Aspen Info- if grouse are part of your wildlife goals, you should know the following: Aspen (both quaking and big-toothed) are either male or female (unlike most other trees) Both are short lived, fast growing trees. What you see as a grove of aspen are usually one or more clones. Clones are individual trees that have a extensive root system and many individual above ground stems. If you look carefully, you can often see the larger "mother" tree with varying ages of younger stems surrounding it. Young dense stands make good drumming cover and also good cover/feeding areas for broods. But even more important, at least up here in NY and through out the northern states, is the important role that aspen have as winter survival food. The male aspen trees have very nutritious flower buds. They are easily identified by their coarse, fat apperance in winter. These are the trees you have probably noticed grouse "budding" (feeding) on during the winter months. So when selecting clones to cut, it is better to leave the male clones. Also, when cutting aspen, it is usually better to cut the entire clone. This keeps disease from spreading within the remaining stems. Once a clone is cut, the root system will send up tons of sprouts, which will gradually become your next crop of aspen.
you should be able to find pictures of male vs. female buds on line.
And yes, a lot of folks refer to the aspens as poplars. It is actually correct, as the genus name is Populus and many others in this genus are referred to as poplars. The other species referred to as poplar is Yellowpoplar, or Tuliptree which is in another genus.