With the Ruffed Grouse Society, conservation is their main mission. Hunters were the first conservationists and the Ruffed Grouse Society and its members continue that great tradition.
Who They Are
The Ruffed Grouse Society's (RGS) membership consists mainly of grouse and woodcock hunters who support national scientific conservation and management efforts to ensure the future of the species. Our organization headquartered in Coraopolis, PA, employs a team of wildlife biologists to work with private, and government, including local, state and federal, landowners who are interested in improving their land for ruffed grouse, American woodcock and the other songbirds and wildlife that have similar requirements. We do this with individualized attention, with specific programs to help landowners, and by working with local, state and federal governments to develop land management assistance programs.
What They're About
RGS is about hunting ruffed grouse and woodcock and enjoying the other wildlife that share the place where they live. It is about the environment or habitat that provides them with food, cover from predators, shelter, and a place to breed and rear their young. It is about actively managing those young forests or "habitats" by using tools, like controlled fire and forest cutting, recognized as effective by Aldo Leopold, the father of the wildlife management profession. It is about educating the public about the habitat requirements of these birds, both game and non-game. It is about explaining that these birds live in a place that, unless actively managed, will give way to trees which shade out the plants that are home to ruffed grouse, woodcock, many songbirds, rabbits and deer. It is about gaining broad public support to actively manage using controlled fire and timber harvest, and that clear-cutting as a forest management tool, when properly applied, is ecologically sound. It is about walking in the woods and pausing at the sound of what seems to be an old John Deere tractor and realizing it is a grouse drumming in spring. It is about going afield with the expectation of bagging a grouse or "patridge" or a "timberdoodle". It is about being overtaken with pride as your dog carries its head high as it moves into the wind, locks on point and waits for you to flush the bird. It is about being completely surprised and uttering an "aw shucks" when the bird flushes across an opening and evades what you thought were well-placed number 8s. It is about inviting friends to share a fine meal of grouse and all the trimmings and listening to how your spouse backed you up on the shot after yours felled a young aspen. It is about gatherings called banquets where friends with a common interest in these birds and their conservation come together to have fun and provide the funding needed to make it all happen. It is really not about us at all, it is about our kids, grandkids and their kids for, without our help, these places will not be there for them or the birds to enjoy.
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