Management of the Ruffed Grouse 327 



tectors, and soil savers; and finally, and sometimes most important 

 of all, a medium for escape and recreation where we humans may 

 build our health, our character, and keep from going insane— then 

 we may see the natural and logical integration of other interests, 

 including the management of grouse, with forestry. 



Since we must begin woodland management with forestry as a 

 nucleus, we may say that grouse are a by-product of woodland man- 

 agement attained by modifying forestry practices in manners favor- 

 ing grouse to the fullest extent practicable without interference with 

 the major use. There will be some circumstances under which grouse, 

 or more likely game in general, will be the primary crop, with wood 

 products secondary, but these will not be general. 



EXTENSIVE vs. INTENSIVE MANAGEMENT 



There has been a great advance in recent years in our knowledge 

 of practices that can bring about a greater game supply. The game- 

 management methods advocated have been derived through "re- 

 search"— I put this word in quotation marks owing to the widespread 

 abuse it has received in the wild-life field— experiments directed 

 toward learning the needs of a particular animal or group of animals. 

 Having a restricted point of view, it is to be expected that recom- 

 mendations founded upon this type of investigations would conflict 

 with other interests. However, where game is the primary crop, the 

 major interest, the game management recommendations should gen- 

 erally prevail. This is intensive game management, where the ob- 

 jective is to produce the greatest possible number of the desired 

 game species almost regardless of other values, as on game preserves. 



Extensive game management may be practiced where one or more 

 game species are desired in reasonable numbers along with other 

 products and values that are of primary interest. This type of opera- 

 tion implies merely the modification in favor of game of the prac- 

 tices used to produce the paramount crops, and possibly the addition 

 of some simple practices especially for the benefit of game. By far 

 the most of grouse management will be in this category. 



It must be recognized that the distinction between intensive and 

 extensive management is not always great. There is a complete series 

 of intermediate degrees, meeting at the point where game and one 

 or more other products are of equal value as primary crops. 



