Pheasant video by South Dakota Public broadcasting

Yup, that’s spot on, IMO. I don’t have it verbatim, but a great quote: “regarding the termination of brood counts by SD politicians, and the use of science to manage pheasants, GFP is more interested in storytelling by hunters to keep the tradition alive”. Again, some paraphrasing…pretty sad! 😜
 
benelli-banger said:
I would assume they are basically being forced to go in this direction…
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I've talked to some GFP folks and my understanding is these decisions were not made by GFP staff, but were made higher on the food chain. My interaction with GFP folks at the working level over 25 years has always been positive and I believe they have a strong desire to support pheasant hunting and creating more beneficial habitat.
 
Politicians decided science should be removed from the process of managing the phea$ant$…they outright acknowledged they didn’t want negative forecasts to inhibit license sales.
 
This is a real good, informative piece. I could go on ad nauseum, but I'll hold off for now. The only thing I'll mention is that he incorrectly stated that flare nare pseudo pheasants aren't required to be marked/identified at preserves. Actually, they ARE required by law to be identified, either by toe clipping or the gross holes through their beaks from "blinders". Also, fyi, only about 10% of roosters shot on preserves are wild & account for only about 20k-30k birds a year, a drop in the bucket compared to the million +/- wild pheasants shot in the state NOT on preserves the last few years.
 
hunter94 said:
GFP headed the wrong direction. the more they try to manufacture a story the worse it gets.
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To be fair, it's the department of tourism, at the behest of Governor Noem, that has hijacked the SDGFP and the way they study/promote pheasant hunting. I've talked to an officer who said his coworkers in Pierre would love to speak up against the things that are occurring, but are more concerned about their job than the pheasants. Rather than create habitat which would create more pheasants which would sell more licenses, they've decided to market the history/tradition and rely on pen raised pseudo roosters.

This ties in to the other thread about why we hunt. There are enough pheasants out there to provide a challenging, yet successful hunt. Most guys who visit from out of state, and even a number of in state, want the hot barrel, whoop it up with the homies and have a lot of drinks at night. Which is fine, just not my thing.
 
It is not an easy fence to walk on. On one hand I take young kids and new people to preserves to get them hooked on shooting pheasants. Once they get the itch it is easier to sell them on pheasant hunting. Success with slower more plentiful birds breeds confidence and then the next challenge of finding and shooting wild birds. I used to lose young hunters when they would walk all day for maybe one shot and then they aren't even ready so the bird flies away and they feel defeated. I see the benefit of both parts of this equation. Politics are a part of our world today no matter where we are. Most of the time they are trying to do what they think is best, the problem is that sometimes it is not through my lens. In the end we all need to do our part to keep hunting alive and well in our great country no matter what state you live in.
 
^^^^^ I wish I could like this twice ^^^^
 
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