A visit with Lou

[Mike of the Mountain]

I know in our region of PA grouse numbers are effected by various factors, forest age/habitat type, predation, nesting season weather patterns and WNV just to name a few. In PA less than 10% of the forested acres are under 15 years old, the rest is mature/closed canopy forest which leads to a sterile environment on the forest floor. We have more predators now than even 20-30 years ago. We never had coyote and fisher. Bobcat populations are way up. I have bobcat on every trail cam here and I run 24-25 cams all year. Add in birds of prey and egg eating snakes and they all add up. Our spring weather over the past 10ish years has been wet. That is not conducive to chick survival. WNV has been proven to have high mortality rates within grouse populations in PA. If elevations are under 1200' the rate of infection is high due to the species of mosquito that transmits the WNV. They do not do well in higher elevations. Our PGC is addressing the problem. Lisa Williams is the head biologist for the grouse program. Se is very good at what she does, I trust her and have a working relationship with her. They did find flushing numbers were up over 20% in our region last season so there is hope.