EFFECT OF MAN'S AIDS ON GROUSE 393 



The Axe and Plow 



If remaining areas of virgin wilderness may be accepted as comparable with primeval 

 conditions, grouse populations in pre-colonization times attained but relatively sparse densi- 

 ties. Theoretical consideration of the probable status of early grouse populations leads to 

 the same conclusion. The grouse is a species largely dependent upon cover type edges for the 

 attainment of large numbers. Edges must have been scarce in the climax forest, existing 

 only at the border of different climax types, along water courses, bordering burns set by 

 lightning and around Indian clearings. Hence, the carrying capacity of the original range 

 was low compared with the species saturation level. 



Grouse being an "edge" species, the clearing of the land with axe and plow increased the 

 carrying capacity of the range. Woodland borders were created mile upon mile as the embryo 

 empire pushed back the wilderness border. Coverts were broken up and diversified. Except 

 where vast areas of fertile land induced continuous land clearing, the effect was advantageous 

 to the grouse. 



The plow followed the axe and to a considerable extent made permanent its changes. As a 

 means of maintaining these new margins, the plow has continued to play an important role 

 in preventing the return of the contituious forest. In many areas, the optimum balance for 

 grouse of open and wooded land was jiasscd and the axe and plow then jiroduccd an immense 

 reduction of available grouse range. Thus being the tools which cleared off the forest and 

 maintained the open land, they have been of first importance both in improving grouse range 

 and in destroying it. 



As time went on, the bread basket of the nation shifted westward and much of the land 

 which had been cleared for crops in the Northeast proved unprofitable for farming. This 

 decline of agriculture on subniarginal lands has led to considerable abandi>nmciit. Uidess 

 carried so far as to obliterate most open or semi-open spaces, this trend is a distinct advan- 

 tage to grouse. 



The axe must, in the future, be one of the chief tools through which the wildlife manager 

 will hold and improve these grouse lands. The plow will also j)lav its j)arl in maintaining 

 the edges so necessary to good grouse range. 



Fire 



Records show that most fires occurring in woodland are man-set. either intentionallv or 

 accidentally. Thus the effect of fires upon the grouse is largely the effect of one of man's 

 tools. 



With the efficient control now operating throughout most of the Northeast, forest fires 

 are generally confined to small areas. They have little effect on the birds directly, although, 

 when occurring in the spring, they may cause appreciable losses to nests. It seems rather 

 ironic, but small woodland burns may actually improve grouse cover by stimulating growths 

 of food-bearing trees and shrubs. Phillips'" states that the highest concentration of grouse 

 he ever observed was in an area which had been burned over a few years before. 



While small occasional fires may be beneficial to grouse, extensive and repeated burning 

 results in abandonment of the habitat for many years. In portions of the grouse's former 

 range, notably in the Ozarks, annual burning for the "improvement" of the range for live- 

 stock, plus overgrazing, has resulted in the extermination of the species. 



