Please comment on Sparta Mtn. WMA stewardship plan

[Bucksnbows]

We hunters need to vocalize our support for habitat improvements to our state lands.  The Division has been doing some great work lately, but most of us would like to see a lot more work done.  Here is an opportunity to voice that support:

 

http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/spartamt_plan.htm

 

This work is not limited to just the one WMA although this particular comment period is.  This type of habitat improvement is for all northern WMAs that are being considered for habitat work.  Habitat diversity is key to healthy forests and healthy populations of game and non-game species.

 

 

Direct link to the comment form:  http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/spartamt_comments.htm

[Rusty]

 

[markbrit]

Ha! I was just going to private message you. I guess you support it! Stages of forest succession is good for grouse so I vote yes! Will submit, thanks.

[Rusty]

Ha! I was just going to private message you. I guess you support it! Stages of forest succession is good for grouse so I vote yes! Will submit, thanks.

 

Me or Brian?

 

I absolutely support it.  My students raised money to buy blight resistant chestnuts which we planted in one of the logged areas up there.  

[markbrit]

Brian actually just because I know he is involved in this through TU and a Brittany man!

[BowhunterNJ]

Added a direct link to the comment form to Brian's original post!

[Bucksnbows]

I'm submitting a formal letter as NJ Trout Unlimited's Conservation Chair in support of our organization and a personal letter as a public/private partnership member of these larger efforts as we work together (me, Division, and NJ Audubon) because of our proximity and mutual goals for this area.  

[DV1]

They have been doing this in South Jersey since 2003. I really don't know the results, other than the grouse have not returned. 

 

http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/buckart.htm

 

They also have a pretty large grasslands restoration project on Salem River, East Lake section, as well.  

[Bucksnbows]

They have been doing this in South Jersey since 2003. I really don't know the results, other than the grouse have not returned. 

 

http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/buckart.htm

 

They also have a pretty large grasslands restoration project on Salem River, East Lake section, as well.  

 

The Division is willing to work with other states to trap and transfer ruffed grouse once they feel they have sufficient habitat for that species to recover in.  But there are still a lot more grouse in NJ than most know.  I, of course, am sworn to secrecy about those locations.  

[Rusty]

The Division is willing to work with other states to trap and transfer ruffed grouse once they feel they have sufficient habitat for that species to recover in.  But there are still a lot more grouse in NJ than most know.  I, of course, am sworn to secrecy about those locations.  

 

I was pleasantly surprised by the number of grouse that we saw on one of our hikes this past fall in Sussex county.  

[Bucksnbows]

I was pleasantly surprised by the number of grouse that we saw on one of our hikes this past fall in Sussex county.  

 

There are no grouse left in Sussex county.  You likely just saw a flock of brown thrashers.   

[Rusty]

There are no grouse left in Sussex county.  You likely just saw a flock of brown thrashers.  

 

Hey Brian, are you involved with the Ruffed Grouse Society at all?

[Bucksnbows]

Hey Brian, are you involved with the Ruffed Grouse Society at all?

 

Only as a member, but I had Mark Banker who used to be their regional biologist, out to comment on my Forestry Stewardship Management Plan when we were putting it together.  I haven't gotten the same traction with his replacement, but have reached out to her in the past.  I get the distinct impression that the organization has bailed on grouse in NJ which is a shame.  But as more and more logging for early successional habitat takes place here in NJ for species that included ruffed grouse, the RGS will hopefully engage more.  

 

I would hope that the RGS would look at New Jersey the way we did when I worked for Trout Unlimited which is that if you can restore and protect native trout (brook trout in our case) in the most densely populated state, it proves to your membership and the world that it can be done anywhere.  The glass half-full approach, I guess you'd call it.  And it works!!!  We had one grouse found that was hawk killed in my oldest clear cut which is the one you know fairly well.  No others observed, but we are getting migrating woodcock loafing on the hillside in spring and fall and may even have some resident birds by now.  I need to run the dog through the clear cuts this spring to see if they are around in any numbers.  This fall's dry weather didn't bode well for 'doodles on dry grounds like the top of the mountain.    

[Bucksnbows]

I should add that I have done drummer surveys for them and for the Division in spring as well as flush counts per hunting hour surveys for Mark a few years back in PA where I normally hunt grouse and woodcock with the dogs.   

[_X7]

It would be nice to see the state get farmers to help in growing some of the fields and managing all of the habitat for the wildlife. All I see these days are fallow, neglected WMA's.