Kane/Bradford, Pa.:  Volunteers with the Ruffed Grouse Society met with Jake Tomlinson, RGS Forest Conservation Coordinator for Pennsylvania, this week to check out growth of previous plantings by the RGS at a reclamation site in McKean County; these plantings started in 2019 and 2020.  “COVID and changes in personnel affected our ability to complete this project, so we set aside today to get back to this project now that we have Jake on board with the RGS,” said John Dzemyan, Habitat Leader within the RGS Volunteers.  “And now that we have Christopher Beaver on our volunteer crew we can make use of his extensive forestry background,” continued John.

“It was a good day to get out and see the progress made so far, and now we’re going to develop a plan to finish the project, hopefully by next spring,” said Jake.  “I was appreciative of the time that John and Christopher took to show me the ropes here,” finished Jake.

The project site is on Collins Pine ownership in McKean County and the reclamation site is from a Seneca Resources drilling site. “Seneca and Collins Pine have been excellent to work with on this demonstration project, and we’re glad we can finally get back to finishing this project,” said Jake.  “We have good survival of winterberry, hazelnut, and blueberries, and we’re going to plan on some inter-plantings and add in some aspen plantings,” finished Jake.