Ruffed Grouse Society Members, Supporters and Friends

It's been an interesting winter so far, with many new initiatives for habitat work brewing and a number of interesting opportunities for many of you. Especially in southern New England,  what's been a relatively quiet period of building constituencies and support is soon to result in more forest habitat improvement.  In northern New England and New York, successes of past years have self-generated a greater amount of independent work by our agency and land-management partners which, ultimately, should be the goal of an advocacy organization...to make itself fundamentally "unnecessary" on the basis of its success. However, seeing no apparent endpoint to the need to promote and support sound forest management for ruffed grouse, American woodcock, scores of declining songbirds and other wildlife using young forest habitat, we're not betting we'll be "done" soon! So then, take heart...we're not through yet and continue to count on you, and thank you for, providing your inputs of funding, volunteer effort and advocacy that make implementing our mission possible.

Habitat Work and Initiatives

RGS continues to bring information and education to Mainers through our outstanding Maine Chapter's efforts. In March, RGS presence at both the Wilton and Augusta Sports Shows garnered loads of interest and enrolled many
new members. At the Augusta venue, over 40 people attended seminars on grouse habitat management put on by the Chapter and the RGS Regional Biologist, and many great contacts were made for future involvement in both chapter and habitat programs.

Thanks to a generous promotion by L.L. Bean Inc. of Freeport, new members signing up at the sports show were given a $20 gift certificate as a bonus. Likewise, the annual raffle of a premier shotgun donated by L.L. Bean again allowed the chapter to provide generous scholarships to the next generation of conservation professionals. This year William Schuman from Waldoboro, ME and
Cody Ouellette, Millinocket, ME will each receive a $2000 head-start on their college tuition upon graduation from their high schools. We congratulate these young men, who are each planning on pursuing degrees in criminal and environmental disciplines with an intent to someday join the ranks of the Maine Warden Service.

Paul Karczmarczyk
New England Regional Wildlife Biologist

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