Kentucky · UplandRuffed grouse

Kentucky restricts ruffed grouse hunting to a designated Grouse Hunting Zone; independent hunting-guide sourcing gives the precise legal boundary as everything east of Interstate 75, spanning 53 counties, the eastern Kentucky mountain/Appalachian counties. KDFWR itself frames the species' identity with this same region, noting birdwatchers travel specifically into the woods of eastern Kentucky to hear the male's spring drumming display, and its own Ruffed Grouse and Young Forest Strategic Plan (2017-2027, developed jointly with the Daniel Boone National Forest and NRCS-KY) targets young-forest habitat restoration specifically in that same Appalachian Mountain region, naming the Daniel Boone National Forest's Redbird and London Ranger Districts as active grouse-habitat management areas. Outside that zone, KDFWR also allows December grouse hunting at three specific, named non-zone sites, Pennyrile State Forest, Tradewater WMA, and Fort Knox (except during quota deer hunts), a narrower, site-specific exception rather than a second population region; the statewide population has been down since the early 1990s.