Birders,

Seems as though there is a similar lament about seeing grouse in the past, but not a lot of sightings presently. I have included a website that has a lot of information on species, other than ruffed grouse, that benefit from shrubland/young growth forests. Managing forests through controlled burns, timbering, brushhogging - while we see as destructive, open up areas for other species, but it needs to be done in a careful manner.  http://www.youngforest.org/sites/default/files/Under_Cover-010412_FINAL.pdf  (it does take a long time to download, many pages and photos) Deer certainly like this habitat as well and deer have made a huge impact on so many species, plant and animal.  Raccoon predate on wild turkey eggs and young, yet there seems to have been an increase in wild turkey in Cuyahoga Co., OH. I also have a feeling that suburban wild turkey (along with deer) are being fed by people ...

I'd love to see ruffed grouse either return or increase in number in the Cleveland Metroparks and into the Cuyahoga Valley National Park ... and surrounding park systems. Getting the public to understand some forest and wildlife management is another story.

Nancy J. Howell
Museum Educator/Docent Coordinator
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History
1 Wade Oval Drive
Cleveland, OH 44106
T 216.231.4600 x. 3225
F 216.231.9960
[log in to unmask]
[cid:00BB6585-B5CE-4CB8-8B68-4755EFEF1CDA]


______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.


You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]