MoHuntress
SMO Owner, SMO Pro Staff
Posts: 7394
Registered: 1-2-2006
Location: In The Woods, Franklin County, MO
 Missouri
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Emergency closure of hunting season not the end of Missouri's ruffed grouse story
From The MDC blog stream on Facebook....
Published on: Sep. 6, 2010
Posted by Jim Low
JEFFERSON CITY–Missouri will not have a ruffed grouse hunting season this year for the first time in more than 25 years. However, the Missouri
Department of Conservation says that does not necessarily mean ruffed-grouse hunting is gone from the Show-Me State forever.
Acting on a recommendation from its staff, the Conservation Commission voted earlier this year for an emergency closure of the grouse season, which
was to run from Oct. 15 through Jan. 15. Low grouse population numbers were cited as the reason for the emergency closure. The action supersedes
information printed in the 2010 Summary of Hunting and Trapping Regulations, which were printed before the decision to close grouse season.
Ruffed grouse are native to Missouri, although the Show-Me State is near the southwestern edge of the species’ historic range. Habitat destruction and
unregulated market hunting largely eliminated them from Missouri forests by the 1930s.
The Conservation Department launched a successful ruffed-grouse restoration program in 1959, and Missouri had its first modern hunting season in 1983.
Earlier this year, the agency’s Regulations Committee recommended closing the season. This was partly because grouse numbers remain low in spite of
repeated attempts to reintroduce grouse in areas with suitable habitat as late as 1994. Closing the season also made sense because the Conservation
Department and the Ruffed Grouse Society are seeking a source of grouse to resume reintroduction work.
“It didn’t make sense to have people hunting grouse if we were going to be bringing them in from other states to try to build the population,” said
Wildlife Division Chief DeeCee Darrow. “Our grouse numbers are so low right now that very few hunters pursue them, and very few are taken each year.
This is probably a good time to pause and regroup.”
Ruffed grouse are ground-nesting birds closely related to quail. They are much larger, however, with adults averaging more than a pound compared to
five or six ounces for adult bobwhite quail. Bobwhites favor habitat with large amounts of pasture, row crops and other open land interspersed with
shrubby cover. In contrast, ruffed grouse are adapted to a patchwork of forest and the dense vegetation that develops on land where timber harvests
have occurred.
-Jim Low-
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Jeremy
Forum Moderator, SMO Pro Staff, Youth Event Coordinator
Posts: 3670
Registered: 12-20-2006
Location: Gaconade County
Member Is Offline
Mood: ALMOST BOW SEASON!!!!!
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i've never seena grouse on our place in the 13 years we've been out here
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll sit on a boat and drink beer for days on end
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AMBRECK1184
Spike
Posts: 217
Registered: 2-1-2010
Location: St. Louis
Missouri
Member Is Offline
Mood: Ready For Fall 
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Sounds a little too late then 
I thank God for my life
And for the stars and stripes
May freedom forever fly, let it ring.
Salute the ones who died
The ones that give their lives so we don`t have to sacrifice
All the things we love
Like our chicken fried
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derail_75
8pt Buck
Posts: 741
Registered: 1-17-2007
Member Is Offline
Mood: whether u like it or not we will be judge in the end we don't get to choose
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i dont even know what they look like (or i thank i dont )
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Jeremy
Forum Moderator, SMO Pro Staff, Youth Event Coordinator
Posts: 3670
Registered: 12-20-2006
Location: Gaconade County
Member Is Offline
Mood: ALMOST BOW SEASON!!!!!
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Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll sit on a boat and drink beer for days on end
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