REGULATION OF THE GROUSE HARVEST 



679 



an individual covert. Nor is it necessary. Many birds of the year do not establish territories 

 until after the hunting season and must be depended upon to fill in the gaps where hunter- 

 take may cut too heavily into the seed stock in individual coverts. This is not impractical 

 for the youngsters will range widely during both the fall and spring shuffles in search of 

 situations to their liking. Furthermore, hunted grouse rapidly become wilder. Under such 

 conditions, the birds of the year may be expected to seek less heavily hunted coverts, thus 

 making, as old grouse hunters know, an excessive harvest unlikely except in the most favor- 

 able situations on small areas. 



An indirect means of regulating the effect of heavy hunting pressure is by insuring an ade- 

 quate seed stock through the medium of well distributed refuges. 



Theoretically, if the grouse on an area were equally distributed and half of the area was 

 in refuges, while hunting was permitted on the other half, then at least .50 per cent of the 

 population would remain after the hunting season. Actually, however, the distribution of 

 birds will seldom be constant enough to make this true. Furthermore, the elimination of 

 hunting on the refuge does not insure that a high mortality of grouse will not occur from 

 other causes. One must also recognize that, even if no grouse were lost from the refuges, it 

 does not follow that the birds on these units would restock the hunted area as desired. Another 

 factor limiting the feasibility of this method is the cost of establishment and patrol. Never- 

 theless, on areas of excessively high hunting pressure where adequate natural protective cover 

 is scarce, refuge units may be established for the benefit of both grouse and other game species. 



Yet one should not forget that regulation of the harvest, like all the other management 

 principles presented in this book, must depend in the final analysis on the skill and under- 

 standing of the one responsible for its planning and supervision. 



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