doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What's with Iowa?

Raimey,

Interesting numbers. I can speak to the Illinois segment. There is precious little public land or access to private land here. The state runs a successful pheasant program. Hunters pay $25 each (it was $15) at selected state parks and conservation areas. The state releases 2 birds per hunter. You are allowed to shoot birds of either sex. The birds are bred by the state.

While this is certainly not wild. It does give those hunters with desire, but not necessarily the resources to spend time in the field. Often these are hunters who do not own a bird dog. Many are young, starting a family with blue collar jobs. So for them the program is a good fit. Still others belong to hunt clubs.

It is considered by the IDNR and hunters to be very successful. A couple of years ago, the then governor, wanted to end the program. Through a statewide series of public meetings that bill was voted down as legislators were education by the hunting public.

Over all, the number of pheasant hunters has declined in Illinois since the mid 90's. At this point there are more duck hunters than upland hunters in the state. As some have noted, Illinois like other states has become a deer and turkey state. The biggest problem for pheasnt here is habitat loss.
http://dnr.state.il.us/orc/wildlifeResources/surveyW/AG/PHSTATUS2004.pdf

Historical harvest data for Illinois
http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/Landmgt/programs/Hunting/Iphar/08PheasantQuailWoodcockGraph.pdf

Here is good article about pheasant in Illinois.
http://www.illinoisgameandfish.com/hunting/pheasant-hunting/il_aa111604a/

For very interesting stats about hunting and fishing take a look at the government reports by state:
http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/fishing.html

Pete

Interesting thread. Just got back from 8 days of pheasant hunting with a gun and dog named Parker. Four days in southwest Iowa and 4 days in SD. I have hunted the same farms in Iowa since 1970 never missing a year. Back in the early 70's after a blizzard the population dropped off to nearly nothing. They had 3 years of dry springs and the population came back. I think SW Iowa has had the perfect storm for the past two years; Wet springs and cold wet winters. My farmers are really concerned about the population and are talking about raising birds themselves even though they don't hunt or allow anyone else on the farms. Granted crops are still in the field but 6 good walking hunters killed one bird. The Iowa DNR made it even worse by increasing the fees. Fewer birds, more cost,dumb move! Having hunted many years there makes killing bunch of birds not important but seeing the DNR increase fees 20% and doing nothing but waiting on better weather to increase populations doesn't make much sense either. I agree with the theory that raising a bunch of pen raised birds will not increase the population but I do think they would be well served to take much of the funds from the out of state licenses and pay farmers to leave as much land as possible in a conservation CRP since most of the current land is coming out. Motels, resturants and stores really down due to no hunters. SD loaded with birds due to dry springs. Just hope Iowa comes back.

David

David, I had a chance to talk with some DNR guys at the Iowa Governor's Hunt last weekend. (Up around Spencer, probably the best bird numbers in the state. About 60 hunters, total bag was about 1 bird/hunter which is not bad, considering a lot of guys on that hunt are not really very serious bird hunters. And they're all wild . . . well, maybe except for the governor's team.) They've been kicking around the idea of a program like the states to our west: public access to private ground. Problem right now is that we're in a bad budget crunch, and because hunter # are down, so is DNR revenue.

That being said, we are fortunate to have more Pheasants Forever chapters (and members) than any other state. PF has a program called "Reload Iowa", under which they're going to hire 50 "Farm Bill Biologists", each of whom will be responsible for 2 counties. Those individuals will be contacting virtually every landowner in the state, to try to get them enrolled in whatever govt conservation program works best for them. They've just hired the first 4. It's a long-term effort. I've said that I think I'm fortunate enough to have seen the best pheasant hunting Iowa will ever have, but I'd sure like to see PF prove me wrong.

Larry,

Thanks for the reply. If they need a couple of farmer contacts in Union County let me know. They both have over 1200 acres each and probably would be very interested.

Thanks
David

David, I'll be watching the progress of that program. No one hired for Union County yet, but thanks for the interest.