Thursday, October 09, 2008
Grouse hunting in steady decline
Bill Cochran
Recent mail
BILL: I stumble across your writings on the Internet from time to time. I recently read your column from 2006 concerning a bad outlook for grouse season. Will the same hold true this year?
I am a Marine, stationed in Quantico, and an avid waterfowl hunter, interested in trying my hand at some grouse. Are there any areas that you would recommend? Who can I talk with, to learn more about grouse hunting? I am an avid and proficient fly fisherman, having once worked and guided for the Orvis company before I joined the Corps. I would be more than happy to trade some personally tied flies and guided time on the water for a day chasing a few grouse with a willing local
RAY PENNY
RAY: First, thanks for your service to our country. Secondly, I wish I had some good news to report on grouse and grouse hunting. Truth is, the grouse population has been in steady decline. The breeding population has been dropping just over 2.5-percent per year the past 15 years.
Last season, hunters involved in a grouse survey for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries reported flushing 0.69 grouse per hour of hunting. That is the lowest figure on record.
Will it be any different this season? I’m guessing it might ease up a bit, because the 2008 spring drumming counts were up slightly, but don’t expect much of a bump.
What you need to do is find woodlands that recently have been timbered. Grouse are a species of early succession habitat. Trouble is, the national forests in Virginia aren’t receiving much cutting these days and there also is a decline in timber harvest on private land because the housing market is down.
More grouse are being killed on private land than public land, but because you are an outsider you may have to hunt national forest. Go to the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests Website and look for maps, then try to pinpoint places where timber has been harvested the past three to six years. A visit to a ranger district should help you.
I know this is vague advice, but it is the best I can do. Hunters who have pockets of grouse available to them on private land don’t do much talking. Maybe one of them will invite a Marine along for a hunt. If anyone is willing to do that, I will pass the information onto you.
BILL
