Short season plus low bag limits equals most anticipated hunting outing of year

I have been so looking forward to this week. For about the last 10 years I have wanted to head west to hunt a very unusual bird called a sage grouse. 
These are big birds that live in the sage brush country of Wyoming, Montana and other places west. The season is only three days long, and bag limits are very low. 
Like many other open lands species, the sage grouse has been having a hard time over the past 20 years. 
This is primarily due to tons of habitat destruction but also habitat intrusion. Even if the habitat is suitable, energy development and industries like mining result in human activity egressing into their habitats. 
Too much activity, even just vehicle traffic, during the wrong times of the year can affect their reproduction success. Hunting is eliminated in places where numbers are low enough that it can have an impact.
In almost all cases, it allows for the harvest of a portion of the allowable surplus of any particular species. Hunting in a controlled season with set dates and limits has not and does not affect game populations in any measurable way. 
Weather and suitable habitat contribute the vast majority of the outcomes of game reproduction and thus their ability to thrive.
One of the factors that has been identified as a measurable cause of sage grouse mortality is barb wire fences. These birds fly low over the sage and are often killed by flying into a strand of barbed wire. 
The solution to this was discovered to be when ranchers and other wildlife conservationists started hanging a short section of white vinyl siding channel on the wire between the posts. If done in enough places, this would help with mortality caused by human landscape management.
Invasion and encroachment of eastern red cedar trees into sage brush country is also a contributing factor in the decline of the sage grouse. 
These challenges are similar with many other grassland bird species. Woody encroachment is negatively affecting the sharp-tail grouse populations in Minnesota, for example. 
I am heading to Gillett, Wyoming, for a three-day sage grouse hunting season. 
The limit is two per day with four in possession, but I intend to harvest exactly one bird. This is the same number the other three members of my hunting party intend to harvest. When we each have one sage grouse, we are relocating to a different part of Wyoming to hunt the more plentiful sharp tail grouse. 
When I spend days afield in other states, I do so with the understanding that we may very well be only mildly successful. Once in a while they can be a complete bust. 
A severe, completely un-forecast weather change last January made my quail hunt to Kansas a four-day, 50 mph wind quail-less adventure. 
When you hear stories about guys or gals breaking new ground in a new state with fabulous results, most of those reporters are using lots of editorial exaggeration. 
We have hit a few home runs on these new spaces investigations, but they are few and far between.
I go because it allows me to see and appreciate the beautiful landscapes of other states and get a better understanding of the special habitat types that exist there. I can have as much fun with a camera and a spotting scope as I can with a gun. My dogs would not say the same.
I spent a few days last year just south of the Badlands National Park, and there was a rugged beauty there I had never experienced. Hunting birds with the Badlands in the distance was just breathtaking. 
Very few other hunters – and the middle of the day when temperatures were too hot for the dog – meant sitting under some giant trees with a breeze and good friends. 
I manage to find the locals’ favorite steakhouse and go out of my way to greet and visit with local ranchers who know where all of the birds are hanging out. 
Maybe it’s my age but killing lots of anything no longer really makes any difference to me. I am 60 years old and in pretty good health.  I just hope, as do my dogs, that I will be able to experience some more unique places and even shoot a bird or two if I am lucky.
 
Scott Rall, Worthington, is a habitat conservationist, avid hunting and fishing enthusiast and is president of Nobles County Pheasants Forever. He can be reached at scottarall@gmail.com. or on Twitter @habitat champion.