Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 20, 1994                   TAG: 9402210114
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C-13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

OUTDOORS

Most of the hunters were talking about how tough the season had been. If anyone had stuffed his game bag, he was keeping it quiet.

Outdoorsmen who pursue this noble woodland bird are aware that the grouse is known for its population cycles, its Dow-Jones type ups and downs. But in this neck of the woods, there seems to be an endless bust and no boom.

The 1993-94 season failed to bring any improvement. Never mind that there was gobs of food for wildlife. Never mind that turkeys got off a booming hatch. Never mind that deer and bear hunters enjoyed record seasons. Grouse simply were scarce.

At first, hunters hoped it was a matter of being so much food that the birds were scattered. That theory, and others, had worn thin by late season.

These aren't just uneasy days for grouse hunters, but also for wildlife biologists, like Gary Norman, who is in charge of grouse research for the Department of Game and Inland Fishieres.

"It is troublesome to be working with this grouse population," said Norman. "We don't have a good feel for what is going on."

Bill Watts expressed his frustration at a Jefferson National Forest meeting, telling about a large tract of land where he once flushed scores of grouse and now gets up only one bird. At the close of the meeting, another hunter asked Watts where that one bird was located.

It's still too early to determine how poor the season really was. Sportsmen who cooperate in game department research are sending Norman information on the hours they hunted, the birds they flushed and the sex and age of the birds they killed. That will be used to determine both hunting and hatching success.

The previous three seasons hunters have had to push through cover one hour, on the average, for every bird they flushed. Figures for 1993-94 aren't expected to be much different. In fact, some hunters will tell you they would have been happy flying one bird per hour.

The flushing information provided by hunters is about the best grouse research the state has going. There needs to be more, said Norman, who is proposing new research.

Some hunters are saying what really is required is additional grouse habitat, created by timber cutting. Grouse do best in an early successional forest, where there are tangles of wild grapes and herbaceous growth on the forest floor and thickets of hawthorns. That's a pretty good description of a modest clearcut.

There aren't many clearcuts on national forests anymore; in fact, timber cutting of all types is being decreased on the Jefferson and George Washington. That's bad news for grouse hunters because for them a chain saw can be the next best sound in the woods to the thundering wings of a grouse.

Grouse hunters, as well as other hunters, are caught up in the old growth movement, and they are being outmaneuvered by preservationists who preach the no-cut philosophy.

"They like the clean, green look. They like to look through the mountains and see everything the same," said Bill Klein, a regional director of the Ruffed Grouse Society.

Said Jack Wakeland, president of the Virginia Mountains Chapter of the society, "Unless we take a positive stand, we are going to be outnumbered and we aren't going to have our sport anymore."

The chapter will be taking a stand March 25 at its annual fund-raising banquet at the Holiday Inn-Tanglewood. Ticket information is available from Mike Taylor at 345-2634.