Management of the Ruffed Grouse 355 



Low shrubs and vines Medium shrubs Tall shrubs and small trees 



Bittersweet Silky dogwood Flowering dogwood 



Virginia creeper Graystem dogwood Hawthorn 



Dwarf sumac Hazelnut Apple and crabapple 



Swamp rose ^ Bayberry Staghom sumac 



Fox grape Bear oak Mountain ash 



Riverbank grape Nannyberry 



Blackhaw 

 Highbush cranberry 



^ Multiflora rose is even better suited for plantations but no information is avail- 

 able as to its value in fimaisliing grouse food. 



The thicker the shrubs develop the easier will be the maintenance. 

 But since this association of plants is not ordinarily a climax in the 

 plant succession, some tree species will encroach eventually even 

 if not at the start. These should be periodically cut out or poisoned. 

 This is preferably done when the adjacent woodland or tree plant- 

 ing is being thinned, improved, or market products removed. Little 

 extra effort will then be required to keep the shrub border in good 

 condition. 



Open Edges. Any open area of herbaceous cover, water, or bare 

 ground next to woody cover furnishes an open edge. In grouse cover 

 these edges serve several important functions: food production, 

 notably through herbaceous plants and insects; keeping adjacent 

 cover exposed to the sun to the end that it produces more food; and 

 providing dusting and sunning spots. 



Most of these edges will be supplied where farm fields meet wood- 

 lands and where roads traverse them. To the degree that fields con- 

 tinue to be farmed will most of these edges be maintained. We have 

 already stressed the importance of woods roads in the woodland 

 proper for the opening and cover change that they furnish. These 

 woodland roads offer an opportunity for improving grouse food con- 

 ditions by the simple expedient of disking the road center and 

 seeding with wild white clover {Trifoliurn repeiis). The soil must 

 be fairly high in lime content, or at least neutral, or lime will have 

 to be added to make this treatment successful. The seeding may be 

 made at a rate of about four pounds per acre, or one pound for each 

 thirteen hundred feet of seeding eight feet wide. 



In extensive forest areas where open field edges are lacking, road- 

 way openings are particularly important. A good system of logging 



