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<p>There&#8217;s no shortage of reasons as to why hunting license sales have declined over the last 15 years.</p><p>Two, however, top the list.</p><p>Deer and small game. Or, the lack thereof.</p><p>We all know the argument regarding deer. There aren&#8217;t enough, hunters get disgusted with spending days in the woods without seeing a tail and eventually calling it quits.</p><p>But what about small game?</p><p>I&#8217;ve had plenty of veteran hunters tell me about the glory days of small game hunting, when rabbits and pheasants were bountiful and a limit of either wasn&#8217;t that hard to obtain. While it&#8217;s clear there are far fewer pheasants today, and rabbits may not be as numerous as they once were (although it&#8217;s more of a loss of habitat issue, in my opinion), there are other species to consider.</p><p>Grouse.</p><p>While the efforts to restore rabbits and pheasants are certainly worthwhile, let&#8217;s not forget about grouse and the impact that species can have on the decline in hunting license sales.</p><p>Small game is a offered as a valid reason for the drop in hunting license sales, especially when it comes to recruiting youth into the sport.</p><p>It&#8217;s simple: A day of hunting rabbits or pheasants - where they exist in healthy numbers, offers plenty of action and little downtime. That formula holds a young hunter&#8217;s interest and makes them want to buy a license and do it again next season.</p><p>Grouse can have the same effect.</p><p>As a teenager, I was a die-hard grouse hunter. I didn&#8217;t have a bird dog or an expensive shotgun, but rather a lot of will. With my .20 gauge Winchester Ranger pump, I would comb through the hemlock stands behind my house in the late season flushing grouse from the dark trees.</p><p>I&#8217;d find grouse in thick hollows, pine-covered hilltops and in old pastures lush with elm and birch.</p><p>Yet I rarely shot a single bird.</p><p>For me, grouse hunting was about the adrenaline-boosting thrill of a flushing bird and the bang of my shotgun, even though it was a miss, got me hooked. Sure, hunting fall turkeys in November and deer in December were the main reasons why I became a hunter, but those late season grouse hunts in the January snow sealed the deal.</p><p>Perhaps it was because of the simplicity as much as the fast action that grouse hunting offered. All I needed was my small game vest and a handful of shells and I knew, when I walked into the stand of evergreens, the grouse would be there.</p><p>Today, however, the grouse are gone.</p><p>They didn&#8217;t exactly vanish, but the birds don&#8217;t exist in the numbers they used to years ago.</p><p>Today, when I walk through the evergreens or maneuver through the thick stands of elm, the thunder is gone. Those same places that held numbers of grouse are now silent.</p><p>Why?</p><p>I don&#8217;t believe, at least in these locations, that habitat has anything to do with it. The cover and food are still there.</p><p>The Pennsylvania Game Commission has noticed the decline of grouse. It was reflected in hunter surveys that showed flush rates and harvests both took a significant drop in recent years.</p><p>And it&#8217;s a decrease that has the agency worried about disease - specifically West Nile virus.</p><p>Last spring, the PGC tested the virus&#8217; impact on grouse when they sampled 18 birds. Ten of the grouse were infected with the West Nile virus, five were vaccinated and the other three weren&#8217;t treated. Of the 10 that were infected, four perished within a week and four others were so weakened that they would have little chance of surviving very long in the wild.</p><p>Now, the PGC is doing more work to determine where the virus is seriously impacting grouse and what, if anything can be done.</p><p>For the sake of small game hunting and, more importantly, Pennsylvania&#8217;s state bird, let&#8217;s hope that the study starts to yield some positive answers.</p><p>Our woods have been silent long enough.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Venesky </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_Venesky-1-3.jpg</photo0><caption0>Venesky </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@civitasmedia.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Outdoors with Tom Venesky: Protect this grouse