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Tackling Ruffed Grouse Habitat in Southern Appalachia

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Checking in on Southern Appalachia’s Grouse Habitat Projects

Steeped in history and rich with grouse hunting culture, the Southern Appalachian Mountains have long been associated with ruffed grouse habitat. Landowners and hunters in this area may fondly recall hunting ruffed grouse in the area many years ago, but have noticed their growing absence and watched prime grouse habitat disappear. This has spurred a real sense of urgency for Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society (RGS & AWS) and its members in this region. In this article, we caught up with Nick Biemiller, Forest Conservation Director for the Southern Appalachian region (GA, KY, NC, SC, TN, and VA) to discuss what’s going on in this neck of the grouse woods.

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West Virginia Ruffed Grouse Season Changes: Opportunity for Input

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The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR) is seeking input on potential ruffed grouse season changes that could begin with the 2021-2022 season. There is little information available now to assess the proposals, but there are opportunities for providing public input. Ruffed Grouse Society (RGS) staff are in contact with West Virginia DNR personnel and will provide our members with additional information as this develops.
 
Questionnaire and Written Comments
 
Input on these potential changes and a variety of other hunting, trapping, and fishing regulations may be provided through a questionnaire or submission of written comments by April 3, 2020. Instructions and forms for submitting the questionnaire and comments are available HERE. The bottom of page 6 contains questions regarding the ruffed grouse season.
 
Public Meetings
 
Public meetings will also be held March 16 and 17, 6:00-8:00 pm, at the locations noted below. Since little additional information has been made available at this time, we encourage members and supporters to attend the nearest meeting location and voice your concerns regarding:
– Additional information that would support each option for regulation changes
– The need for habitat creation and enhancement to more comprehensively benefit ruffed grouse 

Monday, March 16, 2020, 6:00-8:00 PM
– Fairmont – East Fairmont High School (Commons Area) *RGS Regional Biologist Linda Ordiway will attend
– Martinsburg – Martinsburg Holiday Inn (Route 81, Exit 13)
– Summersville – Nicholas County High School
– Milton – West Virginia Pumpkin Park (Office Building)
– Spencer – Heritage community Building
– Princeton – Chuck Methena Center (Stafford Commons)

Tuesday, March 17, 2020, 6:00-8:00 PM
– Glen Dale – John Marshall High School (Commons)
– Moorefield – South Branch Inn (Route 220)
– Fayetteville – New River Gorge Canyon Rim Visitors Center
– Logan – Chief Logan State Park Conference Center
– Parkersburg – Lubeck Volunteer Fire Department (Route 68 South)

2020-2021 WV Ruffed Grouse Season Questionnaire

WHY WE HUNT, Member Drew Phipps

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” . . . it is disturbing to me that there are so few grouse left in the woods here. I often wonder if I will be the last person to walk some of the coverts I hunt. I wonder how many before me have had the same thought? I take hope in the fact that there are still a few folks with dogs fighting the laurel and would like to see more of those people in the future.”

Phipps 3

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I was asked by a friend a few weeks ago if I enjoyed failure. This was shortly after I recounted the highlights of last year’s West Virginia grouse season. I laughed it off at the time, but it does make me wonder, after a season of several hundred miles of walking and no birds taken . . .  was it worth it? My answer now and I hope always is: absolutely. The reason I hunt grouse has nothing to do with birds in hand. I hunt grouse because I’m an adrenaline junkie. I have yet to find a sensation that can match the electric moment just before a flush. The moment when dog, man and bird are all awaiting the same release.

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2016 RGS GROUSE CAMP TOUR – North Carolina & Georgia

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North Carolina/Georgia

RGS chapters are striving to ensure national forests are properly managed in the Southern Appalachian Region to preserve our grouse hunting traditions for future generations.

The famed conservationist Aldo Leopold once said, “We shall never achieve harmony with the land, anymore than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations the important thing is not to achieve but to strive.” The word “strive”, being the operative, is exactly what RGS chapter volunteers are doing in North Carolina and Georgia to ensure our public lands, namely national forests, are being properly managed for wildlife.

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2016 RGS GROUSE CAMP TOUR – Monterey, Virginia

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RGS 2016 GROUSE CAMP TOUR – Monterey, Virginia

The Birthplace of the Ruffed Grouse Society

Walking down the short main street of Monterey, Virginia, a small mountain town in the northwestern part of the state, it would be difficult to assume that North America’s leading forest wildlife conservation organization was started there way back in 1961, but it was . . . welcome to the birthplace of the Ruffed Grouse Society.

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