170 



COVER CHARACTERISTICS A.\D SHELTER REQUIREMENTS 



plantings interspersed with hardwoods. Where practical, a greater variety of species is being 

 used. The rich vegetation characteristic of many field edges and hedgerows is encouraged. 

 Cuttings in existing woodlands are so planned as to break up large areas of continuous 

 forest cover. 



All these are moves in the right direction, but their influence is. unfortunately, not as imme- 

 diate or widespread as one might visualize. A year may produce a few oak leaves on a 

 seedling planted in a recently abandoned field, but at least a generation of oaks is required to 

 restore to the impoverished soil a fertility sufficient to support the woods' sedges and ferns, 

 the wintergreen, partridge-berry, and the profusion of other herbs on which grouse feed at one 

 time or another during the year. True, the pines may furnish shelter before they are head- 

 high, the cherries and apples some food soon thereafter, but a rich profusion of woodland 

 undergrowth and ground cover takes time to establish. Thus it becomes increasingly impor- 

 tant on such lands that one encourages a diversification of vegetation by planting the proper 



(.KOUSK IIIKIVK WHKKK TUKKt: IS A RICH 1)1VKKSIT\ OK T\ I'tS. HERE OPEN FIELDS. OVERGROWN 

 LAND, SECOND-GROWTH HARDWOODS AND MIXED HARDWOODS AND CONIFERS COMBINE TO MAKE 



A PRODUCTIVE COVERT 



species in the proper relationshij), one to the other. Likewise one should encourage those 

 farming operations and wood-cutting activities that tend to maintain a ricli diversity of 

 types. Suggestions covering this are to be found in the succeeding chapters on food and on 

 management. 



THK VALUF OF EDGES 



In discussing the makeup of cover for grouse we are venturing into a field long traversed 

 by woodsmen but little known to science. When this study first started, the catchy idea that 

 to plant a block of trees was to increase cover for wildlife, was still in the sales manual of 

 many a forester. It didn't matter much what kind of trees were set out. how far apart they 

 were, or where they were [)ut. It was Leopold who first pointed out in 1936 that "the 

 ])oteMtial density of game of low cruising radius (such as the ruffed grouse) is, within ordi- 

 nary limits, proportional to the sum of the type edges." Today the need for diverse makeu)i 

 and interspersion of types is itetter understood by both forester and game manager. 



