Ohio's 2023 grouse season to mirror 2022, despite the bird's dwindling numbers
That Ohio would have a ruffed grouse season hasn’t been in much doubt for months.
Questions have, however, surrounded its duration and geography. Those issues were settled on Wednesday when three members of the Ohio Wildlife Council decided against approving a more restrictive grouse hunt than the one in place a year ago.
That means the Ohio Division of Wildlife will go ahead with a reprise of 2022, and this fall's statewide season will run from the second Saturday in October through the Sunday after Thanksgiving on public land and through Jan. 1, 2024 on private land.
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The bag limit will be a single bird a day.
This pretty much matches the division plan put forth in January, but several members of the eight-person wildlife council responded to that proposal by arguing that, given the grouse’s shrinking and precarious numbers in the state, it would be preferable to suspend the hunt altogether.
The division did not agree and reminded council, which under one interpretation of Ohio law ostensibly represents citizens in exercising oversight, that its approval isn’t required unless language changes occur.
Some years ago, council approved regulatory language involving some seasons that no longer required dates to be specified, thereby eliminating an instance of annual language changes that previously would’ve require council scrutiny.
Thus, instead of starting and ending dates that change each calendar year what got approved were descriptors such as the “second Saturday of October” or the “Sunday after Thanksgiving.”
Because of that, the division maintains the council gets a say-so in applicable regulations only when other changes, such as bag limits or zone changes, are proposed. To the surprise of council members and probably most other observers, the division established it doesn’t require or need council approval for every season every year.
A revision of the Ohio Revised Code incorporated in the budget bill passed by the Ohio General Assembly in June would’ve required the division to specify dates in its annual proposals. The date changes from year to year would have represented language changes that again would bring council into the decision-making process in most instances.
Gov. Mike DeWine, however, vetoed that line in the bill.
Given the legal timelines involved in legislation, nothing would have changed in terms of the upcoming grouse season had DeWine not intervened.
That understood, the division offered council at its meeting last week a more restrictive grouse season for 2023 “to be open from the first Friday in November through the Sunday immediately following Thanksgiving in the following counties: Adams, Athens, Belmont, Gallia, Guernsey, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Vinton and Washington.”
Council approval requires five votes. On Wednesday, one of the members was absent, leaving seven voters. Of the seven, two council members rejected the shortened season, concluding that it wasn’t sufficient.
One member abstained on the grounds that being forced to choose between an abbreviated season and a reversion back to a longer season isn’t a choice when no hunting of grouse should be taking place.
The vote, then, totaled 4-2-1 for a condensed season, a vote short of approval. Consequently, what the division planned in January, new season same as the old, will be in effect.
The division is giving some consideration to importing grouse from Appalachian states for re-establishment in a few locations where habitat is favorable. However, diminishing grouse numbers in the region might make states reluctant to share their birds.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Division of Wildlife approves controversial grouse hunting season
