I have lived long enough to remember the days when Iowa was the Pheasant “capital” of the country. Growing up in southwest Iowa pheasant hunting was a way of life.
In regard to the situation pheasant wise that Iowa finds itself in today I would agree to a certain extent that the weather of the past several years have had it’s effect but not to the the extent that we are led to believe. I do not know why the powers that be promote this as the predominant cause of loss of pheasant population in Iowa. Unfortunately there is a chance that this like everything else it seems is related to a powerful political forces in our state that really would rather we turn a blind eye to solving the real problems involved. Does farming ring a bell.
Our overriding problem in this state in regard to pheasant population decline is plain and simple habitat, habitat and habitat. We have none - compared to when birds were plentiful. PF and others of the same ilk certainly deserve credit for working toward improving the habitat situation but at present in Iowa we are losing the battle. Please spare us the self promoting progress reports.
I believe I read somewhere that only two states have less public land than Iowa (as Iowans we should be ashamed of this). We farm fence line to fence line. Because of government subsides we now not only farm fence line to fence line we seek out any piece of borderline productive land that will allow a seed to germinate and farm it. We pass a law that is to set aside money for acquiring public land and the last I read it has not provided a dime to this point. We are reaping what we have sowed.
It is not to late to turn this around but there are some powerful forces that will have to overcome and none of them involve Mother Nature!
WCoyote
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