We’re closing in on the days to join the Division of Natural Resources for an open discussion concerning multiple proposed changes to the 2020-21 hunting, trapping and fishing seasons. The closest one to us here in Morgantown is at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 16, at East Fairmont High School.
Many topics are slated to be discussed: Changes to big game seasons (most notably black bear and antlerless deer), creel limits, year-round coyote hunting with artificial light and more. But what may fly under the radar — quite literally — is the option to change the length of our ruffed grouse season.
Over the last two months, you’ve probably seen me working on a project concerning the issues ruffed grouse face in our state, with the two biggest problems being the loss of habitat and the proliferation of West Nile Virus at lower elevations. But one thing I have yet to hit on (that is set to be talked about in a future installment of my project) is how hunters in areas like Morgantown are potentially adding to the decline.
I recently spoke to Dave Truban, the president or, as he put it the “ring leader,” of the North Central West Virginia chapter of RGS, for my project. At the end of every interview I make sure to ask if I forgot anything, and this time I did miss something as he was quick to point out that hunting is additive in the decline. Not everywhere, and certainly not in the Monongahela National Forest, but rather in areas where populations are tighter like Coopers Rock. He put it like this:
“The grouse study was done [from 1995-2002]… in Adolph and Greenbrier County in commercial timberland, so it should tell you something that for West Virginia to do a grouse study they had to go to private land [because] they didn’t have public land suitable. These are thousands of acres of active management areas where there’s been timber cutting there forever, so you can go to those areas today, look up at the hillside and think, ‘Geesh, where should I hunt?’ Now, take our area here [in Morgantown] on a day in January or February, and on the side of the hill there’s an inch of snow on the ground and one spring seed, and the rest of the ground is bare. If there’s grouse on that hill, that’s where they’re going to be. Any good hunter knows that. So I find one grouse, kill it and don’t go back. But you don’t know that I went up there, so you go up there, jump three of four and think ‘I can kill one and that won’t hurt anything.’ But I think in areas like [Morgantown], these later seasons are bad.”
He also brought up that it’s been pitched before to close the season early, much like Pennsylvania did with its late-season in 2017, to help those smaller pockets of birds. It was the first time that Pennsylvania closed the late season since the 1960s. That closure bled over into the last two seasons and is proposed to stay the same this upcoming year. Since the closure, Pennsylvania has been working to improve early-successional habitat on State Game Land Forests and to this day that remains the main focus.
According to the 2019 Grouse and Woodcock Status Report written by Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Biologist Lisa Williams, the PGC was forced to raise its annual goal of harvesting 8,000 acres to 13,500 acres for restoration purposes after the percentage of young forest was reported at 7% and the percentage of mature forest was shown to be 62%. Though there is a lot to break down with their success in 2018, that’s for another time. This is, after all, a piece about how West Virginians can help our habitat, right?
Correct, and one way is to take a look at that success the PGC has had in certain aspects — they cut over 12,000 acres in 2018 when the 20-year average timber harvest was around 6,000 acres per year! — all while maintaining a shortened season. If you’ve been following along with the work in the National Forest, you know the WVDNR is currently keeping up with its goals for timber harvest and habitat restoration, and right now one important boost could be cutting our lengthy season.
As a hunter, it’s always hard for me to convince myself to shorten a season. However, I know that if the DNR is proposing it, it’s likely that we need to listen — even if I don’t want to give up my already limited time to get out in the woods. I know a lot of people who think the same way. Some of us are so stubborn that we go against our better interests. Except this is the time where we don’t have an option to stay in the same season structure.
Yes, the ESH work in the National Forest has been successful thus far, and, yes, back in the mid-90s-early 2000s maybe hunting wasn’t additive but now we have to take a step back and listen to the experts. If we want our grouse to come back that resembles the 1960s and 70s, we need consider the change that the DNR is proposing. Right now, there are four options: Do nothing, cut time off the end of the season, reduce the time at the beginning of the season or implement a split season model.
I’m in favor of taking time out of the beginning of the season, which starts on the Saturday closest to Oct. 15, or splitting the season in half like Pennsylvania’s system. You may have a different mindset about it, as mine mostly revolves around the simple thought that bow season will be opening in late September, and that’s what I’ll mostly be doing in the fall. Opinions will vary on this, but I hope those conservation-minded hunters around here will attend the meeting and support anything but staying stagnant.
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