Pennsylvania's grouse and woodcock - and a host of other species such as songbirds, box turtles and snowshoe hares - need more young, regenerating forests to support them. Between 1980 and 2005, the state lost about 30 percent of its young forests, a statistic that's even more alarming when you learn that just five percent of the state's forest are young (containing growth that is less than 20 years old. We're short about 800,000 acres of young forest, according to estimates.

Now, a state-agency partnership between the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is creating more habitat for two troubled game birds and other wildlife species that rely on young forest. The roots of the partnership are in a shared concern about forest health, and its relation to species health."It started with Emily Just (DCNR ecologist) who works with DCNR foresters who focus on game species," said Lisa Williams, PGC game birds' biologist. Williams, an avid upland bird hunter, has been with the PGC since 1988, and became the game bird biologist in 2011. "One of the DCNR foresters was interested in creating grouse and woodcock habitat in a certain area, we had a meeting, made a plan and all went well.""Word got out and we began to talk about other potential sites and the list kept growing," she added. "There are thousands of acres of state forest lands that could be managed for grouse and woodcock."Both species depend on young forests. Grouse thrive in young, upland forest, with adjacent stands of mature trees; woodcock (which love worms) like their young forest to include soggy lowlands and shrubby thickets. Reverting farm fields and bottomland, the loss of young forestland to tree maturation and land-use changes have hurt these popular native game birds.The interagency cooperation has already created about 1,000 new acres of habitat annually. Emily Just said the plan began with outreach to forestry staff about opportunities to begin improving poor-quality stands, carefully working in forest buffers, or targeting hard-to-manage sites for grouse and woodcock through on-site visits. This thinking-outside-the-box approach supplements the positive effects that forest-management activities have on wildlife."The first year, a couple of districts were interested, and then it just took off," Just recalled. "We started with foresters on 'orphaned' sites - primarily woodcock habitat. Moist-soil areas where they couldn't do traditional work."Williams and Just have a reputation among DCNR's foresters for requesting as many targeted objectives for birds as they can - strewn trunks and treetops left on site for grouse, open clearings with shrubby thickets for woodcock, control of invasive plants and targeted promotion of beneficial trees and shrubs. Depending on the site, they also might appeal for softer, shrubbier woodland edges, tree islands and aspen or alder regeneration."It's really the way conservation ought to work," stressed Williams. "The synergy in the relationships we're building creates a lot of excitement and it's really paying off for the birds."What can you do to get involved?"Each PGC office has a biologist who works with private landowners, and will come and walk your lands and help you make a plan for management - that's a free service," Williams said. "If you don't own land you can join organizations that focus on conservation, such as the Ruffed Grouse Society, National Wild Turkey Federation, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Partners for Wildlife, the Wildlife Management Institute, the American Bird Conservancy and the Audubon Society."DCNR also has a cadre of service foresters who can help landowners develop of forest plan. Organization such as The Ruffed Grouse Society and National Wildlife Turkey Federation bring an ingredient that is in very short supply, volunteers to help get the work done, Just said."Both organizations also have donated money and helped on site with several of these projects," Just said. "Many hands are needed, because the effort to right the deficiencies in the Commonwealth's grouse and woodcock habitat is no small undertaking."The woodcock work has been especially encouraging, Williams said."Spring surveys indicate we're supporting eight times the number of woodcocks in managed sites than we see in unmanaged sites, where woodcock numbers remain stalled," Williams said. "The birds are showing us the work is making a real difference!""We now have projects in every forest district (there are 20) in the state," she added. "There are at least 50 forest dwellers which rely on young forests, and many of the people involved have done work on their own time - I really love the people I've met through this partnership."