Georgia · UplandRuffed grouse

Georgia sits at the extreme southern periphery of ruffed grouse's entire range, and WRD's own fact sheet is explicit about the geography: habitat suitability limits the ruffed grouse population to a range extending from Canada to North Georgia, occupying the mountains at elevations from roughly 1,800 to near 4,000 feet within the Chattahoochee National Forest (over 750,000 acres of North Georgia land, much of it grouse habitat). WRD's own drumming-count survey was tried and abandoned as ineffective, and a 2022-2027 University of Georgia (Chandler Lab) research collaboration states the current distribution and abundance of grouse in Georgia is unknown at fine resolution, but the coarse regional answer (the North Georgia mountains, specifically the Chattahoochee National Forest) is well-established and stable, with hunting-press sourcing naming specific national-forest WMAs where grouse hunting occurs.