 15108
(412) 262-4044
www.ruffedgrousesociety.org

November 30, 2006
For Immediate Release

Conservation Organization to appear as amicus curiae

Coraopolis, PA -- In what can be viewed as the first step in the struggle to provide better ruffed grouse and woodcock habitat in the Superior National Forest, the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, recently granted the Ruffed Grouse Society’s (RGS) request to appear as amicus curiae in support of the US Forest Service and US Department of Agriculture to defend against litigation against the Forest Service’s “Forest Plan”.

Initiated by the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, and Northeasetern Minnesotans for Wilderness the law suit seeks to stop the new Forest Plan for the Superior National Forest located in northeast Minnesota.

The aim of the litigation is to stop the agency’s plans for future timber harvesting in favor of additional wilderness. The environmentalists claim that aspen clear-cutting and other logging, which will benefit ruffed grouse, American woodcock and 43 species of neo-tropical songbirds, in the Superior National Forest will negatively impact not only the Superior but the adjacent Boundary Waters Wilderness Area. Environmentalist plan to use this lawsuit as an attempt to stall implementation of the proposed plan until a new administration is in place that will hopefully, in their view, reverse the plan in favor of additional wilderness protections.

Environmentalists have lodged the same complaints on the new forest plans in Michigan's Forests, the Hiawatha, Ottawa, and Huron-Manistee.

“The new Plan does not provide everything we would like as far as habitat goes. However, the environmentalists are seeking to stop virtually all management on the forest through their challenge. “We think this claim is flawed primarily because additional young forest habitat will actually benefit wildlife that relies on young or “early-successional” forests for food and cover” said, RGS lead attorney Ryan L. Woody.

“We also believe that through the RGS’s support, the Court will be able to see that the Forest Service has adequately balanced concerns from both sides in creating the new plan, and, ultimately, uphold the implementation of the new plan,” Woody said.

“While the Ruffed Grouse Society has some serious concerns of its own about the proposed plan, inasmuch as we feel it doesn’t go far enough in creating early-forest habitat, the plan will provide additional acres for aspen regeneration or young forest habitat, which is essential to the survival of ruffed grouse, American woodcock and more than 80 species of wildlife,” said Dr. Michael Zagata, RGS CEO and Executive Director.

Contact: Ryan L. Woody, Esq.
Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C.
1111 East Sumner Street
P.O. Box 270670
Hartford, WI 53027-0670

Telephone.: (262) 673-7850
Facsimile: (262) 673-3766
Email: rwoody@mwl-law.com

Top of Page