Ruffed grouse are an elusive, wild treasure
RHINELANDER - The sun climbed in the eastern sky last Sunday, its brightness undiminished by clouds.
By mid-morning it was high enough to illuminate the edge of a dense popple stand south of Rhinelander.
A splash of yellow leaves accented the mostly green forest block.
For late September, it was looking a lot like August.
But another color jumped into the scene and left no doubt autumn had arrived.
"You're ready to go, I know," said Gary Zimmer of Rhinelander as he readied his dog, Scout, for one of the first hunts of the season.
Scout, an 11-year-old Brittany, had the enthusiasm of a 1-year-old. He burst from his crate, a blaze orange collar highlighting his brown-and-white coat.
Then Zimmer and I donned vests and hats with the same hunter safety hue.
This section of the North Woods was a little bit brighter, at least temporarily.
Zimmer and I quick-stepped into the young forest in Scout's wake.
The stand was dominated by aspen about as thick as broomsticks. Just 10 yards in, the sun was reduced to fleeting slivers of light.
Heavy dew soaked our boots, the deep shade felt like a cave, the popples were dense enough to produce claustrophobia.
In a word, it was perfect.
The habitat was ideal for the object of our quest, the ruffed grouse.
Somewhere ahead, Scout's collar sounded a staccato series of beeps. "He's on point," Zimmer said. We fanned out and stumbled ahead through the cover, hopeful for the first flush of the season.
For Zimmer, me and many others, autumn has truly arrived when the ruffed grouse season is on.
When it comes to Wisconsin upland game bird species, the native ruffie is king.
The Badger State has long been home to some of North America's highest densities and best hunting opportunities for grouse.
Many hunters travel thousands of miles each year for the privilege of hunting grouse in Wisconsin. Those of us who call Wisconsin home can find grouse woods within hours, or in the case of Zimmer and other northern residents, minutes of their abodes.
The Park Falls slogan - "Grouse Hunting Capital of the World" - may sound grandiose, but it has plenty of supporting evidence.
Still, the wild, naturally-reproducing species has received comparatively little attention among the state's game animals.
Seemingly since the beginning of modern game management, the ruffed grouse simply took care of itself.
It was prone to a 10-year population cycle but always rebounded and never had been subject to population-altering diseases or other significant health concerns.
As you may know by now, something likely changed in the last year.
Ruffed grouse showed troubling, unexpected declines in several key indices.
Wisconsin data show hunters expended more effort in 2017 but killed 30% fewer grouse and 2018 spring drumming counts were down 34%.
At the 2017 National Grouse Hunt in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, hunters had the lowest success rate in the 36-year history of the event. The hunt, organized by the Ruffed Grouse Society, is considered the best annual snapshot of the grouse population in the Upper Midwest.
All these declines came after improvements had been reported in 2017 drumming and brood counts and as the species was supposed to be in the growth phase of its traditional 10-year population cycle.
What exactly happened? Should we be worried?
Unfortunately, there's no strong evidence to say. But many people were concerned.
Among them was Mike Riggle of Medford, a veterinarian, hunter and delegate of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress. Riggle knew fellow residents of Taylor County who found dead adult grouse last summer, an extremely rare event.
So after the poor drumming counts were announced this spring, Riggle, representing the congress, expressed his concerns in June to the Natural Resources Board.
After much discussion, the board voted to shorten the hunting season in an effort to reduce hunting-related mortality on the birds.
The final version of the emergency rule was approved Wednesday; the 2018 season will run through Dec. 31 in Zone A, one month shorter than last year.
Opponents felt there wasn't sufficient science to support the change and claimed that hunting-related mortality in grouse is compensatory, not additive. That's the biologists' way of saying birds killed by hunters would have died anyway from other sources.
The bottom line is, there is a lack of science related to all things grouse.
Arguably the last, best Wisconsin grouse study was conducted in the 1980s by University of Wisconsin researchers Donald Rusch, James Holzwart and Robert Small. Their work was published in 1991 in the Journal of Wildlife Management.
They placed transmitters on 381 grouse on public and private lands in central Wisconsin in an effort to assess the birds' survival and causes of mortality.
They found hunting-related morality on grouse was significantly higher on public lands than on private, and in fact "hunting mortality was at least partially, if not completely, additive to natural mortality."
So in the words of these scientists, hunting could negatively impact grouse numbers.
Things have changed since the 1980s, of course, including hunter numbers (down) and behaviors (more use of motorized vehicles).
Would a Wisconsin grouse study find similar results in 2018? No one knows.
Riggle raised a concern about the vulnerability of grouse during the late season as they "bud," or eat, among the branches of leafless shrubs and trees. The birds are easy to spot and shoot in such circumstances.
The Department of Natural Resources held a public hearing and offered an online survey to provide comments to the board.
In the end, the board adopted the Dec. 31 closure, a cautionary move that will slightly reduce hunting pressure on the birds and slightly reduce hunting opportunity for the public.
I applaud both the Wisconsin Conservation Congress for raising their concerns and the NRB for voting to shorten the season.
The reason? It has caused an unprecedented focus on ruffed grouse in Wisconsin.
The discussion in recent months spurred the DNR to agree to do a ruffed grouse management plan, the first in state history. It's scheduled to be completed in January 2020.
In addition, the agency is collaborating with its cohorts in Michigan and Minnesota on a West Nile Virus study on grouse. Five hundred test kits were distributed in Wisconsin in recent weeks, mostly to hunters. It's the first such effort of its kind.
Don't be surprised if a new grouse research project or two gets started in Wisconsin in the near future.
Zimmer, my hunting partner, has been deeply involved in the grouse issue. He is a member of the Natural Resources Board as well as a former biologist with the Ruffed Grouse Society.
No one is more knowledgeable or has a better perspective on the state of grouse in Wisconsin.
"This issue sure got people involved, and that's good," Zimmer said as he gave Scout a drink at mid-morning. "There hasn't been a lot of effort or attention directed at grouse. In the big picture, I'm pleased with the direction things have taken over the last couple months."
We hunted on two parcels near Rhinelander through the morning.
The first point by Scout turned out to be a woodcock, which flushed and spiraled up through aspen tops. I had a narrow window to attempt a shot, but my pellets cleaved a branch and the bird flew away unscathed.
Ten minutes later, another woodcock flushed but was completely obscured by foliage. Our first grouse flush came 30 minutes later. The bird launched itself from the ground and rocketed away to safety in the thick forest.
In all, we hunted three hours in excellent grouse habitat and moved 10 woodcock and two grouse (both singles).
We returned to the truck with no bird in the bag. But we shimmied, limboed and slogged through several miles of the best workout in the outdoors.
And we were treated to the twittering flights of woodcock and thundering flushes of grouse.
Indeed, it was a fine opening chapter to the 2018 Wisconsin upland hunting season. Number of birds killed is never the leading indicator of success in the grouse woods.
It will remain to be seen if our modest grouse encounters will be typical of the 2018 hunting season.
But thanks to the congress, the board and the DNR, we can look forward to increased management attention on the king of our upland birds.