# Iowa's pheasant hunting season arrives with fewer birds



## R y a n (Apr 4, 2005)

Iowa's pheasant hunting season arrives with fewer birds

http://www.woi-tv.com/Global/story.asp? ... 1&nav=1LFX

DES MOINES, Iowa Pheasant season opens tomorrow in Iowa with fewer birds.

Officials say pheasant numbers are down 22 percent from last year, which raises a big question -- Can Iowa continue as one of the top pheasant-producing states?

There has been a slide in the bird population in Iowa over the last decade, mainly due to a reduction in conservation reserve acreage in the mid-1990s.

The Conservation Reserve Program, or C-R-P, transforms marginal crop land into acres of grasses and wildflowers. It could be cut out of the 2007 federal farm bill.

The state's economic boost from pheasant hunting peaked in 1996 -- estimated at 250 (m) million dollars -- when there were more than two (m) million conservation reserve acres and the pheasant population was up. In 2001, that number dipped to 150 (m) million dollars. Last year, it stood at 175 (m) million dollars.


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## Dak (Feb 28, 2005)

Habitat is key...less habitat = less birds.


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## njsimonson (Sep 24, 2002)

Beat me to it.

When 98% of all farmable land is farmed and the other 2% is left over for habitat...what do you expect? Less wildlife.


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## Shu (Oct 21, 2003)

In the area we hunted this weekend there were about the same as last year....but we shot more this yr. 8)


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