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Iowa Marshlands Provide Safe Haven for Winter Pheasants
THORNTON, Iowa - In Northern Iowa's 35-county, prairie pothole region, the value of natural wetlands is well understood. Marshlands have the ability to reduce erosion, buffer flooding, trap sediments, remove toxic pollutants, and recharge underground aquifers. But wetlands are perhaps best known for their ability to support life. In summer, marshes provide fertile breeding grounds for a wide variety of wildlife species including mallard ducks, four-spot dragonflies, trumpeter swans, and muskrats. Drop for drop, acre for acre, native wetlands are the most productive of all Iowa eco-types. In terms of total species diversity and in terms of total biomass, no landscape feature can surpass a cattail marsh in full production. But there's another side to Iowa's wetlands story. For wildlife species that do not migrate south each fall, marshlands provide critical habitat for winter survival. Rarely has that fact been more evident than this year. With grasslands, fence lines, and stubble fields drifted over and iced shut, resident wildlife has been hard pressed to find a square meal or safe place to spend the night. As always happens during hard snowy winters, exposure and predators have gotten their share. In many areas, winter losses are already running high and continue to climb.
But in Northern Iowa's prairie marsh country, cattail wetlands are currently providing a much needed bright spot in this winter's otherwise dismal habitat picture. Although snow cover is deep across much of Iowa, large beds of standing cattails continue to offer pheasants, rabbits, deer and other resident wildlife a safe haven. While pheasants remain unable to chisel their way through the icy hard pack covering area grasslands, they are still able to sail in, plop down, and then easily borough beneath the protective warmth of standing cattails. Virtually impenetrable, substantial stands of cattail stalks offer the warmest and safest cover a wintering bird is likely to find these days. As relentless winter weather has continued to pummel marginal local habitats, surviving wildlife has had little choice but to move or die. For thousands of displaced ring-necked pheasants, the short migration to local wetlands has meant the difference between becoming crow food today, or surviving to crow at the sunrise next spring. For conservation minded landowners, like Cerro Gordo County's Paul and Phyllis Willis, the year round benefit of restoring wetlands on local farmlands is obvious. As refugee wildlife has been forced to flee storm ravaged habitats, the Willises have seen more and more pheasants gravitate to their property. The marsh edge cattails located immediately below their hilltop farm home has become a major winter roosting area. "The pheasants are just marvelous and we so enjoy watching them," says Phyllis. "Last week, while Paul and I were enjoying morning coffee, we counted a total of 166 pheasants come across our property. It was really quite a sight." Wildlife enthusiasts have long known that buying state and federal duck stamps is a good means of providing habitat for wild ducks and geese. But what fewer may realize is that preserving a local duck marsh is also one of the best ways to insure future breeding stock of Iowa's number one game bird --- the magnificent ring-necked pheasant.
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