174 



COVER CHARACTERISTICS AND SHELTER REQilREMEXTS 



Located in a mountainous region, the soil of the eastern half is sandy and of low fertility. 

 Undergrowth and ground cover are neither widely \aried as to species, nor luxurious as to 

 growth. Slopes are steeper and the larger, mature hardwoods and conifers, which form an 

 often sparse crt)wn cover, attract but few grouse. By contrast, the western half is flatter 

 and more fertile with a fair interspersion of cover types characterized by a much greater 

 abundance and variety of vegetation, particularly undergrowth. A glance at the figure will 

 show that, in the poorer, eastern half, the birds are few in number and are much more likely 

 to be found close to an edge than they are in the western half of the area. 



The apparent liking of the birds for cover adjacent to roads in the eastern section fits into 

 the general picture. Early settlers laid these out where the grade was easier and where the 

 soil was apt to be better than on the steeper slopes. Here the soil is more fertile, the cover 

 more varied and the birds find conditions more to their liking. The correlation between low- 

 producing cover types and the use of edges by grouse, is clearly evident. 



One further study, while not in all respects directly applicable here, should be mentioned. 

 It involved the use made by adult grouse and other game of areas reforested with conifers. 

 The Luther Preserve* was selected for this study. This area is composed of some 6500 acres 

 af land reforested with conifers of various species, interspersed with natural woodlands and 

 with open or overgrown fields. The plantations, on the part studied, were arranged in large 

 blocks with the individual pine and spruce planted six feet apart. The average survival of 

 planted trees was about 8.5 per cent. The stand was from 20 to 25 years of age and had 

 never been thinned. 



The purpose of the study was to determine the use made by game of such coniferous plan- 

 tations in comparison with adjacent natural woodlands. The results as summarized in table 

 18 indicate that, both in winter and in summer, grouse were much more widely spread 

 throughout the natural woods than in the coniferous plantation. In the latter twice as many 

 grouse were to be found within 200 feet of an edge as were flushed in the entire interior of 

 the plantation. The reverse was the case in the adjacent natural woodlands. 



TABLE 18. REL.\TION OF GROUSE FLUSHES TO EDGES IN PLANTED CONIFEROUS 

 PLANTATION AND IN NATURAL WOODLANDS- 

 LUTHER PRESERVE— 1933-1934 



One must remember that the grouse distribution here indicated represents not alone the 

 attractiveness of the edge but also that of the adjacent type. 



On areas reforested to conifers, edges are of prime importance to grouse since the) must 

 jirovide the varielv of vegetation lacking in the plantations themselves. This situation has not, 

 as yet, been widely grasped eillu-r by foresters or by wildlife managers, who still think largely 



* In Saraluga County. 



I 



