There is good news for Pennsylvania grouse hunters and their bird dogs this fall.

"I am optimistic that grouse numbers are trending upward," said William Palmer, the Pennsylvania Game Commission's upland bird biologist.

According to last season's grouse-hunter surveys, the 2008 flushing rate increased from 1.25 birds per hour of hunting to 1.42, the best since 2001. The greatest success was enjoyed in the state's North-Central Region, but increases were also detected in the South-Central, Southwest and Northwest regions.

Palmer and other researchers also noted increased drumming and encountered more grouse this spring than last.

"Logging is a huge controlling factor for deer and grouse," according to Palmer, noting that both species thrive behind the chainsaw. Unfortunately, early successional habitat presently comprises only 10.5 percent of Pennsylvania's forests. But that factor can help grouse enthusiasts narrow their search and find good hunting action by locating recently timbered areas of the state's wealth of public lands.

Here are some hot prospects for locating the king of game birds in the Keystone State this fall:

SOUTH-CENTRAL REGION
SGL 104
State Game Lands 104 is in the southwestern corner of Bedford County, northwest of Hyndman and west of U.S. Route 96. Once busy farmland, these 9,000 acres of reverting fields and orchards offer good grouse gunning in a mix of cover strips and varied age clearcuts. Periodic forest fires have also contributed to conditions favoring grouse.

The game lands lies atop the Allegheny Plateau with rolling topography that is easy to hunt. The best access is off state Route 96 via Tiger Valley Road north of the town of Hyndman. Follow the paved roadway to a gravel game lands access road to the right that leads to a parking area (total distance about 1.5 miles).

A normally closed roadway leads out of the parking area and is open to public travel during the fall hunting season. Travel this road .5 miles into the heart of some superb grouse habitat. See DeLorme's Pennsylvania Atlas & Gazetteer, Map 88, A-2, for details.

Camping is available nearby at Shawnee State Park at (814) 733-4218 and at Friendship Village Campground at (814) 623-1677.

Motels, restaurants and sporting goods are available in Bedford. Contact the Bedford Visitors Bureau at www.visitbedfordcounty.net, or call (800) 765-3331.

Rothrock State Forest
Rothrock State Forest is vast and diverse with extensive timbered areas and a user-friendly network of forest roads to facilitate easy hunter access to its 35,000 acres. This vast forest stretches across much of northern Huntingdon County and into Center and Mifflin counties.

Grouse hunters will find large areas of grouse-friendly, varied-age timber cuts along Pine Swamp Road, Greenlee Road and Beidleheimer roads that are easily accessed out of Whipple Dam State Park. The park is south of State College and north of Huntingdon east of Route 26.

Pine Swamp Road is lined with extensive cutover areas with some woodcock habitat for some mixed-bag action.