The Jim Foote Chapter of the Ruffed Grouse Society will host its 21st annual Conservation and Sportsmen’s Banquet Friday, June 14, at Treetops Resort, 3962 Wilkinson Road, Gaylord.
The banquet begins with a social hour at 5:30 p.m. Dinner will be served at 7:30 p.m.
The evening will feature a live and silent auction, games, drawings and door prizes.
Individual membership and dinner tickets are $55. Optional family membership packages are $85 and include two dinners, with additional dinners costing $35 each. Sponsorship packages also are available.
Complimentary dinner tickets and one-year memberships are available for youth under 16 who recently passed a hunter education class and women who participated in a recent Outdoors Women program.
Reservations received by Wednesday, June 5, are eligible for a drawing for a wildlife permit.Proceeds from this event will be used to restore and protect area grouse and woodcock habitat. This is the organization’s biggest annual fundraiser.
For more information and/or tickets, contact chapter president Peter McCutcheon at 231-546-4849.
Original Gaylord Herald Times Article
PDF of RGS Banquet Information
Sporting Clays Fundraiser for the Ruffed Grouse Society - Bristol, VA - June 8th
June 8th.
The Appalachian Highlands Chapter of the Ruffed Grouse Society is hosting its third annual sporting clays fundraiser shoot out at the Kettlefoot Rod and Gun Club.
Proceeds from the event will be used for local habitat projects.
Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. The shoot runs from 9 a.m. – noon.
The shoot will be a 100 round Iron Man event (25 5/Stand; 25 Skeet; 25 Trap; 25 Trap Doubles). Registration fees are $50 am individual, $180 for a four-person team, and $40 for youngsters age 15 and under.
The registration fee includes lunch, door prizes and awards for High Shooter, High Team, High Female and High Youth.
Field Hunter, Silver Hunter, Gold Hunter and Event sponsorship packages are also available at $250, $500, $1,000 and $2,500 respectively.
All shooters are required to have eye and ear protection.
Established in 1961, The Ruffed Grouse Society is North America’s foremost conservation organization dedicated to preserving our sporting traditions by creating healthy forest habitat for ruffed grouse, American woodcock and other wildlife. RGS works with landowners and government agencies to develop critical habitat utilizing scientific management practices.
Information on the RGS, its mission and management projects can be found on the web at: www.ruffedgrousesociety.org. The society's national address is: 451 McCormick Road, Coraopolis, PA 15108.
The Appalachian Highlands Chapter of the Ruffed Grouse Society is hosting its third annual sporting clays fundraiser shoot out at the Kettlefoot Rod and Gun Club.
Proceeds from the event will be used for local habitat projects.
Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. The shoot runs from 9 a.m. – noon.
The shoot will be a 100 round Iron Man event (25 5/Stand; 25 Skeet; 25 Trap; 25 Trap Doubles). Registration fees are $50 am individual, $180 for a four-person team, and $40 for youngsters age 15 and under.
The registration fee includes lunch, door prizes and awards for High Shooter, High Team, High Female and High Youth.
Field Hunter, Silver Hunter, Gold Hunter and Event sponsorship packages are also available at $250, $500, $1,000 and $2,500 respectively.
All shooters are required to have eye and ear protection.
Established in 1961, The Ruffed Grouse Society is North America’s foremost conservation organization dedicated to preserving our sporting traditions by creating healthy forest habitat for ruffed grouse, American woodcock and other wildlife. RGS works with landowners and government agencies to develop critical habitat utilizing scientific management practices.
Information on the RGS, its mission and management projects can be found on the web at: www.ruffedgrousesociety.org. The society's national address is: 451 McCormick Road, Coraopolis, PA 15108.
venue information
Kettlefoot Rod and Gun Club
21101 Kettlefoot Lane Bristol, VANY State seeks to increase spruce grouse
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced the adoption of a Spruce Grouse Recovery Plan. The Spruce grouse were listed as a threatened species in New York in 1983, but were later moved to the endangered species list in 1999. As is the case with so many wildlife species, changing habitat had taken its toll. In this case the loss of boreal forests in upstate New York caused population declines which are now not likely to recover without human intervention.
Dutchess County’s ruffed grouse population has all but disappeared from the landscape. In my younger years grouse hunting was one of my favorite pastimes, these days you have to look far and wide to find one. Again, loss of habitat was and is a major contributor to the problem.
Along with the habitat problems the Spruce grouse suffers additional vulnerabilities due to its lack of fear of humans. This makes it an extremely east bird to hunt. Although it is illegal to hunt them in New York, they are sometimes mistaken for the ruffed grouse.
When making the announcement that the plan had been adopted, DEC Commissioner Joe Martens said, “Recommendations in the plan are intended to stabilize and improve the distribution and abundance of this rare bird species and ultimately increase its population," Commissioner Martens said. "The spruce grouse is an historic resident of New York State and represents an important and visible component of the forest community."
Residents of the Hudson Valley could go an entire lifetime without ever seeing a Spruce grouse because they inhabit the Adirondack region, and not broadly even at that. There are just a few more than a dozen fragmented populations and in total they represent barely more than 6,000 birds. Even that may be a more than generous estimate.
More info and complete Poughkeepsie Journal article
NY adopts recovery plan for rare grouse
Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. — The state Department of Environmental Conservation has adopted a long-term plan to restore and expand the population of the endangered spruce grouse.Spruce grouse were first listed as a threatened species in New York in 1983 and later moved to the to the endangered species list in 1999. The birds are common in Canada, Alaska and Maine, but have declined at the southern edge of their range in New York and Vermont. Both states have recovery plans in place.
More info and Complete Article
Hard times in WV for ruffed grouse
By Chris Lawrence
For avid grouse hunters in West Virginia, these are difficult days. Even in a good brood year, the ruffed grouse continues to be a fragile species in the Mountain State and throughout the Appalachian region.
“I have reports this year of people going in during archery season and putting up multiple broods on their way into a tree stand in certain parts of the state,” said DNR Biologist Keith Krantz who oversees grouse research for the agency. “I thought that was pretty encouraging.”
But even encouraging reproduction cannot counter what has become the single biggest obstacle for grouse populations in West Virginia, habitat loss.
“Grouse hunting is on the decline just based on habitat,” said Krantz. “We’re just not cutting as many trees across the state and without that early successional habitat, the grouse just doesn’t do as well and that’s what we’re seeing.”
Gone are the days of vast tracts of land timbered and left to regenerate anew. The new growth becomes the prime living condition for the ruffed grouse. The downturn in the housing market caused a substantial reduction in timber sales across the state. Environmental activism is another difficult obstacle to overcome.
“The Forest Service used to cut many, many millions of board feet a year and they don’t anymore due to the pressure they’ve been put under,” Krantz said. “They still do some timber sales, but where it used to be more than 30-Million board feet, now it’s more like 2-Million and doesn’t get a lot of emphasis.”
The DNR has taken a more active approach to habitat restoration. Several wildlife management areas in the state have been slated for select timber sales. The sales are purely managed to enhance habitat, but even still are merely a drop in the bucket.
“We’re slowly working toward putting more of our areas into a greater percentage of that young frest habitat, but we own a very small chunk of real estate in West Virginia.”
Read the rest of the WVMetroNews article
For avid grouse hunters in West Virginia, these are difficult days. Even in a good brood year, the ruffed grouse continues to be a fragile species in the Mountain State and throughout the Appalachian region.
“I have reports this year of people going in during archery season and putting up multiple broods on their way into a tree stand in certain parts of the state,” said DNR Biologist Keith Krantz who oversees grouse research for the agency. “I thought that was pretty encouraging.”
But even encouraging reproduction cannot counter what has become the single biggest obstacle for grouse populations in West Virginia, habitat loss.
“Grouse hunting is on the decline just based on habitat,” said Krantz. “We’re just not cutting as many trees across the state and without that early successional habitat, the grouse just doesn’t do as well and that’s what we’re seeing.”
Gone are the days of vast tracts of land timbered and left to regenerate anew. The new growth becomes the prime living condition for the ruffed grouse. The downturn in the housing market caused a substantial reduction in timber sales across the state. Environmental activism is another difficult obstacle to overcome.
“The Forest Service used to cut many, many millions of board feet a year and they don’t anymore due to the pressure they’ve been put under,” Krantz said. “They still do some timber sales, but where it used to be more than 30-Million board feet, now it’s more like 2-Million and doesn’t get a lot of emphasis.”
The DNR has taken a more active approach to habitat restoration. Several wildlife management areas in the state have been slated for select timber sales. The sales are purely managed to enhance habitat, but even still are merely a drop in the bucket.
“We’re slowly working toward putting more of our areas into a greater percentage of that young frest habitat, but we own a very small chunk of real estate in West Virginia.”
Read the rest of the WVMetroNews article
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