234 FOOD HABITS AND REQUIREMENTS 



lightly pastured woodlands in New York produre good crops of grouse. Cattle help also 

 to maintain edges and to keep the woodland from encroaching too rapidly on the open 

 ground. Here also occasional catlle-sown wild apples spring up. Thornapples and certain 

 of the dogwoods and vihurnunis, together with a sprinkling of conifers which the cattle do 

 not like, furnish much-frequented feeding spots along the line where pasture and forest meet. 

 Many of our finest summer and fall grouse feeding grounds in New York have been es- 

 tablished in this way. The compacted earth of the cow paths is slow to change, but the 

 brushy areas, with their interspersion of conifers, and open spots may provide almost per- 

 fect feeding grounds for broods and adults from June to early November. Occasionally 

 the grouse also choose such locations for their nests. 



But of all man's tools, no single one has wrought such far-reaching changes in grouse 

 habitat as has the axe. By breaking up the forest canopy it has altered the environment so 

 as to release light-loving trees, shrubs and herbs. In the openings thus created are to be 

 found the greatest variety of grouse foods, both plant and animal, for lumbering not only 

 lets in the sunlight but usually disturbs the soil as well. Thus is produced, often in the 

 space of a few acres, the whole series of environmental conditions from bare ground to 

 woodland. 



The effect is dependent in large measure upon the site, the age and compositinn of the 

 forest before cutting, the severity of the cut and the length of time since it was done. The 

 better the site, the more varied the forest make-up, and the more severe the cut, the 

 greater is the chance that the cutting operation will produce a profusion of grouse foods. 



To understand the effects of patches of cut -over woodlands upon grouse production 

 knowledge is required of conditions preceding as well as following the catling operations. 

 It was, therefore, necessary to make a study of slashings under controlled conditions. This 

 began in 1932. when a series of openings varying in character and in location were es- 

 tablished. Subsequently 341 clear-cuttings were completed as test plots in 8 of the State's 

 widely scattered wildlife management areas. Conditions preceding cutting and at regular 

 intervals subsequently have been noted. In most plots detailed measurement of site changes 

 have been carried out as discussed in the preceding chapter on Shelter. 



Analysis of results reveals that diversification of the vegetation may start within a nuintli 

 after cutting. In terms of grouse food production this tendency reaches its height in from 

 three to five years. As the cut-o\er area continues to grow up. many liglit-loving gr<iuse foods 

 are gradually crowded out, until in from ten to fifteen years after cutting most of the 

 grouse foods brought in In the o|)cralion will luive been overshadowed, if not entirely 

 killed out. 



The importance of openings as grouse food-jiroducers is further emphasized by the sub- 

 stantial increase in fruit production by the plant.s pioneering in them in comparison with 

 that of the same species under shade. 



In the final analy.sis light is the prime cause nf tlic yegetativc changes that result in a 

 large increase in available food as the forest canopy is opened up. It is the amount rather 

 than the method by which the light is let in that is important. I)isliirl)ance of the soil, 

 such as occurs in himbcring operations, also encourages the niaxininiii \ariclv of food 

 plants. 



One note of canliim. however. Brushlands, be ihcv o\(Mgi(iwii |>astures or slashings, 

 seldom contain adequate amounts of s])ecies fumisliiiig winter shelter fr)r grouse. There- 



