I went back and watched that 60 minutes segment. That was the most depressing thing I've watched in a while. I sure hope they're wrong?I watched a segment on 60 minutes a couple of weeks about Mass Extinction. After watching it, it really explains the quail, prairie chickens, and now pheasants. Meadowlarks are down 60%. It claimed that we are now going through the 6th Mass Extinction on earth. You are right, they will probably never come back.
I don't know how they come up with the harvest numbers and region forecasts. I filled out the card this year, I hunted in eight counties across three regions of the state. The survey wanted me to single it down to the county I hunted the most in which also happened to be the one I saw and shot the fewest pheasant and quail in.Hunter numbers for KS were down about 10K for bobwhite and 12K for pheasant, so word got out. 320,000 quail and 258,000 pheasants harvested. Probably still above Minnesota, but not by much...