At a meeting in West Virginia's Canaan Valley, the Appalachian Mountain Woodcock Initiative (AMWI) was launched in early April. The objective of AMWI is to halt the decline of American woodcock populations in the Appalachian Mountain region. Meeting participants included representatives from the state wildlife agencies in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Wildlife Management Institute, and several other partners on the effort.

The AMWI is to be accomplished by implementing best management practices to establish high-quality woodcock habitat on public and private lands, by monitoring woodcock population response to habitat-management efforts and by providing extensive outreach to encourage private landowners to manage their lands compatibly with woodcock habitat needs.

The AMWI is to be accomplished by implementing best management practices to establish high-quality woodcock habitat on public and private lands, by monitoring woodcock population response to habitat-management efforts and by providing extensive outreach to encourage private landowners to manage their lands compatibly with woodcock habitat needs.

The AMWI is part of the American Woodcock Conservation Plan, which was prepared by a number of North America's woodcock experts at the request and under the guidance of the USFWS and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. The plan is organized by bird conservation regions (BCRs). It provides habitat and population objectives for each BCR in the range of woodcock. The AMWI targets the northern portion of BCR 28, the Appalachian Mountain Bird Conservation Region.

Loss of young forest and shrubland habitats has been documented as the primary cause of woodcock decline. U.S. Forest Service timber inventory data show that more than 2 million acres of these habitat types have been lost since the early 1970s in the portion of BCR 28 that falls within the five states mentioned above. Not surprisingly, woodcock populations in that region also have shown dramatic declines. The USFWS has been monitoring the populations annually, with a singing male survey conducted each spring since 1966. The survey indicates that the number of singing males in the area targeted by the AMWI declined by 48 percent between 1970 and 2005.

The loss of young forest habitat also has affected many other species. State wildlife action plans for the five state regions list more than 80 species of "greatest conservation need" that require young forest and shrubland habitats.

The AMWI is the second in a series of initiatives to implement the American Woodcock Conservation Plan. The first, the Northern Forest Woodcock Initiative, was implemented in Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York in BCR 14, the Atlantic Northern
Forest Bird Conservation Region, which just received the 2008 Cooperative Conservation Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior (see Woodcock Initiative and Its Partners Honored). Initial discussions are just getting underway for a third woodcock-early forest habitat initiative in BCRs 12 and 23, in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin.

A Website has been established to assist with outreach and to provide more information on these initiatives and about the American woodcock in general. It can be accessed at http://www.timberdoodle.org. (pmr)