I was recently on a a fellow forum memeber's blog, dogsanddoubles.com.
He posted about a how land management practices in New England have decimated a once thriving grouse and pheasant population. Old farmland and pastures once provided for some of the finest pheasant hunting in the country. Once the fields went fallow, young trees tooks over and grouse thrived. But now those scrubs have turned into mature forest so thick they are void of quality upland bird habitat.
Here is the proof in the pudding. This is a valley somewhere is Massachusetts.
In my part of the country (Southeast Alabama), you'll find a similar problem. We also have another big problem... and that's the loss of native, fire-maintained pineywoods. These woods provided excellent habitat for bobwhites but due to increased commodity prices, many acres of pinewoods are being cut, cleared, and converted to irrigated agricultural land.
I experienced this a couple seasons ago when we lost our quail lease when the landowner decided to covert the property to farmland.
It started as this.
After clear cutting and stump removal.
Now in peanut production.
No wonder why the Eastern United States have seen such declines in bird numbers.
Adam
