What a load of bull Oldandnew! Predator and prey populations have fluctuated forever. Now that the "game" birds are in a low, it's hardly time to declare all predators the cause. Ma nature dealt this blow with floods, droughts, hail, etc. Much of it is also man made in our zeal for $ and "feeding the world", we have changed the landscape to favor non-native species and unproductive conditions. If all we did was get unproductive grasslands and woodlands into productive stages, we would have game birds out our ears in a few years. A sideways glance at most of Oklahoma, eastern Kansas, eastern Texas, and most points east show how poor land stewardship deal our upland game populations a destructive blow. These predators have evolved with our native game birds for eons and over time things balance out. Why is it so hard to see that time turns to it's own cycles and we (humans) have a difficult time realizing that what's happening today may well be part of one of those cycles? What goes around comes around. We can accelerate the beneficial side of a cycle by working on the successional stage of the habitats that are out of the productive niche. Blaming predators for problems that are a symptom of our human nature as poor land stewards, our flawed agriculture policy, our Smokey the Bear mentality, our desire to put expensive houses in cedar invaded grassland..........the list is almost endless. Predators play their part in marginal habitats, but in quality habitat the gamebirds aren't significantly benefitted by predator removal. It is imperative that we spend our limited wildlife funds on projects that provide a positive benefit to the species for more than the year of the project. The reason our deer and hog populations are booming at the same time that our upland game populations are in a dive relate to the successional stage that the majority of habitat is in. Take the challenge! Get aerial photos of some parcel where you have seen upland bird populations plummet for 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010. Do an anallysis of those photos rating the habitat as excellent, good, fair, and poor and compare the percentages of habitat available. Take the challenge, do the homework!