# Sage grouse have been fun...now what?



## kingcanada (Sep 19, 2009)

I just read Jim Fuglie's article posted in the "hot topics" section, kind of depressing in its own way. I can add a different take on the situation. While I have only once flushed a sage grouse in North Dakota, I live smack in the middle of their stronghold in Wyoming. The birds come and go with the droughts and West Nile devastated certain parts of the state. This year has been wet and I have experienced some of the best hunting in 20 years lately. When I return home from work, I will have three days left to hunt them with friends before the season closes. Maybe for the final time.
I recently was chatting with one of our biologists and he said that this very well could be the siren's call for sage grouse hunting. Not that we lack birds, our state has a tremendous number of leks (strutting/mating grounds) and one even had over 300 males on it this past spring. This combined with good weather, good bug crops, and the end of the West Nile cycle has produced an impressive brood this year. Biologists and researchers (who setup camp eight miles behind my home each year) are not recommending range wide listing on the Threatened Species List. They are advising the U.S. government to vote the listing down then proceed to do a regional listing where the populations actually warrant such action. But recent decades have shown the feds do not always listen to the experts or the voice of reason. Listing is a disaster. I know. Here in Wyoming we fought long and hard to get our wolves de-listed and now they have been re-listed this week by a federal judge back east, against all reason. Our wolf population is beyond healthy and climbing steadily. Same with the still protected grizzly bears that killed and completely ate a hiker recently. A hunter was severely mauled a week later and we can't shoot grizzlies. Listing is nearly permanent once it occurs.
The oil and gas industry and ranchers will suffer from listing the sage grouse, but will be able to at least function. Hunters will not be even that "fortunate". It is over for us if this happens. The bizarre thing is that our largest natural gas field is now teeming with the birds form the reports I am getting from people who drive through it. Of course the well density is not several per square mile in most places there either. But there are plenty of wells covering a large area and the birds seem to be adapting now.
Three days. Not much time to wrap up a life of hunting sage grouse. Sage grouse started me on this journey as a bird hunter. In my early forties, I am no where near ready to turn my back and walk away. Each time I go out, there is a cherished feeling of satisfaction that is tarnished by a bitter sense of farewell. In the past year I lost my dog of 15 years and my Dad. Amongst other things. Now this? I am tired of letting go. I don't want to let go. I hope common sense prevails and we don't have to. I was not too worried about it until the word came from the "inside". Three days. I shall make the most possible with them. And God willing, next year will be allowed to pursue the monarch of the sage once again. One thing is for sure, sage grouse have been fun. Please enjoy the photos of the hunts.


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## Canuck (Nov 10, 2004)

Thanks for that KingCanada, eh?
Sorry to hear about your black and white dog and your Dad. Been there recently myself.
Like you, I have a new pup that will be making her first ND pheasant hunting trip in late October.
Thanks again for the great photos.

Canuck


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## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

X2. Condolences to you KC. And a well written piece.


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