Michigan DNR and Ruffed Grouse Society Working Together to Create Habitat
OutdoorHub 02.23.12
On Saturday, Feb. 25, members of the Robert J. Lytle Chapter of the Ruffed Grouse Society are meeting at the Deford State Game Area (SGA) in Tuscola County with tools in hand to assist in the creation of singing grounds for American woodcock. Because woodcock have very similar habitat requirements as ruffed grouse, both popular gamebird species in Michigan, habitat management for one often benefits the other.
Woodcock require a combination of young forests and open fields in order to meet their breeding, feeding and brood-rearing needs. These forest openings, called singing grounds, are used by males as launch pads for elaborate flight displays to attract females in the breeding season.
As part of a plan to establish three forest openings in association with young forest stands dominated by aspen, the DNR has received a $3,052 grant from the parent Ruffed Grouse Society to clear brush and saplings that are encroaching former fields on the SGA. The grant money will be applied to clearing the smaller-diameter brush through the use of a skidder-mounted HydroAxe. Then, Ruffed Grouse Society volunteers from the Robert J. Lytle Chapter will assist in hand-felling the larger-diameter brush, and in creating brush piles around the field margins.
The first opening is being completed this winter. The other two openings will follow in successive years so that all openings are completed by 2014. Once established, maintenance of these openings will be conducted on a rotational basis every three years through mowing and herbicide treatment.
If this project proves successful, as determined by the presence of woodcock on survey routes that will be set up to evaluate habitat management, similar projects will be implemented in additional areas on the Deford SGA, and in other SGAs in the county.
