Grouse Habitat/Aspen

[Mikeisme09]

I've 20 acres mixed bag in the UP. Aspen and Maple dominate... some cedar and white pine, larch, yellow birch. I'm an avid grouse hunter.. and although I understand the need for young forest for grouse, I guess I don't understand what "young" is. Most of my aspen is clumped together and 12-24" diameter. I'd like to cut it all and let it reproduce. I've read and studied literature from the  grouse hunting community, I guess I would like to hear from people that actually manage forestry themselves, for a living. Is it simply a matter of cutting everything down and letting nature rebuild? What's the skinny in revitalizing an Aspen grove? Thanks.
 

[barbender]

Aspen is one of the easiest species to manage for. The hard part is if you are trying to grow something else- try to STOP the aspen from growing!😁 Your aspen is bigger than what is ideal grouse habitat. I just read the other day that 20 years is the age where the canopy in an aspen stand typically closes so that a lot of the forage that grouse, deer and other wildlife doesn't grow anymore. I would clearcut, with any management objectives you have prescribed as part of it. One interesting technique I was also reading about the other day, is backcutting different hardwoods so they fall over but are still attached to the stump. I think ash was mentioned, I don't know what other species it would work for. Anyways, the tree lays horizontal, and will start to put up vertical shoots from the stem. It creates a kind of living wall. I can speak to it's effectiveness from experience- in 2012 a windstorm wiped out a stand of basswood on our property, tipping them over still attached to the rootball. I always meant to get back there and clean up the mess- I'm glad I didn't! Between the rest of the property being 15yo aspen, and all the corridors those basswood created, I have more deer and grouse on my property than anywhere else I have walked in the local area. They really congregate back there. Hope this helps👍

[Skeans1]

I'm not a forester typically a stand that is managed for health will also bring the critters, case and point working in a stand right now commercial thinning we'll have deer ect in right after we move to the next block down the road browsing the slash. Personally I'm of the mind set manage a stand to a healthy profitable stand and you'll have the critters, what I don't agree with is managing stands for wildlife we have done this type of work and it normally takes a productive stand and the finally product is something that's just the opposite.

[wannaergo]

Where in the UP is your land?  We have done some Aspen clear cuts and have seen grouse all over in those areas 3 years later

[SwampDonkey]

The grouse do want mature aspen, as they do birch. Why? Food in those flower buds during winter. In my back yard I planted a lot of yellow birch. They are now producing seed after 18 years. Guess what? ;)

Three Grouse March 19, 2019 - YouTube

Walking under the cover of mature white spruce.

There is a mature yellow birch a few feet away. No seeds in the winter, but flower buds and catkins galore.

But you need the thick young hardwoods to for them to raise chicks. They can easily hide from predators in the thick patches.

And they love white cedar, I have flushed a good many from cedars in winter.
High-bush cranberry, encourage it to flourish. Deer love them to. I get a chuckle when I think of them crazy deer climbing up on a rock, the size of a car in the front yard to reach them tart cranberries. Or look out the window and one standing tippy toed to reach them. Gotta love it.  :D

Feeding on overwintering birch catkins

[Clark]

You've been given good advice and I'll just a little of my own. 

One thing to consider is the age of any aspen on neighboring properties. If there is young (>5 years) aspen nearby I would delay cutting your property. Grouse need a variety of ages of aspen, not just the young stuff. Delaying your cut will ensure that those different age (really, structural) classes of aspen persist into the future. 

The other thing is that the grouse hunting community (which includes me) tends to focus on what grouse need during the growing season and what they flock to in the fall and early winter. However, if they don't survive the winter then nest success the following spring will be low for that bird! Conifers can be key for winter roosting habitat, especially in low snow years. Granted, you're in the UP so there is probably always enough snow. Even during the shoulder seasons conifers provide warmth and protection from birds of prey. Maintaining or increasing conifer cover, especially if there isn't any nearby, should always be considered when creating grouse habitat.

Clark

[Ron Scott]

Where is your 20 acres located in the eastern UP? I've worked much of that area with the USFS during the early 1960's from Sault St. Marie to St. Ignace.

Landowner's Guide: Ruffed Grouse

[SwampDonkey]

Yep, up here the goshawks get them up until early winter. One winter I seen one catch a grouse by the road and seen where one got another the same winter off a woods trail. I seen the first one in his talons up a fir tree, not when he swooped down on him. And as I was walking along by that one that was just caught, another grouse flushed out.

[Mikeisme09]

My camp is in the eastern UP. Between the Soo and St Ignace, Drummond Island and Seney, lol.

After reading these responses, and looking at the literature that Ron sent, I think I get it a little better. I've actually downed grouse in all kinds of flora. Truthfully, most of them have been in the ratty, nasty deep bush next to rivers and swamps. Hawthorns obviously. I just realized this spring that my property is peppered with serviceberry trees as well. I never knew. They flowered in May, and I finally got enough curiosity to look them up. Supposedly, the birds love them as well. The fruiting period is so slim (Hence "Juneberry") I guess I've never saw them picking from them.

But having said that; I guess I've never saw one of those big gnarly, young aspen stands you see on the cover of RGS Magazines, etc. I know where the aspens are, including on my own property and surrounding, but they are usually all grown up. I see catkins hanging off them sometimes, and I have spied grouse and woodcock on the branches.

Think I'll clear out an acre of it, and see what happens. Hopefully, I'll see it all come up nice and dense, and have figured out the answer myself.

Thanks.

[Ed_K]

 When you get it cut, cut it irregular not squared up you'll come out better for it.