The area is easily reached from Interstate Route 390 and Danville, using Route 436 and then Route 9. It can also be reached from Dalton using Route 70. Several roads cross the management area, including Ebert and the Dannack Hill roads, and there are several barricaded access roads, closed to unauthorized mechanical vehicles.

Adjacent to the wildlife management area in its southeast corner, Ossian State Forest offers an additional 1,300 acres of grouse country. To the east, Canaseraga State Forest covers 1,287 acres. Although neither area is intensively managed for wildlife, occasional timber harvesting promotes new growth and provides grouse with ample fall cover.

Lodging and other services may be found in Dansville. For information, contact the Dansville Chamber of Commerce at 1-800-949-0174, or visit the agency's Web site at www.dansvilleny.net.

HIGH TOR WMA
At the south end of Canandaigua Lake, near the town of Naples in Ontario and Yates counties, High Tor WMA covers 6,100 acres with steep, wooded hillsides, deep gullies and creek bottoms, exposed cliffs and marshlands.

The area consists of three separate blocks with a mixture of overgrown fields and abandoned homesteads. All three blocks are easily accessible from the village of Naples, using local roads, some of which feature small parking areas.

Grouse are found on all three parcels, but the 3,400 acres east of the village are the most important. Primarily wooded terrain, it is not only the largest parcel, but has the most diverse habitat and generally holds a good population of grouse.

This is primarily steep, wooded terrain intersected by maintenance trails that you can walk as foot access routes to the more remote locations of the area.

The marshy portion of the wildlife area, covering 1,700 acres, is at the south end of the lake between routes 21 and 245. This area also holds birds, but hunters working the 1,000 acres due east of that tract, known as South Hill, generally fare much better.

The parcel features steep, wooded hillsides broken by some overgrown fields. It can be quite productive, especially on frosty autumn mornings.

Lodging and other services are available in Naples.

For more information, contact the Finger Lakes Visitor's Connection at (585) 394-3915 or 1-877-FUN-IN-NY, or visit the agency's Web site at www.visitfingerlakes.com.

For additional hunting information, contact the DEC Region 8 office.

PARTRIDGE RUN WMA
In the western Albany County town of Berne north of Rensselaerville, Partridge Run WMA covers 4,594 acres of the flat to rolling terrain that's typical of the area. To get there from Rensselaerville, take state Route 85 north one mile, turn left onto county Route 6 and then proceed three miles to a parking lot.

Much of the area is abandoned stone-fence farmland with old fields and meadows that give way to stands of oak and conifer on the hillsides. The DEC manages the area specifically for grouse and other species, and there is a good mix of ground cover in various stages of growth.