BILL: I just finished reading your grouse column (last week’s Cochran Column). A good friend and I were just talking about how the sound of a grouse drumming was a lost enjoyment these days. Almost as sad as not hearing a Bobwhite in the spring anymore. Sad to say it’s a great part of the hunting heritage that my grandson will never know.

BILL: Excellent article! Grouse hunting here in Wet Virginia is the same as what you are finding in Virginia.

We do have a slight glimmer of hope. The National Wild Turkey Federation has been working with the Forest Service on stewardship agreements. The first here in West Virginia will be on Middle Mountain in Pocahontas County. This is a thinning and prescribed burn project.

If you are not familiar with the stewardship agreement, the NWTF is the timber contractor. They buy the timber sale. The money from the sale all goes back into the forest in the way of habitat work.

The other good news, the NWTF hired Patrick “Cully” McCurdy as its West Virginia regional biologist. Cully is a go-getter and has a good working relationship with the Forest Service.

The stewardship program has had great success in Florida and other states. The preservationist groups don’t know what to do with it because the sales are non-commercial and all the cutting is for habitat.

I know this is small in comparison to what is needed, but it is a start.

BILL:

I want you to know how much this aging (60) Pennsylvania grouse hunter appreciated your article. Although grouse numbers were up slightly this year, our population has been down -- drastically -- for nearly 10 years.

Back about the time our grouse population begin plummeting, I wrote an article wherein I tried to explain the need for, and the animus towards, successional forest management.

Like you, I’m not ready to put the shotgun and chaps away, but in an effort not to shoot the last bird in a cover I have taken to walking around with an empty gun until I’ve flushed two separate birds. Please do not breathe a word of this to my Weimaraners. I’ve spent a lot of time over the last 10 years walking around with an empty gun.

Thank you for an interesting and informative article. May you always have one more bird to look forward to.

BILL:

Enjoyed your piece about grouse hunting. I lost 10 weeks to snow -- worst year ever for me here by multiples. Bird numbers weren’t bad when I could get out. Shooting eye went south on me in Maine and continued here. Took four grouse and three woodcock down here (W.Va.). Oh well, next year!

BILL:

Your (Cochran Column, March 4) article was, as usual, factual and well written. I would like to add some other pertinent facts that support the concept that there is no breeding cougar population in Virginia.

1. The Florida panther population is estimated at just over 100, yet there were 17 documented road kills in 2009 alone. Where are the road kills in Virginia?

2. Smithsonian Institution has conducted a predator camera survey along the Appalachian Trail in Virginia for the past three years with about 100 cameras for 6 to 7 months of the year. None of these cameras captured a photo of a cougar.

3. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to find evidence in its organized and funded efforts dating back to the 1970s.

4. I recorded 707 reported sightings up until March, 2008 in Virginia, one of them being my own, but none of these produced any usable, verifiable or scientific evidence. I can relate firsthand how it feels to be doubted, but for he sake of efficiency I now only offer to investigate photos, tracks or a cache where a trail camera could be set.

No matter how much we want or wish we had a cougar population, after decades of sightings that produced no evidence there comes a time to say, “Enough is enough.” To continue to pin hopes that there is a breeding population escaping discovery is nonproductive. Even if there were a remnant population, it is obvious that it would have to be a most fragile existence.

Any hope for a future population of cougars to inhabit the Eastern U.S., the focus has to be turned to preservation of habitat, reintroduction and protection. Public attitudes will determine the path. The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries did a magnificent job with bear management and educating the public. Thirty years ago the public would not have tolerated the present bear population. The same could be done for cougars.

BILL: I am getting the feeling that I may take the permanent dirt nap before I get to see one of these mountain lions. Everyone and their dog seems to be seeing them, but not me. I feel a bit jilted. On a very positive note, it is almost ramp season.