Sage grouse hunters have been singled out this year to answer a Game and Fish Department survey about their 2022 hunting experience. 

Traditionally, the hunters are surveyed in the spring along with small game and upland gamebird hunters. In order to get better and more timely information, the department decided to separate the surveys and question sage grouse hunters immediately after the September hunting season ended, said Nyssa Whitford, Game and Fish sage grouse/sagebrush biologist.

“Hopefully their experience will be fresh in their mind,” she said.

For most of the state, including Park County, the season was Sept. 17-30, with a limit of two grouse daily and a total of four in possession.

Sage grouse surveys and lek counts by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department show the population is holding steady, with a slight increase over 2021. According to data from department lek counts this past spring, attendance was up just over 6% from last year. 

Higher attendance at leks is thought to be due to the natural population cycles of sage grouse combined with good moisture that benefits habitat, the department said in a recent press release. Annual counts carried out by Game and Fish, Bureau of Land Management and volunteers this past spring counted an average of 17.9 male sage grouse per active lek. 

Higher moisture in the spring was a “welcome boost” to the species and their habitat, the department said.

Active leks remained steady at 75.6%. Data on sage grouse lek attendance goes back nearly six decades charting the cyclical nature of the birds population. 

“Sage grouse populations rise and fall. Studies indicate Wyoming’s population cycles every six to eight years,” said Ray Hageman, a department spokesperson.

The U.S. Geological Survey, the federal government’s scientific division, reported national analysis shows that the losses aren’t evenly distributed across the West. Western Wyoming is fairing better than much of the habitat in 11 western states.

The agency reports greater sage-grouse populations have declined significantly over the last six decades, with an 80% rangewide decline since 1965 and a nearly 40% decline since 2002. 

“Although the overall trend clearly shows continued population declines over the entire range of the species, rates of change vary regionally,” the agency reported in a recent study.

Game and Fish announced nearly $550,000 in program funding is available this year to support projects benefiting sage grouse and their habitats. 

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission expects to allocate $548,000 to support eight local Sage Grouse Working Groups to fund projects and address the primary threats to sage grouse as identified in their local conservation plans. Proposed projects will be evaluated based on consistency with Wyoming’s Core Area management strategy, local sage grouse conservation plan, likelihood of success, project readiness, matching funds, multiple species benefits, significance at local/state/regional level, duration of benefits and adequacy of monitoring, the department reported Tuesday.

Examples of previous projects funding by the department include habitat restoration using beaver dam analogs and zeedyk structures, fence conversion and marking, escape ramps on stock tanks, conifer removal and lek searches using infrared technology.