This year’s mild winter and warm spring should give a much needed boost to Iowa’s pheasant population.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ nesting forecast, which plugs current weather conditions into a model with 50 years of corresponding data, predicts that Iowa’s pheasant population will increase by more than 40 percent.
“We should see our first statewide pheasant increase in more than six years,” said Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife biologist for the Iowa DNR.
“This is the best combination of winter and spring weather we’ve seen for ground nesting birds since 2003. Over the last 50 years we’ve seen similar weather conditions to this past winter and spring about six times and the average increase in pheasant populations those years was 42 percent.”
Bogenschutz said this model is correct about 80 percent of the time.
“The August roadside survey is the best gauge of what upland populations will be this fall,” he said.
The DNR will release its August roadside numbers on www.iowadnr.gov around Sept. 15.
The favorable spring will allow upland bird populations to expand and reoccupy available grassland habitats where they have been depleted over the last five severe winters, said Bogenschutz.
Unfortunately, Iowa has seen a significant drop in general CRP habitat—falling from 1.97 million acres in 2007 to 1.66 million acres last fall. However, Iowa has not faired as badly as other states like Minnesota and the Dakotas where CRP loses have been even greater.
Lands enrolled in CRP provide valuable habitat and nesting cover for pheasants and other upland birds.
Iowa has also had a couple of very successful continuous CRP sign-ups and just submitted a new proposal to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) targeted at helping pheasant populations in Iowa recover. The USDA will also roll out a new continuous CRP program for highly erodible lands this summer, and Iowa should be very competitive with these acres. If approved, both of these continuous CRP practices should help with pheasant recovery.
Source: Iowa DNR
