Utah · UplandRuffed grouse

Season is statewide by regulation (shared bag limit with dusky grouse), but UDWR's own 2022 Upland Game Management Plan gives a precise, narrower range statement for ruffed grouse specifically, distinguishing it clearly from the more widely-distributed dusky grouse it shares a bag limit with: ruffed grouse occur in northern and central Utah, mainly in the Cache, Wasatch, and Uinta Mountains, and Utah marks the species' most southern distribution range-wide. This is a deciduous/riparian specialist (aspen, willow, berry-producing mountain shrub, moist north-facing draws) as opposed to dusky grouse's broader conifer-associated, elevational-migrant habitat, which the plan separately notes occurs in distinct pockets of habitat unconnected to the Wasatch Range. The Central Region priorities section separately identifies a specific gap in ruffed grouse's current range: there are currently no ruffed grouse in the Stansbury Mountains (West Desert, Tooele County) despite available aspen/riparian habitat there (East Hickman, Box Elder, South Willow and North Willow canyons) and the species' known presence extensively along the Wasatch Front, and possibly in the Oquirrh Mountains. UDWR is evaluating a deliberate introduction there, not yet an occupied range.