MAY 6, 2020 MORE ON "PROJECT 2020".

The premier snowshoe hare conservation group in PA.

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Hunting the Mountains of the Adirondack.

From the quarantined headquarters of the

Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny:

“PROJECT 2020”

by

Joe Ewing

High HareMan

Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny

In March 2020 The Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny announced a new habitat project on the Allegheny. In cooperation with Seneca Resources, a National Fuel Gas Company, the conservation minded hare hunters started an ongoing habitat reclamation project to improve nesting and escape cover for eastern cottontail rabbits, ruffed grouse, pheasants, song birds and all small animals on land owned by Seneca Resources in Forest County, Pennsylvania.

The project includes hinge-cutting  of fire cherry, black birch, quaking aspen and other nondescript trees, creating brush piles, mitigation of invasive species and planting native trees and shrubs. The hare hunters wish to express our deepest appreciation to Seneca Resources Company for their exceptional and continuing cooperation, guidance and expertise in the successful launching of this project. And, to Mr. Erick Byers, Company Land Forester, for his guidance and expertise.    

In the fall of 2019 after considerable consideration, discussion and with a certain amount of trepidation the Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny acknowledged it was time to quit delaying, procrastinating and stalling and take action on conservation and biodiversity by creating habitat for cottontail rabbits, ruffed grouse, woodcock, song birds and other small animals.

There was no debate as to where we should execute our project. The members consciously determined we should do this on private land. We would strive to obtain permission for the project on land where we have been training beagles for the last decade. The site is a 600-acre tract of successional  forest repopulated with fire cherry, black birch and other worthless trees. The trees are growing quickly providing less cover for wildlife and more shading of the undergrowth. Cottontail rabbits, ruffed grouse, wild turkey, song birds and occasionally an itinerant pheasant can be found on the property along with the usual predators. Maintaining food and escape cover and providing nesting cover for these animals became our goal. Snowshoe hare have been found within five miles of the project site but have not been observed in this locality.

 

January 2020

After accomplishing all formalities which included meeting with the landowner’s forester, Erick Byers, we received permission from the land owner and “Project 2020” was launched. So that passing workers and visitors to the area would know what we were doing, a modest sign announcing our intentions was placed at the project site. Work commenced in January and intensive cutting began. In April our Public Relations Officer transmitted a news release to over a hundred media outlets announcing the project and our progress.

Matt Baker, January 2020

Our goals are to make great animal habitat where habitat formerly existed and to improve the biodiversity of the area. Our desire would be to have these animals propagate, thrive and move on to become game animals. If no one hunted on this property it would be our desire, but of course, it is not our land and we fully understand the landowner can do as they wish. 

Ruffed grouse are found in the proposed project area which was a major consideration in choosing the site. A headline in the Pennsylvania Outdoor News reads “Grouse are in big trouble in Pa.” (Ironically, the grouse article appeared on the same page as the blurb announcing our project). The article went on, “Ruffed grouse is in trouble in Pennsylvania and other nearby states in its native range. The decline continues to grow in Pennsylvania and biologists point to two main causes: widespread loss of young forest habitat and deaths from the mosquito-borne West Nile virus.”

The Pennsylvania Game Commission estimates the state has lost 20-30% of its grouse population in the last four years. The Ruffed Grouse Society thinks grouse may well be on their way to endangered status nationwide unless there is a concentrated effort to protect and expand their habitat.

Many words have been written by others repeating the needs of the eastern cottontail rabbit and ruffed grouse. A word used for both cottontail and hare is “fragmentation”. Words we read over and over are; “young forest habitat”, “rejuvenating forests” and “successional forests”. Whatever we call our forests they must meet the challenge of providing food and cover for wildlife along with our “concentrated effort to protect and expand their habitat”. We can break it all down to a few words; food, escape and nesting cover.

Providing habitat on private land, even posted land, makes perfect sense to the Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny. More than 1400 species have been listed as “threatened” or “endangered” since the Endangered Species Act of 1973 was written. Threatened species are those at risk of becoming endangered in the near term and endangered is species at risk for becoming extinct in the foreseeable future. “Roughly half of these species find 80 percent or more of their habitat on private land. This reality along with the fact 60 percent of the land in the United States is privately owned, makes private landowners critical partners in the nation’s efforts to recover species on the brink of extinction.”—Catherine E. Spencer, research fellow with the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in American Hunter magazine, November 2019 issue.

In Pennsylvania 12 million acres of forest land is under private ownership. In May of 2004, the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) created a Private Landowner Assistance Program and hired a Regional Wildlife Diversity Biologist to facilitate the program and aid interested landowners in developing habitat management plans in each of the state's six geographic regions. A team of PGC biologists assists private landowners in making their property more attractive for wildlife, particularly species of greatest conservation need. It does not matter if the land is open to hunting. Wherever we make habitat we must do everything in our power to improve the ecosystem and the biodiversity of our forests.

I will keep readers of this blog up to date on “Project 2020” in future issues showing the progress. On more than one day several volunteer members were hard at work cutting trees and making brush piles. I will feature these members in a future blogs. It will be interesting to see before and after pictures. The project area is greening up and the song birds and rabbits love the food and cover.