Sage grouse numbers are WAY down in so. Idaho. They keep a season going with a 1 bird limit. I think they would close it but that would tell the feds that they need to be put on the endangered species list. Doing that would have serious repercussions in many areas from big game hunting, cattle grazing, and recreational land use.
I don't know any hunters who bother going after them any more. I haven't hunted them in years.
Mining has been hell on the sagehen here in NV, but it can literally get you killed if you are in any official capacity and tell the truth. Wilderness study designations here have closed me out of some of my old haunts, but they go a long way in keeping the sagehen populations from vanishing. Answers aren't easy. West Nile is clobbering them, too.
