# Tough winter???



## kgpcr (Sep 2, 2006)

This winter cant be helping the birds. I doubt we will have the carry over we had in the last few years! What are your thoughts?


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## farmerj (Jun 19, 2004)

Could fool me with the amount of birds I am seeing both on the way to work in the morning as well as in the field.


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## Jungda99 (Nov 17, 2006)

I could be wrong but i don't think the cold is as hard on them as deep snow or freezing rain is.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

This has been an easy winter so far.....basically no snow the entire month of January.


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## hunter9494 (Jan 21, 2007)

the lack of CRP retained over the next couple years will be more devestating than any snowstorm will be.


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## redlabel (Mar 7, 2002)

hunter9494 said:


> the lack of CRP retained over the next couple years will be more devestating than any snowstorm will be.


The loss of CRP will be huge, but one should not overlook the limiting effects of winter on the pheasant population. We are enjoying the benefit of 10 generally mild winters in a row.

I looked up a few items while watching the Sioux-Gopher hockey game.

From 1991-1994 the pheasant harvest ranged from 246,000 - 314,000, in 1995 it dropped to 178,000, rebounded to 311,000 in 1996 and was at 135,000 in 1997. Since 1997 it has gone up, up, up and so have the hunters. I couldn't find statistics for how much CRP there was in the 1990's but one cannot negate the effect of our winters. I know that Game and Fish says they find a lot of dead pheasants with full crops.

I borrowed this from a Doug Leier article on Nodak Outdoors written in 2003.

While winters still limit the state's overall pheasant population, CRP grasslands increase carrying capacity. Pheasants can recover more quickly because the landscape has better habitat. When winters are mild, as they have been in parts of the state the past several years, the pheasant population can build to higher peaks.

Consider this: North Dakota had several relatively mild winters in the early 1980s. Without CRP or any other long-term land idling program, the pheasant harvest increased from about 60,000 in 1979, following two severe winters, to 141,000 in 1984.

With CRP, hunters bagged about 136,000 roosters in 1997 following the worst winter in three decades. Since then, annual harvest has gradually increased to more than a half-million.


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## NDMALLARD (Mar 9, 2002)

From what I am hearing from my farm and rancher friends, the birds are doing very well. Let's just avoid a week long blizzard or a severe ice storm and we will be fine for another year. We won't feel the affects of the CRP this year, but it is just a matter of time before the loss of grassland catches up with us.


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## HUNTNFISHND (Mar 16, 2004)

March is ussually the toughest month on wildlife. Reduced fat reserves, reduced food supplies, combined with crusted snow cover and the possibility of ice storms can wreak havoc. We will just have to wait and see how the spring plays out.


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

Easy winter so far...March is the key month. Birds are doing fine!


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