Sharp-tailed grouse

Governed by ADF&G Small Game Program's annual "Alaska Small Game Summary" (covers all 7 native grouse/ptarmigan species — ruffed, sharp-tailed, sooty, spruce grouse; rock, white-tailed, willow ptarmigan — in one hybrid document combining spring breeding-survey and summer brood-survey results with harvest expectations). Confirmed not yet published for 2026 as of a 2026-08-19 fresh check (the year-specific URL pattern small_game_status_2026_summary_report.pdf still returns 404, matching the Tier A registry's 2026-08-18 capture). No fixed calendar publish date exists, but both the 2024 and 2025 editions went live only after the early-August brood-survey fieldwork window closed, so publication is expected sometime in the coming weeks.

CPW conducts active spring lek-count monitoring for plains sharp-tailed grouse (largely on CRP grasslands) and a 25-year Columbian sharp-tailed grouse restoration/translocation program in Grand County (26 birds translocated from Moffat County, April 2026; CPW senior conservation biologist Brian Holmes estimated 'more than 10,000' sharp-tails on the Western Slope, per a May 21, 2026 Summit Daily article), but no discrete standalone 2026 lek-count report or forecast document was found this pass (re-checked 2026-08-19) — CPW's own retrospective harvest-report archive runs only through 2023-24. No confirmed fixed publish window exists.

IDFG runs the same spring lek-count methodology used for sage-grouse (400+ leks tracked over the last decade), but results fold into harvest data and the statewide/regional forecast narrative rather than a standalone published report. That narrative had not published as of 2026-08-19 (2025 edition published Sept 5, 2025); expected within the next 2-3 weeks. Unlike sage-grouse, no separate quota-setting process surfaced a 2026 figure ahead of the forecast.

MI DNR partners with the volunteer Michigan Sharp-Tailed Grouse Association on an annual spring lek-count survey, confirmed active (corroborated via 2024/2025 planning references and the association's own ongoing web presence), but no confirmed statewide 2025 or 2026 published report with numbers was located, in either the Tier A pass or a fresh check this pass.

Tracked via Montana FWP's combined annual Upland Game Bird Season Outlook (pheasant, sage grouse, sharp-tailed grouse, gray/Hungarian partridge, chukar, dusky grouse, spruce grouse, ruffed grouse together, by region). The 2025 edition published Aug 20, 2025; a fresh direct fetch of the stable landing page (fwp.mt.gov/hunt/seasons/forecasts) on 2026-08-19 confirms it still shows only the 2025 edition — the 2026 edition appears imminent (one day short of last year's exact publish date). Sharp-tailed grouse's own signal within the Outlook comes from spring lek counts.

Tracked via the same NGPC Upland Game Bird Hunting Outlook PDF as greater prairie-chicken (prairie grouse lek/RMCS data, folded into one combined release). A fresh check this pass caught a stale-attribution trap: a WebSearch summary and a syndicated Outdoor Wire mirror of NGPC's press release both initially read as describing the current 2026 season, but a direct fetch of the Outdoor Wire release confirmed its actual publish date is August 26, 2025, describing the 2025-26 season (comparing spring/summer 2025 survey results to 2024) — not a 2026 finding. outdoornebraska.gov itself returns HTTP 403 to every direct fetch attempt. No genuine 2026 edition found; expected late August 2026 (within about a week) per the 2025 precedent (Aug 26, 2025 publish date).

Governed by the same spring prairie grouse lek counts and late-August Upland Outlook PDF as greater prairie-chicken; the 2026 edition returned a 404 on direct fetch 2026-08-19, expected within the next 1-2 weeks.

Columbian sharp-tailed grouse is a second limited-entry permit species; UDWR maintains an active occupied-lek GIS layer and an Antelope Island translocation/brood-stock program, but no standalone annual lek-count report comparable to the sage-grouse one was found (re-checked 2026-08-19). Active monitoring confirmed, no dated report to publish.

This species has no standalone quantitative WGFD survey; it is covered only within WGFD's annual regional "Wyoming Hunt Forecast" narrative (8 regions plus statewide sections, historically mid-to-late August -- 2025 edition Aug. 18, 2025). A fresh WebSearch and direct fetch attempt on 2026-08-19 (one day past the 2025 precedent date) found no 2026 edition published on wgfd.wyo.gov -- a third-party aggregator (Ultimate Upland) already shows 2026 species-level ratings (e.g. chukar POOR; sharp-tailed grouse, pheasant POOR-FAIR, drought-driven) but cites no specific dated WGFD document, so this is treated as corroboration only, not confirmation the WGFD narrative itself has published. (open in the portion of the state east of the Continental Divide)