Vermont · UplandRuffed grouse

VFWD's own upland-game-birds page states that although grouse are found statewide, the Northeast Kingdom generally offers the best grouse hunting in the state and ranks among the best hunting anywhere in the Northeast, naming aspen/birch second-growth and stream/swamp edges as the preferred cover, with several WMAs specifically managed for grouse. VFWD also runs an emerging AI/acoustic drumming-count program out of Fred Johnson WMA. Quantified historical structure from the Atlas of Breeding Birds of Vermont (1976-81) shows very high, near-uniform occupancy across all seven physiographic regions (90-100% of each region's priority blocks), with the Green Mountains carrying the largest share of the species' total priority-block occupancy statewide (31%) and Northeast Highlands showing full 100% regional occupancy on a smaller block count. The Second Atlas (2003-2007) update found a slight 1% statewide decline with the losses concentrated in the Southern Vermont Piedmont and Champlain Valley, consistent with the species' stronghold remaining in the higher, more forested Green Mountains and Northeast Kingdom rather than the lower agricultural valleys.