346 The Ruffed Grouse 



ter hardwood lumber species is impractical. There is a need for 

 variety in the woodland, if for no other reason than as insurance 

 against excessive insect or disease loss. A woodland composed of 

 trees of all ages will contain many "filler" trees, those that are not 

 intended for ultimate timber harvest but are needed to maintain the 

 stand density as the crop trees mature. Much of this filler stand will 

 be used only for cordwood, and may as well as not be good grouse 

 food species. 



I recall a recent visit to a forest being managed by a young pro- 

 fessional forester who was anxious to develop a game crop as well 

 as wood products. In some of his improvement cuttings he had re- 

 moved hophonibeam and beech in favor of elm and white birch. 

 In fact, he had planned to eliminate the hophombeam as completely 

 as possible, seeing no use for it. It was pointed out that the beech 

 and hophornbeam were as good as the others for fillers and were 

 much more useful as winter food for grouse. He immediately ad- 

 justed his cutting plan in this detail. 



It should be particularly noted that those woodland tree species 

 that produce fruit or nuts, as the oaks, beech, and black cherry, 

 require much sunlight to seed properly. If they are crowded their 

 crops will be small or wholly lacking. Releasing them from the com- 

 petition of adjacent trees helps by allowing their tops to develop in 

 the open crown. If the trees to be cut in the release are of no value 

 they can merely be girdled with satisfactory results. 



When one is concerned with a typical woodland of the Northeast, 

 say of the beech-birch-maple-hemlock association, where there is 

 plenty of opportunity for species selection in improvement cuttings 

 or thinnings, the question arises as to how many good bud-producing 

 trees are needed to support a satisfactory population of grouse 

 through the winter. Theoretically this could be computed mathe- 

 matically if we knew the average number of buds per tree in a 

 balanced woodland, the daily consumption of buds per grouse, and 

 the proportion of buds a tree may lose without serious damage. The 

 result would actually be conservative, for the birds do not feed 

 evenly over the whole woods. In portions in, or next to, good conifer 

 shelter the consumption would, no doubt, exceed the average rate, 

 and in areas remote from coniferous or brush cover, use would be 

 low. The application of the principle is obviously most important 

 in hardwood stands close to other cover, particularly coniferous 



