HECLA, S.D. — “Go West Young Man” may have been good advice in the 1800s, and it still applies to pheasant hunters today.
The nation’s No. 1 state for pheasants is South Dakota. The reason? Prime habitat — a factor in drawing hunters from all over, including Wisconsin — thanks in great part to the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
According to Ben Bigalke, regional biologist for Pheasants Forever in South Dakota, states such as Iowa and Minnesota used to have lots of pheasants, but thanks to reductions in the amount of land in the CRP, populations have gone downhill.
South Dakota has maintained high pheasant numbers (last year’s harvest was an estimated 2.1 million roosters and the 2008 population was estimated to be up 9 percent) but Bigalke said he is “scared to death” that if the CRP program declines, hunters could be experiencing the last best years for pheasant in his state.
“We know we will have fluctuations, but we would like to keep pheasants at a steady level,” Bigalke said. “People like things that are easy and simple and therefore often look toward food plots. But pheasants don’t usually starve to death in the winter, they die do to a lack of winter cover. We need quality nesting cover. Grass on the ground produces more birds.”
That is why Bigalke and Pheasants Forever stress the need to put quality nesting habitat on land, rather than worry about food plots or stocking programs.
Dave Nomsen, Pheasants Forever vice president of government affairs, is concerned about the millions of acres of land expiring from the CRP, acknowledging that with the fluctuation of corn prices, farmers are putting land back into production rather than maintaining grasslands, which reduce erosion and produce more wildlife.
“We will have 3.9 million acres of CRP (land) that will expire in less than a year and another 4.5 million acres in 2010 and another 4 million in 2011, so there are some real challenges to keep CRP on the land,” said Nomsen, who spends some of his time lobbying on Capitol Hill over the CRP (it’s part of The Farm Bill and was recently renewed for four years).
Nomsen, who recently received a Special Recognition Award form the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies for his conservation accomplishments, met several times in December with President Obama’s transition team regarding agriculture and the interior. Nomsen said some of the discussions included the usage of private lands conservation programs, access for hunting, energy, funding for state wildlife agencies and climate change.
“There has been an unprecedented level of outreach to numerous groups by the transition team,” Nomsen said. “I’m hopeful the team will give our recommendations serious consideration that result in agency actions early next year.
“For example, I discussed strengthening and improving CRP, including recommendations for a general signup and actions related to the expiration of contracts for (the) 3.9 million acres next year.”
Besides the need for proper habitat, Nomsen thinks that climate change is something to which conservationists need to pay attention.
“Climate change is for real, it is happening and will be one of the biggest factors challenging hunting,” Nomsen said. “Sportsmen need to be engaged with it, because there will be changes in plant life which will affect wildlife.”
Pheasants and quail love the early successional habitat — and elevated carbon dioxide levels and warmer temperatures could produce cover that is less desirable to wildlife.
In addition, a temperature change of just one or two degrees can make a difference to pheasant and quail eggs, which could change hatching dates and influence insect availability to newly hatched chicks, he said. A change in temperatures could also benefit predators, which should be of concern to hunters and the future of pheasant hunting.
“We will see wetter wets, hotter hots and dryer drys,” Nomsen said. This could mean dramatic fluctuations affecting wildlife.
Nomsen said he expects Congress to work toward climate change legislation, and that promoting wildlife habitat could be part of the solution. He said people are looking at ways to sequester carbon (for instance, trees take in carbon dioxide, hold it and give off oxygen; native warm season grasses do similarly).
“Having the right habitat out there could address carbon sequestration, and help wildlife,” Nomsen said. “Conservation is what Pheasants Forever has been doing for 26 years, and the Conservation Reserve Program at its peak had 37 million acres and it was sequestering millions of metric tons of carbon but was something that people didn’t think about back then.”
If You Go
What: Pheasants Forever’s National Pheasant Fest.
When: Feb. 6 to 8. Hours are Friday from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Alliant Center off the Beltline at the corner of John Nolen Drive and Rimrock Road in Madison.
For More Information: Go to www.pheasantfest.org.
