The Ruffed Grouse
The grouse or "pheasant" is a very important bird to many people. It is a game bird to some, a bird to add to the watchers' lists, a part of the natural system, and a real problem to scientists interested in some of the questions that they pose.
Grouse are never abundant, dense in any area. They range over no more than 50 acres. On a 500-acre tract you'll never have more than about 30 birds. An annual harvest of about 12 on such an area is maximum. Having reasonable expectations - a clear view of an objective - is the first step in serious wild animal population management. Objectives may be a composite of:
- Hold the most birds every year.
- Reduce the variation in numbers among years.
- Increase grouse sightings per hour spent.
- Increase the number of people sighting grouse.
We'll not list "increasing the number of grouse taken" since this is a function of time spent, shooting/hunting skills, and the quality of hunting dogs. A modest objective: "At least one meal of a grouse each year" or "a grouse on the observer list during one out of three walks."
Where They Live . . .
The conditions are, generally (1) above 2,000 feet elevation (there are some interesting exception in the piedmont), (2) they wander with broods over 40 to 100 acres. The better the conditions, the smaller is the area used. In general, the better the conditions, the more birds there will be. Hunting under the law does not influence long-term grouse population levels. In good areas, 40% of the population can be taken each year and the population will be the same the next year.
The Conditions . . .
Just what are the conditions that are best for grouse?
- Forested areas
- Usually above 2,000 feet elevation
- Dense stems (about 1,200 per acre on average which means about 5 to 6 feet apart)
- Thickets (rhododendron or laurel)
- Young forests or near small clear cuts within the past 10 years
- Permanent water (a spring, pool, seep) within each 50-acre area. (Needed in critically hot summers that occur occasionally. Plans are needed for these peak periods.)
- Edges - between forests and cutover lands, thickets berry bushes. They nest at the base of 6-10 inch trees near these edges.
- The key - great conditions for the broods. The chicks are key. Tend them. The adults can handle a variety of conditions.
- Plenty of insects (a variety of small ones for the brood, well scattered over the area and close together).
- Nesting is within 100 feet of forest openings.
- Predation (often unbalanced due to human) needs to be controlled to protect the chicks. House cats, especially those gone wild, are serious predators. Predator control is critical only for the month of most chicks, June.
- There must be four food factors at work all at the same time. Failure in any one of the 4 can cause a population failure in a year and limits to population numbers over many years.
- Adults need foods of the type in Table 1. They eat over 300 kinds of food so are not particular. There is no magic food supply.
- Drumming sites (where males display for females) are needed (hollow logs or the Lasting Forest's's "Drum"). These should be 100 feet from openings in forest, on raised ground, under dense growth, 2 per opening where openings are about 1/2 acre in size usually created by "group selection" forest practices.
- In clearings are needed grasses, clovers, and insect-producing plants for the chicks.
- Wild grapes (supplying dried grapes or raisins on the ground) are a key food. Vines need protection, even fertilization.
- Winter is tough on the birds (and all animals but easily spring may be worst). Winter cover to reduce winds (energy drains) is needed. Evergreens (for example hemlocks, pines, and rhododendrons) are needed as part of the mix. Minimum groups are needed in hardwood areas.
- Carefully prescribed burns (only in winter when soils are moist) can improve ground cover for grouse.
- Fruit trees along roads or at edge of permanent openings when managed can produce abundant food for adults. Details of roads and roadside management are available.
To have a stable population, you have to have stable conditions. If you have 120 acres, for example, you need to create 4 one-fourth-acre openings each year (using tree harvest or cut-and-let-it-lay). In this example I assume a 120-year area-regulated practice, one that returns to the same area for another harvest in 120 years.
- Don't even think about stocking birds. None are readily available and it doesn't work. Develop the conditions (stabilizing them year after year is the "trick") and these wonderful wildland birds will be present.
Feedback and Corrective Action...
Systems need feedback, monitoring, and then adjustments. Grouse records need to be kept. Numbers seen, time spent, distance walked are usually tallied. The greater the amount and quality of work, the greater will be the grouse - or at least the numbers will be more stable.
- Record the time spent.
- Record the money spent.
- Record people who visit to see/hunt your birds.
- Record fees paid to visit/hunt.
- Work on an analysis of extra or new birds (or hours) per dollar or per hour.
- Make adjustments to increase or stabilize benefits and reduce costs.
In the springtime when the mayapples are out of the ground but not yet open (pick a condition like this to use as the time to start each year - examples would be when the fern fiddleheads are up or when the serviceberry have fully bloomed - to standardize the count) go to the area one-half hour after sun-up and listen for drumming males. Record the number each year; plot the number per 50 acres on a graph. Management will tend to make this number increase and hold it there over time.
Feedforward...
Like feedback, use feedforward. Predict the coming changes in hunting, land use, interest of urban folks in the outdoors - then modify your current practices to get ready for your best-estimate of the future.
Lasting Forests offers a program for owners of small tracts to join together in a cooperative program of ruffed-grouse management. Management is generally infeasible for tracts of less than 50 acres, but when adjacent landowners develop cooperative arrangements, great success is possible.
General recommendations are about as meaningful for grouse as they are for human health problems. In general they are no good. Every tract, like very person, is unique. Wildlife managers of Lasting Forests are experts in ruffed grouse management and can provide unique, specific prescriptions for managing the bird resource.
