SOME PRACTICES HARMFUL TO GROUSE 599 



them which are allowed to grow up to trees and shrubs producing food for 

 wildlife. 



While the importance of maintaining good grouse habitats and increasing their numbers 

 cannot be overemphasized, the picture would not be complete without reiterating the desir- 

 ability of continuing other types of activities. Chief among these are: — 



1. The wise regulation of hunting so that surplus populations may be harvested or hunt- 

 ing pressure reduced in accordance with the situation. 



2. The hunting and trapping of the more destructive predators, particularly those which 

 break up grouse nests. 



3. The stimulation of an intelligent, vigorous interest in conservation in general and in 

 grouse in particular. 



To accomplish some of these objectives will require a re-orientation in thinking and activ- 

 ities, even among those who have the best interests of the grouse at heart. It is human 

 nature to live for the present. This being here, wise heads will look to the future and direct 

 today's programs into chaimels which will ])rodu(e more grouse tomorrow. 



SOMK PRACTICES M AHMFUL TO GROUSE 



Many an activity of benefit to grouse, when carried on in moderation, may have the o])po- 

 site effect if pushed to extremes. Wildlife, because of its more or less specialized require- 

 ments for survival, has suffered particularly from the exploitation, beyond reasonable bounds, 

 of such ideas as the draining of swarn])s and clean farming*. It is. therefore, worth consider- 

 ing for a moment some practices that may ad\ersely affect the grouse. All tend to standardize 

 rather than to diversify covert \egetation. 



Among them should b<' niciitioncd the follow ing: — 



1. Clean farming 



2. Heavy grazing of woodlands 



3. Uncontrolled burning of woodland and overgrown fields 



4. Large lumbering operations within individual forest tracts 



5. The prohibition of lumbering 



6. The complete reforestation with conifers of large contiguous areas 



7. The maintenance of relati\ely pure stands of any species of tree, shrul) or herbaceous 

 growth 



The undesirable aftereffects of the first three are too widely recognized to need further 

 emphasis. With respect to lumbering, too little or too much, concentrated in any one area, 

 is apt to encourage uniformity in cover. A slashing half a mile across will be used largely 

 along its edges. The removal of all the merchantable conifers from a woodlot. seldom leaves 

 conditions as attractive as they were even though berries follow the axe. Acid-wood cuttings 

 are particularly damaging in this respect because of the frequency with which whole hillsides 

 are reduced to briers and sprouts. Where, however, as in parts of the western Catskills, the 

 trees are removed in long, narrow strips, each separated by second-growth woodland, the 

 situation is reversed and more favorable conditions are the result. 



* The elimination oi hedgerows and the pasturing of steep slopes anil gullies are examples of this. 



