Spruce Grouse Continental Conservation Plan

The Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis canadensis, formerly Dendragapus canadensis) Continental Conservation Plan was created to provide range-wide and Bird Conservation Region (BCR) assessments of spruce grouse population size, habitat abundance, current threats, management recommendations and research needs. Spruce grouse occupy forests dominated by short-needled conifers ranging from Alaska to Labrador and south into New England, the Upper Great Lakes states and the northern states of the western United States. While widely distributed and secure through much of its range, spruce grouse are declining or rare along the southern fringe, particularly in the east. Status varies by jurisdiction, with spruce grouse classified as game birds in some jurisdictions and as a listed species in others. Forest inventory data were assembled from various sources to describe spruce grouse distribution and published density estimates were used to create population estimates. The abundance of spruce grouse across the continent is estimated to fall between 5.0 and 16.5 million birds. The majority of spruce grouse reside in BCR 8 and BCR 6, with the two BCRs together representing habitat for over 50% of the continental population of spruce grouse. With the caveat that Alaska forests are underrepresented in present assessments, the majority of the continent’s spruce grouse reside in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Northwest Territories and British Columbia.