The Woodcock Management Plan
The Nulhegan Basin Division of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge (usually referred to simply as “the Nulhegan”) is in Essex County in northeastern Vermont. The Nulhegan encompasses 26,000 acres (about 40 square miles) of mainly forested land formerly owned by Champion International, a large wood-products company. The forest type is northern hardwoods, dominated by beech, birch, and maple. The area has been logged several times during the past century.
In 1807 the state of New Hampshire deeded 27,000 acres (about 46 square miles) of wilderness woodland to Dartmouth College. The Second College Grant is in Coos County in northern New Hampshire about 100 miles north of the Dartmouth campus.
The Lyme Timber Company of Hanover, N.H., owns and manages The Lyme Adirondack Forest Company, comprising 22 tracts totaling 276,000 acres inside Adirondack Park in northern New York. The Adirondack Park includes more that 6 million acres, with 2.7 million acres owned by the state of New York and more than 3 million acres in private ownership. Lyme Adirondack is the largest private landholder in the Park. The company harvests forest products on a sustainable basis while conserving soil, water, and wildlife resources.
Cobscook Bay Wildlife Management Area consists of 10 separate parcels of land along Cobscook Bay in Washington County, in eastern Maine near the Bay of Fundy. Nearly 2,000 acres are protected here, including tidal shoreline, freshwater wetlands, and upland. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) administers the area. Upland habitats include a mix of woods and old farmland that was abandoned around the 1950s. Aspen, alder, birch, and other short-lived, light-loving trees and shrubs have invaded the fields, and many of the former farms’ apple trees remain. MDIFW maintains the old roads and lanes to provide access for management activities, and hiking trails pass through the area.
The Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge hosts the largest and longest-lived research program into the biology, population dynamics, and habitat needs of the American woodcock.
The refuge is near Calais in Washington County, eastern Maine. Waterfowl, wading birds, shorebirds, songbirds, and raptors breed on the refuge and rest and feed there during spring and fall migrations. The land includes hills, streams, lakes, bogs, and old farmland and blueberry fields. Aspen, maple, birch, white pine, spruce, and fir dominate the uplands. The refuge has two divisions: the Baring (the refuge headquarters is located here); and the Edmunds, about 15 miles farther south. Together, the two divisions total 28,900 acres.
The 664-acre Poland Brook Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is in western Massachusetts in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains. It is primarily in the town of Conway, Franklin County. People hike, fish, bird, and hunt on the WMA, which is owned and managed by the Massachusetts Division of Wildlife (MassWildlife).
The Norris Lot is in Huntington, Massachusetts, in Hampshire County, in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains. The 14.5-acre parcel belongs to Cowls Sawmill and Land Company of North Amherst, Massachusetts. The Norris Lot includes pastures and small woodlots abandoned from one to four decades ago.
The Green Mountain Audubon Center is in Chittenden County in western Vermont, south of the town of Richmond. The 255-acre property includes an old farmhouse now used as an office and visitors’ center. In the 1940s the site was a working farm, but since then, many of the fields have grown up to become mature forest stocked with northern hardwoods, white pine, and hemlock. Habitats on the property include wetlands, active beaver ponds, and brushy fields.
This two-mile-long, 700-acre island sits in the estuary of the Indian River east of Pleasant Bay in Down East Maine. Tidal flats surrounding the island are important feeding and resting habitats for shorebirds and waterfowl, including black ducks. Crowley Island was once a fishing and farming community, but most residents abandoned the island during the last century. Over time, trees and shrubs grew in, choking the old fields and orchards. Today ruffed grouse, woodcock, migratory and nesting songbirds, deer, bear, moose, and coyotes live on the island.
This 26,000-acre tract is in the Northern Vermont Piedmont region. People visit Groton State Forest to camp (seven state parks lie within the forest boundary), watch wildlife, hunt, fish, and hike on an extensive trail network.
