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Nesting Forecast Points to Increase in Pheasant Numbers
Posted: June 9, 2009

Has Iowa's sagging pheasant population hit bottom? Reviewing weather data from this past winter and spring, Department of Natural Resources upland wildlife biologist Todd Bogenschutz is cautiously optimistic. "Our pheasant population typically shows increases following mild winters and springs that are drier and warmer than normal. Pheasant numbers could increase 20-40 percent this year," he said.

That forecast follows the lowest pheasant harvest on record in Iowa. Hunters took just 383,000 ring-necked roosters in the 2008-09 season; following one of the snowiest winters and one of the wettest springs in Iowa history.

For 2009, though, an average winter and spring are good news as the pheasant hatch heads into its mid-June peak. "At this point, it is likely we will have good populations in northwest, north central and west central Iowa, with better populations in the remainder of the state, compared to 2008," notes Bogenschutz. "These regions will still show pheasant numbers below what hunters would like to see, though."

The spring forecast is based on weather data from the National Oceanic and Aeronautical Administration, showing December through March snow cover, along with April and May rain levels. Snowfall was below normal in west central and southwest Iowa. East central and northeast Iowa snowfall was above normal. Northeast Iowa was also clipped with above average rainfall...as was central Iowa.

Bogenschutz eyes Iowa's August roadside counts as the final pre-season indicator of a pheasant comeback. Wildlife workers and conservation officers comb Iowa's back roads during the first week of August, tallying pheasants and other upland game on more than 200 30-mile routes.

Even with an average or above average hatch, Iowa's lack of habitat remains a limiting factor. In the peak years of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in the 1990s, over five million acres of grassy areas that could be utilized by pheasants. That dropped to 3.3 million acres this past year.

"The CRP provides the majority of pheasant habitat in Iowa today," says Bogenschutz. "Yet we will lose the equivalent of a one mile wide strip from Council Bluffs to Davenport this year. It would be beneficial for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to offer general CRP enrollment again, for 2010."