For the third year in a row, there will be no Sharp-tailed season around here.

Zero bag limit.

The leks have been dwindling for some time now. There are numerous factors to blame. The most detrimental though is the perceived need (or economic reality) to cultivate every square inch of every square mile of every single field. If it isn’t listed on the commodities market, it gets plowed under in favour of something that is. Unfortunately, there’s no money in willows or young poplar or native grasses. The windbreaks and fence line thickets of the past are gone and with it most of the good Sharp-tailed cover. These agricultural practices have left their population a mere shadow of what it used to be and a hunting moratorium has been put in place.

So once again, we will not hunt the scrub brush alongside the fields or walk the tall grasses. It will only be the dense aspen thickets and coniferous stands we search, looking for Ruffed and Spruce Grouse.

While hoping for a Sharpie resurgence.