VALUE OF CLEAR-CUT AREAS 



179 



A further highly important use of slashing operations is to balance, within the covert, the 

 constant tendency for open and overgrown lands to revert to woodland. As has been 

 pointed out, a productive grouse habitat must include openings of one sort or another. Left 

 to themselves, even the, at present, highly productive coverts, occurring where fanning has 

 recently been abandoned, would eventually grow into a continuous woodland of relatively 

 low productivity for grouse. In maintaining the interspersion of cover in such areas neces- 

 sary to encourage grouse abundance clear-cutting is one of the game manager's most useful 

 tools. 



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