Wisconsin to hold first sharp-tailed grouse hunting season since 2018

Wisconsin will host a sharp-tailed grouse hunting season this fall, the first since 2018.

The decision to resume a hunt comes after four consecutive years of population increases of the grassland-dependent game bird, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

The department conducts lek, or breeding ground, surveys in spring to assess the species' population. In spring 2025 the DNR recorded 275 male sharpies in the state, a 7% year-over-year increase and highest since 2010.

Only males are counted on the dancing grounds; it is assumed the population contains about an equal number of females.

Most of the male sharptails this spring were at Crex Meadows Wildlife Area (119 birds), followed by Namekagon Barrens Wildlife Area with 82 and Douglas County Wildlife Area with 29.

Based on the improved numbers, the Wisconsin Sharp-tailed Grouse Advisory Committee, made up of DNR, tribal and federal scientists as well as members of conservation organizations, voted June 11 to resume a limited hunting season this year.

The committee recommended the DNR offer 24 sharpie permits in Management Zone 10, or the Crex Meadows unit.

In subsequent weeks DNR leadership approved the hunt plan.

Sharp-tailed grouse are native to Wisconsin but have declined in number and range over the last century as grasslands and barrens have been converted to farm or overtaken by forests.

Beginning in the 1990s, state biologists noticed a steady decline in Wisconsin's sharpie numbers, according to the DNR. The agency cited fragmentation and loss of their core habitat (pine barrens) as the primary causes of the population change.

Due to concerns over the low population, the DNR decided not to hold a sharp-tailed grouse hunt from 2019 through 2024.

In 2018 the DNR awarded 25 permits and the 18 hunters who participated reported harvesting 11 birds. Two-hundred five applicants entered the drawing that year.

The DNR sharp-tailed grouse advisory committee specifically wanted to see a higher population before resuming a hunt, according to the DNR.

The DNR and partners spent the next several years increasing habitat restoration work on both public and private land. Restoring and reconnecting the fragmented habitat that sharp-tailed grouse depend on should lead to an increase in the population.

In recent years sharp-tailed grouse management has focused on state-owned properties and some private lands across the Northwest Wisconsin Pine Barrens. Landscape-level habitat management has been implemented following prescriptions in the Northwest Sands Habitat Corridor Plan, according to the DNR.

Due to habitat improvements as well as consecutive mild winters and favorable nesting and brood rearing weather, the sharpie population has shown a positive response, said Bob Hanson, DNR Northwest Sands wildlife biologist and sharp-tailed grouse coordinator.

"The reopening of the season is a win for conservation," Hanson said. "It's the culmination of years of intensive habitat work in the Northwest Sands region."

Hanson said it was his goal to see the sharpie population continue to increase, even as a hunting season removes some birds.

"As we continue creating new barrens habitat and connecting habitat segments within a fragmented landscape, we should continue to see the population increase," Hanson said.

The 2025 Wisconsin sharp-tailed grouse hunting season will run from Oct. 18 to Nov. 9, 2025.

An application period will run from June 30 until Aug. 1 for entry into a limited-drawing lottery. Preference points from prior years will be honored.

For more information, visit the DNR's Sharp-tailed Grouse Hunting webpage or its Sharp-tailed Grouse Management webpage.

Eagle protection, Endangered Resources plates: The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act is celebrating its 85th anniversary in 2025. The legislation, which provided added protections for eagles, has been credited along with a ban on the pesticide DDT and general environmental improvements, with boosting populations of bald and golden eagles in North America.

The DNR is sharing the good news about eagle recovery in Wisconsin, as well as information on how motorists can assist eagles and other wildlife in Wisconsin through the purchase of an Endangered Resources license plate.

Endangered Resources license plates include an annual $25 donation to the Endangered Resources Fund. This revenue has played a critical role in funding DNR conservation work for more than 400 wildlife species and 300 plant species listed as endangered, threatened or special concern, according to the DNR.

The DNR's Natural Heritage Conservation Bureau works across the department and with partners and volunteers to locate, protect and manage native plants, animals and Wisconsin’s natural communities from the common to the critically endangered.

The Wisconsin Endangered Resources license plate is $40 for the first year, with a one-time charge of $15 to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) and the remaining $25 to the DNR’s Endangered Resources Fund.

Endangered Resources license plates, along with tax form donations and state matching funds, have accounted for as much as 40% of funding for endangered species conservation in some years and have supported the recovery of bald eagles, trumpeter swans and other species while preventing hundreds of other species from vanishing from Wisconsin. In 2024, license plate sales raised approximately $470,000 for conservation of endangered resources, according to the DNR.

To buy a new plate, fill out the WisDOT Endangered Resources License Plate Application Form. People can switch to this license plate at any time, and there is no need to wait for registration renewal.

Visit the Endangered Resources License Plates webpage for more information.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Grassland-dependent sharptails have slightly increased in number in recent years