Re the habitat/weather thing, the situation began to change for the worse in Iowa as a result of the 1996 Farm Bill. That legislation placed a premium on the govt rental payment for ground bid into the CRP. That put Iowa farmers at a disadvantage compared to the states to our west, because Iowa farm ground is more productive. Therefore, the farmer has to make more per acre in order to justify taking the land out of production. Iowa did gain, however, in buffer strip cover. So there was a switch from big fields of grass to narrow strips of grass along waterways. But we did not notice much change for several seasons in terms of the total harvest, mainly because we didn't have any really severe winters. Then came a string of winters with more snow than normal followed by springs that were cooler and wetter than normal. 2003 was the last year Iowa hunters bagged over a million birds. By 2011, the total was just over 100,000. To put that number in perspective, going back as far as the DNR has kept records, the all-time low prior to 2000 was 724,000 back in pre-CRP 1984. Very sad.
