Vol. 19, No. 4 
Page 3 
survival. Even when nest boxes were placed in the 20-year stand, squirrels 
did not take up residence, probably because the food base present in such 
stands was still low. Less than 200 g of storable food was produced per 
0 . 01 -ha plot on the best sites for seed production in the 20 -year-old stand. 
In contrast, more than 2,500 g of storable seed was produced per 0.01-ha plot 
in the adjacent uncut forest. 
In summary, wildlife managers cannot expect anything but sporadic gray 
squirrel utilization of clear-cut stands for up to 30 years after cutting. 
The food base is too small and consists mostly of perishable, not storable 
foods. V/ildlife managers can do little for squirrels during the first 30 
years after a stand is clear-cut, but there is a great deal they can do to 
minimize the effects of clear-cutting, before clear-cutting is done, through 
control of timing, size, and placement of each cut. We will consider some 
of these management options in the next newsletter. 
Responses of Prairie Chickens to Habitat Manipulation R. L. Westemeier, 
D. R. Vance 
The prairie chicken population on the Bogota Study Area was censused in 
the spring of 1976 for the 14th consecutive year. As in past springs, booming 
ground surveys were conducted along with supplementary observations made by 
visitors in blinds almost daily from 27 March through 13 April. 
Counts made this spring (1976) revealed a total of 81 cocks, a decline 
of 20.6 percent from the 102 cocks counted at Bogota in the spring of 1975. 
This count represented a third consecutive spring decline after the popu- 
lation's steady increase from the low point of 37 cocks in the spring of 
1968. The high point was 203 cocks in the spring of 1 973 . As in the two 
preceding springs, the decline this spring can be directly attributed to a 
poor nesting season the previous year. Intensive nest studies at Bogota 
,n ] 973, 1 974, and 1375 documented the lowest levels of nest success (31 
percent, 41 percent, and 4l percent, respectively) recorded in the past 13 
years. A high rate of predation on nests, a reduced food base for predators, 
and abnormally wet weather in 1973 and 1974 were the factors to which the poor 
atches were attributed. Harassment, competition, and nest parasitism from 
an increasing local pheasant population has also become an apparently serious 
problem at Bogota. 
• Exce P t f° r two male prairie chickens that boomed on private farmland 
within 1 mile of the Newton city limits, all booming grounds were again 
located on or adjacent to the sanctuaries at Bogota. Also, each of the seven 
sanctuary complexes supported at least one booming ground except the 110 - 
acre Galbreath Sanctuary. 
