This state's classification carries no date range for the species.
Occurs in the Nulhegan Basin (near Moose and Yellow Bogs, Conte National Wildlife Refuge), Wenlock WMA, Victory Basin WMA, and Victory State Forest. Killing or wounding a spruce grouse is a violation of the Vermont Endangered Species Act; any spruce grouse killed by a hunter must be reported to a game warden. VFWD maintains a dedicated 'Ruffed Grouse or Spruce Grouse?' identification page to help ruffed grouse hunters avoid this; the specific endangered-species-act legal framing itself comes from eRegulations.
The species' entire known Vermont range is documented precisely: the Nulhegan Basin (near Moose and Yellow Bogs, part of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge), Wenlock WMA, Victory Basin WMA, and Victory State Forest, all clustered in the state's far-northeastern corner. The Vermont Atlas of Life's Breeding Bird Atlas confirms the same footprint independently: spruce grouse occurrence is tied entirely to the Northeastern Highlands physiographic region, and the species declined by 50% between the first (1976-81) and second (2003-2007) Atlas surveys (from 2 confirmed priority blocks to just 1), attributed to habitat loss and the extirpation of populations in small patches of habitat. The Atlas explicitly frames Vermont as sitting at the southeastern edge of the range for the species, a relict population, not a broader distribution that happens to be under-surveyed. VFWD's own active survey route (run since 1988, population estimated 100-300 birds) confirms the population, though tiny, persists and continues to be monitored despite the hunting closure under the VT Endangered Species Act.
Protected under the VT Endangered Species Act, no hunting. An active VFWD survey route in the 24-square-mile Nulhegan Basin has run since 1988 (population estimated 100-300 birds), continuing despite the closure -- a 'monitoring continues despite closure' case -- but VFWD publishes no discrete annual report.
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