Valentine

There has been a lack of grouse for the last forty years. It's a tough bird to raise.
Modern man has a hard time. Few birds and tough hunting in a tougher habitat and mountaineous climbs.

First the hunter, whose just about in shape for level climbs. He lasts about twenty years. Some with trained dogs last a little longer.
The non-hunting game personnel work about the same time. Raising grouse and keeping a good deer herd in existence. A tough job on so short a plan.

The timberer who has nothing to do with hunting, but everything to do with grouse survival. And he cuts timber based on how many folks want lumber. Not based on how many grouse wandered a woods.
In the last ten years there's been a recession, cutting the public need for timbered trees. Hunters don't usually wonder about that.

Use to hunt a timber company's land. That ended when the timber company sold their large holdings. They knew what they were doing some 25 years ago. Grew trees for paper; the kind used in newspapers. There are a lot less newspapers today and papers from newspaper companies. The hometown papers lost one of two. And outdoor newspaper writers went from two to zero. Business had something, magically, to do with grouse. And sometimes it takes forty years to watch it.

State game agencies need more money, hunters want it to stay the same. Been awhile since workers at game agencies worked for $100 a week. Hunters are a little edgy on economic figures.

Grouse depend on a lot of different people. And grouse were short forty years ago. No wonder.

Not many of us grouse hunters who hunt with their feet. Feet for climbing. Feet for raising up the absent grouse; no dogs along. Listening for them drumming on an old downed log.