Pennsylvania Game News - April 2022 - 32

N
O PAIN, NO GAIN is a mantra
easier said than lived. It calls for
mixing a bit of suffering with
a dash of faith, in hopes of creating a
greater future.
Those who manage Pennsylvania's
ruffed grouse and those who pursue them
understand that. They're sweating out
some tough times right now in anticipation
of bringing about better days later.
Four years ago, going into the fall of
2018-19, the state's grouse populations
cratered. Lisa Williams, now chief of the
Game Commission's Wildlife Diversity
Division, but then its grouse biologist,
said the statewide flush rate - a measure of
grouse abundance based on birds jumped
per hunter per hour - started falling in
2000. It hit rock bottom in 2018 with an
all-time record low of 0.68 flushes per
hour.
For perspective, that's about 50 percent
below the 50-plus-year average of nearly
1.4 flushes per hour.
That wasn't just a Keystone State phenomenon.
Ken Duren, the Game Commission's
Game Bird Section Supervisor,
said grouse populations all across the
eastern United States declined by at least
50 percent over the last 20 years.
Clearly, something had to be done.
At Williams' suggestion, the Game
Commission eliminated the post-Christmas
grouse season for 2018-19. She
reasoned that eliminating hunting for
those birds - survivors of the fall, typically
older and likely to be the most successful
breeders come spring - could boost
grouse populations.
That late season has been closed ever
since.
That's the pain. But here's the gain.
While grouse populations aren't
yet where anyone wants them, there is
perhaps - just perhaps - some evidence
32
they're rebounding at least a bit.
The statewide grouse flush rate climbed
to 0.75 birds per hour in 2019. It hit 0.90
in 2020, the latest year for which figures
are available. That's a 30 percent increase
in flushes from 2018 to 2019, followed by
a 20 percent increase from 2019 to 2020.
Certain areas of the state are driving
that revival.
" The Northcentral Region continues
to be the grouse stronghold in Pennsylvania, "
Duren said. " Flush rates in the
Northcentral were almost double the flush
rates in other regions. "
Hunters jumped 1.28 grouse per hour
in the Northcentral Region in 2020, compared
to 0.67 in the Northeast, 0.64 in the
Southwest, 0.63 in the Northwest, 0.60 in
the Southeast and 0.39 in the Southcentral.
Duren said hunters looking to find
the best grouse hunting - and plenty of
hunting opportunity still exists in early
seasons - should focus on the Wildlife
Management Units (WMUs) that make
up the northern grouse management zone:
WMUs 1B, 2F, 2H, 2G, 3A, 3B and 3C.
AWARENESS & WORK
If there remains a long way to go to
return grouse to the heights they once
occupied in Pennsylvania and elsewhere,
at least the problems facing the birds
- habitat loss accelerated by disease,
specifically West Nile virus - are known.
That opens the door to crafting solutions.
Williams was among the first, if not
the first, in the nation to identify the correlation
between high prevalence of West
Nile and plummeting grouse populations.
In short, when West Nile is high, grouse
populations sink. When West Nile is low,
grouse rebound.
" We continue to see that trend, " Duren
said. " Our record-low population in 2018
followed an extremely wet year with
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2022

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