Sharp-tailed grouse are native to Montana and classified as an upland game bird, but there has not been a hunting season in the western part of the state since 1948. Populations west of the Continental Divide were thought to be extirpated by the mid-2000s, and restoration and conservation has remained an FWP priority. Sharp-tailed grouse populations in other areas of the state have remained stable, likely due to large landscapes of suitable habitat.
Sharp-tailed grouse are an excellent model species to evaluate the effects of grazing and rangeland management on prairie obligates because they depend on diverse high quality grassland habitats distributed across broad landscapes. Because much of their distribution occurs on private lands, population dynamics are largely determined by grassland management decisions by private landowners. Indeed, poor range management on private lands has been implicated in the reduction of sharp-tailed grouse in both the United States and Canada.
