The state may introduce spruce grouse into the Adirondacks as early as this year to bolster a native population that appears headed for extinction.

Without intervention, the state’s spruce-grouse population could vanish by 2020, according to a recovery plan released today by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

“The spruce grouse is perhaps the best-known icon and a perfect representative of boreal habitats in New York,” said Michale Glennon, a scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Adirondack Program, in a DEC news release.

The authors of the plan, DEC biologist Angelena Ross and her former professor, Glenn Johnson of Potsdam State College, estimate that only seventy-five to a hundred spruce grouse remain in the state.

Unlike the ruffed grouse, which dwells throughout the Adirondack Park, the spruce grouse is found only in the lowland boreal habitat of the northwestern part of the Park—habitat characterized by black spruce and tamarack trees. Common in Canada, the spruce grouse is at the southern end of its range in the Adirondacks.

Johnson told Adirondack Almanack that a dozen or so spruce grouse from Ontario might be released in the Adirondacks this year. If these birds fare well, DEC plans to release more in the future. He said scientists are looking at several possible sites.

Eventually, Johnson hopes the Adirondacks will harbor five hundred or so spruce grouse.

In the 1800s, spruce grouse were far more common in the Adirondacks. Logging destroyed much of their habitat and fragmented the remnant populations.

Another issue is that much of the remaining lowland boreal forest may be too mature to support spruce grouse, which prefer middle-aged stands. DEC is working with timber companies to optimize habitat on private lands.

Some have questioned whether it’s practical to save the spruce grouse, given the lack of habitat and the threat of global warming. Johnson, however, believes the plan will work.

“I’m optimistic,” he said. “Having said that, if it doesn’t, we tried.”

Click here to read an earlier story on the recovery plan, before DEC adopted it.

Click here to download the plan.

Photo by Angelena Ross: male spruce grouse.