Habitat for Upland Game Birds
Pheasant, Ruffed Grouse, American Woodcock, and Others Depend on You
Jun 25, 2009
Upland game bird hunting is an annual joy for many sportsmen. Ranging through grassy or brushy cover with an eager canine companion, watching as the alert dog becomes “birdy", and then putting shooting skills to the test as the birds explode from cover in a rush of pounding wings is an experience unlike any other form of hunting. Months of preparation precede the hunting trip. Dogs must be trained and conditioned. Hunters spend hours at the shooting range, practicing on clay targets as they dream of the real ones they will encounter in the field. However, hunters report that there are far fewer upland game birds than there used to be.
Loss of Habitat Equals Fewer Game Birds
Several varieties of birds, insects, and small mammals are at home in grasslands, prairies, and young forests. These include pheasant, quail, Ruffed Grouse, and American Woodcock, all sought-after game birds. When large tracts of land are planted in row crops, which do not produce desirable cover, populations of these birds and animals leave the area. When suburban housing communities replace farms, swaths of green lawns accented with mulched flower beds replace native grasses and small, woody plants. Suburban lawn care usually entails the use of quantities of fertilizer, herbicides, and insecticides designed to protect manicured landscapes. The resulting environment is pretty in the eyes of the homeowners, but it is unsuitable for birds seeking cover and food.
Young forests provide prime habitat for upland game birds. In the natural environment, major vegetative disturbances occur regularly. Prairie fires and forest fires burn acres of grasses and timber, returning these areas to new growth. Windstorms knock down trees. Flooding and droughts are events that affect habitat significantly. However, human intervention has limited these natural major vegetative disturbances. More and more land has become farmland, built-up areas, or managed forests.
Steven Backs, Wildlife Research Biologist , Indiana Fish and Wildlife Department of Natural Resources, states in an article that appeared in the Ruffed Grouse Society’s magazine,
“It’s now our incumbent responsibility as good land stewards to assure a diversity of habitats exists in what remains of our forests.”
Steven Backs, The Other Silent Spring, Disappearing birds of young forests, Ruffed Grouse Society Magazine, Summer 2009.
Creating Bird Habitat through Planting and Harvesting
Planting grasses and native prairie plants on large tracts of land helps create welcoming habitat for upland game birds. Plantings that are strong enough to withstand winter winds, such as switchgrass and cattails, are especially effective.
Harvesting timber allows land to return to early succession habitat, with brushy ground cover and small trees. Mature forests have a majestic beauty, but the canopy prevents much sunlight from reaching the ground, and the floor of a mature forest will have very different plants from that of a young forest. Unharvested trees will eventually reach full maturity and die, but this takes a very long time. Therefore, advocates of upland game bird land management favor allowing timber to be cut.
Problems occur with clear-cutting. Even though cutting timber-size trees allows the land to return to birdy young forest, it isn’t pretty. When clear-cutting is permitted on public land, the public doesn’t like it. Beautiful, shady forest paths are replaced by a ravaged, stump-strewn landscape. Bird habitat managers explain that, when clear-cutting is managed on a rotational basis, excellent bird habitat is produced in ten-year cycles. Another problem with logging is the need for access roads. Roads disrupt forest habitat by cutting through areas where wildlife range, and by increasing run-off and causing erosion that carries soil to the streams, affecting water quality and fish habitat. This leads to disagreement between those who want to protect fish and other wildlife dependent upon the health of waterways, and those who want to see game bird populations grow as quickly as possible.
Optimal Land Management Requires Cooperation
Trout fishermen and upland game birds hunters agree in their desire to see wild areas protected and managed effectively. Timber companies seek profits from available stands of timber, but they too must realize that protecting their resource requires careful thought and selective harvesting. Private land owners can help by returning some of their acreage to grassland and brushy, young forest margins. As Backs points out, people must manage the land wisely to ensure continued diversity of habitat, and thus the continued survival of diverse insects, fish, reptiles, mammals, and birds. Varied habitats and species are interconnected, and so best practices in environmental management will protect and nurture many other plants and creatures along with the upland game birds that hunters love.
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