Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 17, 1992 TAG: 9203170031
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If you think this conservation group has sided with preservationists in a face off against timber cutters you'd be wrong.
Society members well know that the drum of a grouse is tied closely to the roar of a chain saw. They are determined to promote that notion with their money, time and influence.
Members met with foresters Saturday in the Tub Run area of the Jefferson National Forest, west of New Castle, where they have contributed $5,000 to help fund a research project. It is designed to evaluate the role of small clearcuts in promoting grouse habitat.
The local society and its parent organization have become concerned over efforts to sharply reduce even-age management practices. This puts them at odds with groups like the Sierra Club.
Grouse society members realize that many overzealous timbering efforts of the past have deserved to be denounced. But they are concerned that it now can be difficult for any cut to be seen as positive.
"What is it worth to you guys to walk back in here and hunt," Bob Boardwine, New Castle District Ranger, asked society members.
Grouse hunters know that they are most likely to flush game in areas where the forest canopy has been opened and fresh growth has been stimulated by splashes of sunlight and warming soil temperatures.
In Tub Run, foresters, with the support of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the grouse society, have planned commercial timber sales that are tailored to the needs of grouse. They include small clearcuts, group selection and shelterwood cuts.
Once the timbering is completed, drumming logs will be provided, grapevine will be released and roads will be seeded with clover and other forage.
Society members won't just be helping to provide funding for this and similar research near Covington, but will be monitoring the results. The next several spring seasons, members are scheduled to man listening posts in an effort to catalog grouse drumming counts, which reflect the well being of the grouse population.
The society's funds for such projects come from its annual sportsmen's banquets, like the one the Virginia Mountains Chapter has scheduled April 24 at the Roanoke Sheraton Inn.
At one time, the national organization spent most of its money on projects in the northeast, but now a hefty percentage of the funds go to the region where they were raised, said Skip Lautenschlager, past president of the mountains chapter.
Like other groups that promote habitat work to enhance wildlife species that are hunted, the grouse society has been a late entry in the planning process of the Jefferson and George Washington national forests. Its members are not as well schooled in the procedure as groups promoting less cutting, but some have vowed to make their opinions known.
Samuel Pursglove Jr., the executive director of the national society, is encouraging members to get involved in the George Washington's draft management plan, which calls for nearly a 30-percent reduction in timber cutting over current levels.
"If, as thoughtful conservationists, we believe that all wildlife species are equally important, then we must believe that our forests have to provide a diversity of habitat where all woodland wildlife of the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains can thrive," he recently told Virginia members.
"To make this happen, the only economically feasible tool available to resource managers is the well-regulated timber harvest."
by CNB