Recent News

NRCS Adds New Target Species to Working Lands for Wildlife

December 05, 2016 — cfergus

The Working Lands for Wildlife program of the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is adding dozens of new target species to its premier wildlife conservation effort that helps agricultural producers restore and protect habitat on privately owned farms, ranches and working forests.

NH Timber Harvest Will Create Patches of Young Forest

November 29, 2016 — cfergus

CONCORD – The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests has begun a timber harvest on 65 acres of land that the nonprofit organization owns on the western side of the lower slopes of Mt. Monadnock near Shaker Farm Road in Jaffrey. The harvest is the first of several to be completed in stages over the next several years, affecting a total of about 250 acres.

Great Thicket National Wildlife Refuge to Include Maine Lands

November 25, 2016 — cfergus

By Aislinn Sarnacki, Bangor Daily News

Maine is one of six northeastern states included in the plan for the new Great Thicket National Wildlife Refuge, a first-of-its-kind conservation project that was approved in October by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The new refuge, which may reach up to 15,000 acres in size, will be dedicated to managing shrubland and young forests, habitats that a suite of wildlife species depend on for survival.

Quality Habitat May Lessen West Nile Virus Effects in PA Ruffed Grouse

November 22, 2016 — cfergus

By the Ruffed Grouse Society and Pennsylvania Game Commission

Recent research into West Nile virus in Pennsylvania's ruffed grouse suggests a strong need for landscape-scale creation of young forest habitat to help this popular gamebird thrive.

New Video Series on Managing Ohio Forests for Birds

November 16, 2016 — cfergus

A new video series developed by the Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative highlights the importance of proper forest management in improving a diversity of habitat for birds and other wildlife. The series focuses on several Ohio private landowners, detailing their experiences managing and improving conditions of their woodlands and the beneficial changes in the bird community following such actions.

American, European Woodcock Hunting Contrasted

November 14, 2016 — cfergus

By Robert Gwizdz, for the Lansing State Journal

James Maunder Taylor was taken with American woodcock the moment he saw his first.

“They’re quite colorful,” he said. “You can really see the cinnamon and the brown. Our woodcock are a lot paler.”

WVA To Establish Elk Herd on Mining Land

November 11, 2016 — cfergus

By Bill Cochran, special to the Roanoke Times

West Virginia is one of the latest states to launch an elk restoration program patterned after a highly successful one in Kentucky and a budding one in Virginia that claims 150 to 200 animals, mostly in Buchanan County.

I asked Randy Kelley, elk project leader for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR), to address questions on the effort to restore this magnificent animal to the Mountain State:

Young Forest Project at Hanging Bog WMA in New York

October 31, 2016 — cfergus

By Bob Clark, Olean Times Herald

CUBA — Users of the Hanging Bog Wildlife Management Area will be able to sound off on a new 10-year management plan Wednesday, November 2, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation reports.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Announces Great Thicket Natl. Wildlife Refuge

October 27, 2016 — cfergus

Nation’s Newest Wildlife Refuge Represents Coordinated Response to Conserving Key Shrubland Habitat in the Northeast

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following an extensive public process, and with overwhelming public support, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized the creation of Great Thicket National Wildlife Refuge, dedicated to conserving and managing shrubland and young forests for wildlife in New England and eastern New York. The approval of the refuge marks a key step, enabling the Service to now work with willing and interested landowners to acquire land.

MN Fire Creates Thousands of Acres of New Young Forest

October 19, 2016 — cfergus

By Brad Dokken, for Inforum

BELTRAMI ISLAND STATE FOREST, MN — Driving down a sandy stretch of the Black's Winner Forest Road, Charlie Tucker pointed out a sea of big bluestem, a prairie grass not typically associated with pine forests.

Until after a wildfire.

"This is one of the larger open areas that have been created here," said Tucker, assistant manager of Red Lake Wildlife Management Area at Norris Camp south of Roosevelt, Minn. "It looks like a prairie, doesn't it?"

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