The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) recently awarded a grant to implement the Upper Great Lakes Woodcock and Young Forest Initiative. The grant, awarded to the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI), will be administered through the FWS's Webless Migratory Game Bird Program. It provides start-up funding to get the initiative infrastructure assembled and habitat work underway. The initiative itself is aimed at restoring populations of woodcock and other species that depend on early successional forest habitat in the Upper Great Lakes region.

To get the initiative underway, WMI has been working with a number of partner agencies and organizations, including FWS, U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for each of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, the Ruffed Grouse Society, the Golden-winged Warbler Working Group, and Woodcock Minnesota, to get the initiative underway. The effort is modeled on the Northern Forest Woodcock Initiative (NFWI), which currently is underway in the New England states. Last April, the NFWI was recognized for its accomplishments with the Cooperative Conservation Award from the Secretary of the Interior (see April 2008 article).

The approach for both the NFWI and this initiative is based on strategies starting with development of a set of best management practices (BMPs). The BMPs will guide habitat-management efforts on designated public and private lands. These sites will serve to demonstrate how lands can be managed best for young forest wildlife habitat in the region. Woodcock and, in the case of the initiative, other species of young forest dependent birds, are monitored before and after the habitat is altered, to measure the effectiveness of the BMPs and to show the changes in bird populations as a result of the habitat changes.

Case histories will be maintained for each demonstration site and used to gain support for expansion of the initiative to surrounding lands. A communications strategy is being developed to help guide outreach efforts.

As part of the FWS's State Wildlife Grant Program, the DNRs of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin have developed lists of species of greatest conservation need for their respective states. More than 40 species found on the lists for these three states are expected to benefit from the initiative's efforts.

A third, similar project ? the Appalachian Mountain Woodcock Initiative ? began this past spring in parts of Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. More information on these projects, along with a copy of the recently finalized American Woodcock Conservation Plan, can be found at Timberdoodle.org. (pmr)