Minnesota Grouse Enthusiasts:   The calendar says it's late August, but the chill in the air is more suggestive of late September!  Of course that has me thinking of the upcoming hunting seasons.  For those of you warming up your dogs in the woods, be aware that bear baiting has started and that bear season begins September 1.  Bait sites must have signs posted within 20 feet of the bait station, which should allow you to keep your dogs away from the jelly doughnuts!!

  September 1 also marks the opening of Minnesota's snipe, rail and dove seasons.  If you have not tried snipe hunting - give it a shot!  Snipe are very challenging to hit and very tasty on the grill.  They can best be hunted around the edges of wet depressions in fields and pastures, or around wild rice paddies.  This year will mark the first time in over 60 years that Minnesotans will be able to hunt mourning doves.  While legal state-wide, your best bet is to hunt in the farmland portion of the state.  For best success, look for birds concentrating in harvested grain fields, flying to water sources, or moving to and from roosting areas.  Be sure to ask landowner permission to hunt!  Dove's corkscrewing flight and deceptive speed makes them very hard to hit, and they are amazingly tough birds to bring down.  Bring plenty of shells!  All of these birds are thin-skinned and tend to head south early in the year.  I have no doubt that many have already left the state, given our recent cold weather.

  Grouse opener is September 18 and all I can say is, "We've got no place to go but up".  Bird numbers seem to be at their cyclic low right now, but we never really know where the bottom was until after they start their increase.  I have only seen a couple of broods of young birds this year and many of the reports from others are just as dismal.  Particularly telling to me was my time in a booth at the North Star Logging Expo in Proctor.  Loggers spend way more time in the woods than I do, and when I spend two days talking to them and THEY aren't seeing birds, I know they are down.  However, on the bright side we must remember that even our worst years are better than the best years in many parts of the bird's range.  We just have to work a little harder than when they are up.  My advice is, don't waste time in bad cover.  When birds are up, you can find them everyplace.  Pick any trail and walk down it and you will find them.  But when they are down, the survivors are mainly in the best covers - 8 to 20 year old aspen clearcuts.  Seek them out, hunt them thoroughly (especially the edges), then go find another one and you will have good hunting.  The drumming counts this spring were highest in the northwest and lowest in the northeast, so you may want to try moving around more than normal.  Surprisingly, bird numbers in the southwestern portion of the state have been increasing over the past few years and are looking pretty good.  Aspen is scarce down there, so target the thickest stuff you can find - grape tangles, young hardwood forest, sumac patches, dogwood brush and field edges are best.

  Woodcock season begins September 25 and things are looking better for the old "swamp bat".  The USFWS singing ground surveys showed that despite the long-term declines in woodcock numbers, populations overall were unchanged from 2003 to 2004.  In addition, for the first time since 1992 the 10-year trend was not a statistically significant decline.  The 2004 Singing-ground survey showed a 15.2% increase in Wisconsin, 1.2% increase in Minnesota and 4.2% decrease in Michigan in the number of woodcock heard when compared to 2003 results.  However, the Service cautions that, "If current trends in land use practices persist, continued long-term population declines are likely."  The loss of young forest and old field habitats across the woodcock's range is at the root of the overall population decline.  Here in Minnesota, we are currently enjoying a fair amount of young forest habitat, but changing forest practices, particularly on our national forests, do not bode well for woodcock in the future.  The Society is currently actively working with other land managers to try to offset losses on federal lands.

The Forest Service has released the new Forest Management Plans for the Chippewa and Superior National Forests, after working on them for over 7 years.  Like most interest groups, we were disappointed in the result.  While they did increase the amount of harvesting in the final plan, we will see huge reductions in the quantity and quality of ruffed grouse habitat on federal lands in the future.  Aspen will be reduced 6% over the next ten years - around 18,000 acres!  This will mostly be accomplished through natural attrition (not managing the forest will cause it to convert to maple or balsam fir), or through active management against aspen.  Selectively cutting aspen, leaving enough trees behind to inhibit suckering and shade out the young trees, will hasten the conversion of aspen forests to other types.  It will also reduce habitat quality by producing more open stands.  The new plan calls for reducing the amount of clearcutting on the forest from 95% to merely 40%. As the Sierra Clubs says "What we'll probably see is a lot of highly contested timber sales in the next few years." (-Star Tribune 8/13/04). It will be our job to ensure that the Service at least meets their promised timber management goals.  As always, the Ruffed Grouse Society encourages sportsmen to get actively engaged in the public input process.  If they don't hear us, they will ignore us.

The Ruffed Grouse Society has formally appealed the Revised Forest Plan for the Chequamegon/Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin.  While the administrative appeal process is not one that the Society has used very often, we felt strongly that the Forest fell short in its final decision in providing for the habitat needs of ruffed grouse, woodcock and other wildlife species that need young forest habitat.  The appeal targeted two key areas, 1) that the range of alternatives being considered was not sufficient as all action alternatives resulted in decreases of important aspen forest habitat, despite high levels of interest from the public and 2) riparian standards were being put in place that would reduce the amount of aspen habitat being regenerated within 450 feet on either side of "selected" streams on the Forest.  These Standards did not give flexibility to land managers and were 4.5 times the restrictions recommended in Wisconsin's Best Management Practices for Water Quality.  The effects of this action on woodcock in particular, a species that utilizes dense, young forest cover in moist soil areas, were not evaluated.  Our appeal is now being reviewed at the Forest Service Chief's Office in Washington, D.C.  Wisconsin RGS biologist Gary Zimmer is spearheading this effort. On a brighter note, the Gunflint Ranger District of the Superior National Forest has released the scoping document for a project to improve a hunter walking trail in the Grand Marais area.  The Kadunce HWT project proposes to clearcut harvest 160 acres in small patches along the trail system, create more trail connections to facilitate hunter access and manage log landings as wildlife openings for woodcock and other animals.  We applaud this effort and encourage other resource managers to follow suit.  For more information, and to make your voice heard, go to:  http://www.superiornationalforest.org/resources/2004/jul_sep/kadunce_scoping.pdf

Sometimes questions arise about what we biologists are involved in and how we are spending our time.  At times it may appear as if our activities are not directly benefiting grouse and woodcock populations.  I am currently chairman of the Wildlife Operations Subcommittee of the DNR Game and Fish Fund Budgetary Oversight Committee (BOC), and as such, occupy a chair at the full BOC.  We review the DNR's use of game and fish license dollars to ensure they are appropriate.  The BOC is also charged with providing the DNR with public input into the development of new budgets.  I volunteered to head up the ad hoc committee to develop those recommendations, then write them up with input from three other members.  It was time-consuming, but infused in the report are recommendations that will help grouse and woodcock in the long run, including continued pursuit of dedicated funding for grouse management, funding forest inventories for WMAs, and maintaining an average grouse harvest of 650,000 birds (part of the DNR strategic plan).  These recommendations are distributed to the Commissioner, staff and several key legislators.

Upcoming Banquets and Events
8/24 - Twin Cities Banquet - Double Tree Hotel, Minneapolis
8/26 - Deep Portage Banquet - Deep Portage Conservation Reserve, Hackensack
9/2 - Grand Marais Banquet - Harbor Light Supper Club, Grand Marais
9/9 - Aitkin Banquet - The Landing, Aitkin
9/11 - Grand Rapids Youth Day - Grand Rapids Gun Club
9/16 - Benay of the Lakes Banquet - Maplelag, Detroit Lakes
9/23 - Finlayson Banquet - American Legion, Finlayson
9/25 - Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW) Grouse Hunting Event - Deep Portage
9/28 - Seminar, "Grouse and Woodcock Hunting and Habitat Management" - Wood Lake Nature Center, Richfield
10/12-15 - National Grouse and Woodcock Hunt - Grand Rapids
10/21 - Ely Banquet - Grand Ely Lodge, Ely    

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions: Rick Horton, Regional Biologist, Ruffed Grouse Society P.O. Box 657, Grand Rapids, MN  55744 (218) 327-2524 email: rgshort@uslink.net The Ruffed Grouse Society is an international organization actively involved in promoting forest wildlife conservation on public and private lands throughout North America. For information on the Ruffed Grouse Society, please call 888-564-6747 or check out the RGS website at www.ruffedgrousesociety.org