Sage-grouse Season Opens with Fewer Hunters

The number of hunters on the opening weekend of sage-grouse season was down this year, as was the number of birds harvested. The 2011 sage-grouse hunting season runs through October 7. Numbers in 2011 represent a significant downward trend in sage-grouse hunter participation. Statewide 615 hunters checked 277 birds in 2011, compared to 873 hunters and 448 birds in 2010. Compared to the previous five-year average of 1,282 hunters, hunter numbers were down 52 percent. Similarly the number of birds checked opening weekend was down 65 percent from the five-year average of 799 birds. At nine check stations, targeting sage-grouse hunters throughout southern Idaho, Fish and Game personnel queried hunters on their success, number of hours hunted, and numbers of birds seen. They also collected one wing from each bird checked, which provides important information on annual productivity. The sage-grouse hunting season has typically opened the third weekend of September. But this year the opening day for sage-grouse, chukar, gray partridge and quail was moved to October 1. Sharp-tailed grouse and waterfowl also opened on October 1, giving game bird hunters a lot more choices in 2011. For the past two years, the sage-grouse season was limited to seven days statewide, with a one-bird daily limit. Hunters who came through check stations were generally disappointed in the one-bird limit, particularly in the Upper Snake and the Owyhees, where hunters saw good numbers of sage-grouse in some areas. Some hunters may be choosing not to hunt sage-grouse because they are a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act. But sage-grouse populations are stable throughout southern Idaho. Idaho Fish and Game monitors sage-grouse on their breeding grounds, or leks. This spring biologists and volunteers counted 978 leks; 456 of these are on 75 standardized lek routes. Those numbers are similar to what they were in the late 1990s.