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有目的地提高利用森林的一般针叶林地区的皱皮松鸡。 在美国的落叶林中，人们已经对皱皮松鸡进行了大量的研究，但即使在加拿大的北方针叶林中，皱皮松鸡也是一个受欢迎的物种，在那里它们分布广泛，但密度相对较低。当代森林管理正在使不成熟的、依赖干扰的群落类型和依赖于它们的动物物种，包括松鸡处于危险之中。 我们能否有目的地使用树木收获和造林技术，再生不耐落叶和混合木材站可用的皱皮松鸡，作为长期森林管理规划的一部分，一般面向针叶树种？在这项长期研究的第一阶段，J.D.欧文，有限公司，在中部新玩法，我们将寻找松鸡在4种类型的森林补丁：这些补丁的结构特征的网站所使用的皱松鸡在其他地方的落叶林;年轻的再生补丁的不耐落叶树种<12岁，较早地从针叶林和混合木材森林;低地区沿着溪流，和年轻（<30年）针叶林种植园。松鸡使用的场地将根据林分内的结构特征（其内容）和所用林分周围的林分（其背景）以及所用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，教我们在第二轮调查中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性补丁切割。 到本赠款期结束时，我们将开始设计一个管理协议，以加强皱皮松鸡使用森林补丁，可以实施到一个长期的针叶树和混合木材管理战略。由于森林管理的行业越来越多地采用木材供应的决定在一个大的空间尺度，建议的干预措施，皱皮松鸡将需要放在类似的大规模的程度。

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.