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Shelter 



TYPES OF GROUSE RANGE 



Grouse range, in its broad sense, is the geographic area that the 

 species inhabits. The types of grouse range, as used here, are the 

 major subdivisions of the species range— divisions having common 

 physiographic, chmatic, ecologic, and temporal factors that affect 

 grouse populations in an extensive w^ay. Grouse range is a product 

 of climate, soil, and time, the same as plant growth regions (Van- 

 Dersal, 1938). On this basis, the grouse range in the northeastern 

 states may logically be divided into three types— the northern New 

 York-New England, northern Appalachian, and middle Appalachian. 

 All three areas are humid and microthermal (having mean annual 

 temperature between 14° and 0° centigiade ) . They differ primarily 

 in the dominant plant associations, largely as regards woody plants, 

 and character of land use as affecting the distribution of these asso- 

 ciations. 



Northern New York-New England Grouse Range. This, the most 

 northern of the grouse range types in the eastern states, is naturally 

 the coldest. It has the greatest amount of extensive forest range and 

 is thus most nearly a wilderness habitat. Its topography varies from 

 rugged mountains to level, wooded plateaus, all generally well 

 watered. The winters are very severe, with low temperatures and 

 heavy snows. The area was almost entirely glaciated during the 

 last ice age, only the tops of the highest mountain peaks escaped the 

 ice sheet. Most of this range is relatively uninhabited by man, al- 

 though practically all the forest has been lumbered at least once. 

 The sparsity of the human population has enabled the grouse in 

 many of these coverts to remain today the fool-hen type of bird it 

 formerly was everywhere. 



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