“I shot a deer in those trees. It must have dropped somewhere in this field.”

The passer-by replied: “I have two bird dogs with me. Let’s let them try.”

They started the dogs downwind of the presumed blood trail and the dogs found the deer in minutes.

Later, when the relieved hunter was told that what he had done was illegal, he was flabbergasted. Why should this be illegal? No one was hurt. Less crop was trampled with the dogs’ help.

“I’m supposed to make every effort to recover shot game, that’s what we did.”

Andy Bensing, a member of unitedbloodtrackers.org/, describes U.S. trends that likely apply equally well to Canada.

“Blood-tracking dogs, as they are typically called, even though they don’t need blood present, have always been legal for use in the past.  However, around the beginning of the 20th century, most of the United States outlawed the use of dogs for deer hunting.  Over-hunting of white-tailed deer by market hunters using dogs to actually hunt, not just recover deer, is often cited as the cause of the ban.

“ The use of blood tracking dogs stayed illegal in all but a few southern states for the next 80 years or so until a movement for their use got started in New York in 1976.  Once New York legalized the use of leashed tracking dogs for wounded deer recovery in 1985, six other states followed suit over the next few years, but then things stayed quiet until about 10 years ago.”

While the practice is expanding south of the border, the Prairie provinces are far behind.

Saskatchewan hunting dog clubs submitted a resolution for blood tracking at the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation’s 95th annual general meeting in Saskatoon. Eighty-one per cent of the 240 attendees endorsed a call for a regulatory change to allow leashed blood tracking.

The word “leashed” is in our resolution — and we meant it. Most trackers use a 10 metre bright-orange leash that is held mid-way. It can be dropped when a dog goes through a thicket and picked up again at the other end.

The leash makes compliance easy to enforce and is crucial for success. Dogs tend to move too fast and may miss a turn in track direction. Leashed teamwork also ensures dog safety.

Police use dogs for tracking and drug sniffing. Then there are hunting dogs that know how to track pheasants and deer. On top of that, people likely underestimate what their Border Collie or most any breed owned by 58 per cent of Canadian families could do. These too can put their 300 million smell receptors to work to find shot big game.

A bit of preparation for a family dog would help. Save venison blood or use minced hamburger diluted with water. Dribble or dab with a sponge at the end of a stick every step or two leading to a wiener for reward and watch your dog catch on to that game.

Truth be told, our conservation officers have a tough job already. Judging from office/program closures and budgets that don’t always keep up with inflation, their reluctance to take on more regulation drafting is understandable. Yet, many Canadian provinces have wording that works — there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Let’s get the job done for hunters, for venison on the dinner table and for ethical hunting. Only the coyotes will be unhappy.

Joe Schmutz has hunted with, bred and judged hunting dogs in field tests for more than 40 years. He is a biologist by profession and is retired from the University of Saskatchewan.

Since 2013, I’ve been hunting sharp-tailed grouse on three community pastures and nearby farm and ranch land near Perdue, Sask. I took notes on every grouse that my pointing dogs and I flushed.

Before the bird went into my game bag, I gutted it and later took more detailed notes at home. These notes included what the grouse had eaten and stored in their crops, for a total of 166 grouse crops over the years.

The grouse ate seven types of main foods with 55 percent berries. Four additional types — berries, flower- and tree buds and bugs — were also eaten.

I found that grain (mostly waste wheat) and herbs (mostly green canola leaves) were the primary food during the dry 2021. The grouse seemed to find some snowberries but the other four berry species were rare in grouse crops or absent.

The following year, 2022, precipitation returned to near normal, as did berry production. Some grain and green leaves remained part of the grouse’s diet. However, they focused back on their preferred berries.

Did the drought cause a decline in grouse numbers overall? There is a subtle decline in the population long term but my sample of bagged birds in any one year is too small to tell.

Did my hunting contribute to the decline overall? Unlikely, because sharp-tailed grouse are on a long-term decline province-wide, despite reduced bag limits.

Research from different parts of the grouse’s range suggests that weather is key in determining grouse numbers during summer for brood-rearing and winter for food. In recent years, there has been an overall decline in insects, which are a crucial protein source for the rapidly growing chicks. Grasshoppers have declined in grouse crops, with a tiny uptick in 2022.

To use waste grain and herbs in the fall, the grouse seem to rely on the field border habitats. From the grass and shrub habitat on road allowances and low-lying or excessive-slope area in fields, they walk out into the stubble to feed.

These habitat areas seem small in relation to big pastures, but the cover is dense for camouflage, escape and shelter. More often than not, my dog and I found them there.

Snowfall has been encouraging in our area this winter, which will give the berries a head start. If the rains come in May, as is typical, and gently in June, the grouse should do well this summer. A cold and soaking rain can be good for grass, but is very hard on tender grouse chicks.

Joe Schmutz is a retired biologist living near Saskatoon.

Some blame the ferruginous hawk.

Biologists, ranchers and the oil and gas industry have helped this threatened hawk by erecting pole nests where needed. Are we helping the hawk and hurting the grouse? How would we decide?

Between 1975 and 2013, I have studied prey eaten by ferruginous hawks, primarily near Hanna, Alta.

Visits to 1,974 nests found 1,645 (91 percent) Richardson’s ground squirrels, 11 (one percent) thirteen-lined ground squirrels, 30 (two percent) white-tailed jackrabbits and 85 (five percent) birds. Also found were one northern pocket gopher, 15 voles or mice, one muskrat and two weasels.

Of the 85 birds, 54 percent were grassland songbirds including meadowlarks. The remaining 46 percent included ducks, gulls, one adult sharp-tailed grouse and one short-eared owl.

Visits to 14 nests in sage grouse country found four Richardson’s ground squirrels.

As a result, no major concern was found for the sage grouse.

Species protection is practised worldwide, and much has been learned.

For example, just because an animal has a hooked beak or canine teeth does not mean it automatically causes the permanent decline of its prey.

Those who work in species protection suggest that predator control may be warranted in special cases, but more integrated management options should be devised to heal the entire system, including predators.

No nation has a treasury large enough to pay people for partial predator or habitat benefits year after year. Mother Nature can be creative if we work with the natural system and not against it. More often than not, what is good for Mother Nature is also good for us.

When ecologists coined the idea of a “predator cascade,” they referred to large predators depressing outbreaks of medium-sized predators and those in turn de-pressing small predator. In other words, predators can balance themselves.

In choosing a conservation path for the sage grouse, is it realistic to expect the silver sage grasslands to function today as they did when First Nations knew them or settlers first saw them? Or, is the ecosystem sufficiently altered so that instead of restoring what once was, a different state should be considered if it is equally functional and stable on its own.

If the original prairie ecosystem is gone, what do we have instead?

The full predator cascade with prairie wolf and grizzly are gone, to the coyotes’ relief. We also help predators avoid winter starvation. Where there is livestock there is dead stock. Hunters leave gut piles, and roads cause road kills.

Rural elders describe snow drifts reaching the telephone wires, but today’s drifts can rarely flood sage flats when snow melts. Similarly, the days when a horse could be watered at springs dotting the countryside are also gone.

Sage grouse depend on sage plants for food and escape cover, but unlikely as it seems, silver sage is half aquatic and was greatly enriched by those floods.

Nowhere in the world are there more capable ranchers, range ecologists and conservation biologists than on the Prairies. Nor are there more passionate naturalists.

A 2013 survey of 801 Saskatchewan residents found that 98.3 percent felt that the conservation of native prairie is “at least somewhat important.” Those surveyed were well aware of the multiple benefits our prairie provides, including its wildlife.

All sectors need to be at the table for a lasting solution for sage grouse. The U.S. Sage Grouse Initiative at www.sagegrouseinitiative.com provides an example, and we also had our own in the former Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Ad-ministration.

Maybe Ian Tyson is right when he sings “the West ain’t never gonna die, just as long as you can fly.”

Joe Schmutz is a former professor at the University of Saskatchewan and has carried out ecological consulting work since 1982.