Pheasants' habitat dwindles by millions of acres each year

Hunters may face a challenge this season -- the pheasant population is on a downward spiral in Plymouth County and throughout Iowa.

Last year Iowa had 100,000 hunters and 383,000 birds, which is four birds per person in the field. Other years there have been 1.5 million pheasants, said John Linquist, Pheasants Forever regional representative.

"From the early 2000s to now there has been a steady decline because of weather and habitat," Linquist said.

The cold, damp spring this year affected pheasants' nesting habits, said Mike Slota, Pheasants Forever chairman for Plymouth County youth programs.

"The weather has to be somewhat warm to produce the insects for the chicks when they're hatched," Slota said. "The hens can't keep the chicks adequately warm and they just die from exposure."

The loss of habitat also affects pheasants' nesting because hens have less area to hide from predators, Slota said.

Pheasant habitats, which usually require 5 to 10 acres, are areas with a mixture of tall and short grasses and flowering plants that attract insects, Slota said.

A major reason that habitat is dwindling is that millions of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres are going away each year, Linquist said.

Last year alone 1.1 million CRP acres expired, according to www.pheasantsforever.org.

With the price of grain, farmers are finding they can make more money planting their land than putting it into CRP acres, Slota said.

"With this economy you can't blame any farmer for squeezing every dollar out of the ground they can," Slota said. "Their job is to produce grain and make money off the ground. We understand that."

Farmers began enrolling their qualified land into CRPs to be planted into habitats 10 to 15 years ago and receiving federal compensation, Linquist said.

"A lot of people's acres are expiring and there are no new signups," he said.

Another 3.8 million CRP acres will expire this fall and 4.4 million acres next September for a total of 21 million acres gone from the program by the end of 2012 without a new signup. The USDA does not have a signup scheduled, according to the Pheasants Forever website.

"It's hard to maintain a bird population when we're constantly taking conservation acres out of play," Linquist said.

Pheasants Forever hopes to turn that around with its program, Reload Iowa.

The intent of Reload Iowa is to establish 1 million acres of new habitat on Iowa landscape.

That means $11.5 million will need to be raised and 50 employees hired to go door-to-door to work with landowners to create the habitat, Linquist said.

"That program is going to have to pay enough money out to entice the farmer to want to do this," Slota said. "The farmer has to look at the bottom line."

There are also national programs like Conservation Practice 38 or State Acres For wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) working to help conserve and create new habitat.

SAFE started last year with 200,000 CRP acres that were divided among states.

"We had 27,700 acres," Linquist said. "All of those acres have been used up and all within a year."

The loss of habitat and dwindling pheasant population in Plymouth County and throughout the state has a trickle-down effect on economy and recreation, Linquist said.

"When the population of the birds down so does the population of the hunters," he said.

That means less dollars spent shopping, eating and staying locally by nonresident hunters.

Fewer hunters also leads to a loss of revenue on licenses, which means less money to help support county and state parks, Linquist said.

"That's what buys the land and sees to the upkeep," he said. "We're hurting ourselves by people not going out and hunting."

A declining pheasant and hunter population is also detrimental for the next generation of would-be hunters, but Slota's optimistic Reload Iowa and similar programs will turn the numbers around.

"I hope we start seeing an increase in the next couple of years," Slota said. "I would love to see it start going back the other way and hopefully we are doing the right things to make it start going the other way."