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Final reminder of special sage grouse hunt applications
By the Nevada Department of Wildlife
This is a final reminder that applications for the 2011 Special Sage Grouse Hunt at Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) are now available on the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) website at ndow.org/hunt/apps/.
The Sheldon hunt will be open for two weekends Sept. 17-18 and Sept. 24-25. This is a permitted hunt, with 75 permits awarded by random draw available for each hunt by reservation only.
The hunt is open to both residents and nonresidents.
The daily limit is two and the possession limit is four for sage grouse.
The Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge is in northwest Nevada on the Oregon border.
Permit applications are available in PDF via the NDOW website (ndow.org/hunt/apps/).
Applications must be received by mail or in person by 5 p.m. on August 5 at the NDOW headquarters office located at 1100 Valley Road, Reno, NV 89512. No faxed or email applications will be accepted.
“The Sheldon Sage Grouse Hunt is a popular hunt with only 75 reservations available for an early and late season,” said NDOW game biologist Shawn Espinosa.
While hunting sage grouse in association with this special hunt, successful resident applicants, aged 12 and over, must possess a valid hunting license for the 2011-12 license year.
Successful non-resident applicants, aged 12 and over, must either possess a valid non-resident hunting license for the 2011-12 license year or a non-resident short-term permit to hunt upland game.
Although the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced last year that it would place greater sage grouse on the list of “candidate species” across its range including the 11 western states and two Canadian provinces, Espinosa reports that sage grouse populations in the Sheldon NWR are healthy and do support a hunting season.
“Sage grouse lek count data collected from the Sheldon NWR sage grouse population has shown an increasing trend,” Espinoza reports. “Because of the concern with sage grouse populations in general, if NDOW determined that sage grouse hunting was having a detrimental or additive impact on any particular sage grouse population, we would recommend closing the season as we have for other hunt units in the state.”
NDOW also reminds hunters to remove one wing from each sage grouse taken as part of a long-term study of the state's sage grouse populations.
"We are interested in collecting wing data from both two-day seasons," said Espinosa. "This information provides us with recruitment and nest success data for Sheldon sage grouse populations and helps us make appropriate recommendations for next year.”