Research toward the management of ruffed grouse in conifer forest

从长远来看，这项研究将使管理人员能够有目的地提高松鸡在针叶林地区对森林的利用。人们在美国的落叶林中对松鸡进行了大量的研究，但即使在加拿大北部的针叶林中，松鸡也是一种受欢迎的物种，在那里它们分布广泛，但密度相对较低。当代森林管理正在危及不成熟的、依赖干扰的群落类型和依赖它们的动物物种，包括皱松鸡。作为长期森林管理规划的一部分，我们是否可以有目的地使用树木采伐和造林技术来再生松松鸡可用的不耐落叶和混交林？在这项长期研究的第一阶段，我们将与J.D. Irving， Limited在新不伦瑞克省中部进行研究，我们将在四种类型的森林斑块中寻找松鸡：那些具有落叶林中其他地方皱褶松鸡使用地点结构特征的斑块；在针叶林和混交林中较早采伐的<12年树龄的不耐落叶种幼龄再生斑块；沿溪流的低地地带和幼龄（<30年）针叶林。松鸡使用的场地将根据林分内部（其内容）和林分周围（其环境）的结构特征以及所使用的林分的边缘和空间格局进行测量。然后，这些数据将用于建模目的，告诉我们在第二轮调查中我们应该进一步测量松鸡的使用情况，并帮助我们设计将长期监测的实验斑块切割。在赠款期结束时，我们将开始设计一项管理协议，以加强松鸡对森林斑块的利用，该协议可以实施到长期的针叶树和混合木材管理战略中。由于工业的森林管理越来越多地采用大空间尺度上的木材供应决策，因此有关松鸡干预措施的建议将需要放在类似的大尺度上。

Over the long term, this research will enable managers to purposefully enhance the use of forest by ruffed grouse in a generally conifer forest region.  Ruffed grouse have been studied much in the deciduous forests of the United States but are also a popular species even in the northern conifer forests across Canada where they are widely distributed yet at relatively low densities. Contemporary forest management is putting at risk the immature, disturbance-dependent community types and the animal species dependent upon them, including ruffed grouse.  Can we purposefully use tree harvest and silviculture techniques to regenerate intolerant deciduous and mixed wood stands usable by ruffed grouse, as part of long-term forest management planning generally geared toward conifer species? In the first phase of this long-term study with J.D. Irving, Limited, in central New Brunswick, we will search for grouse in 4 types of forest patches: those patches with the structural characteristics of sites used by ruffed grouse elsewhere in deciduous forests; young regenerating patches of intolerant deciduous species <12 years old, earlier cut from conifer and mixed wood forest; lowland zones along streams, and young (<30 years) conifer plantations. Sites used by grouse will be measured according to structural characteristics within the stand (their content) and in the stands surrounding the stands used (their context), and the edge and spatial pattern of stands used. These data will then be used for modeling purposes to teach us what we should measure further about grouse use in second round of surveys, and to help us design experimental patch cuts that will be monitored over the long term.  By the end of this grant period we will begin to design a management protocol for enhancing ruffed grouse use of forest patches that can be implemented into a long term conifer and mixed wood management strategy. Because forest management by industry increasingly employs decisions about wood supply over a large spatial scale, the recommendations for interventions for ruffed grouse will need to be put at similar large scales of extent.