The future?

P

Pop-poof-thump

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Hello everybody, I want to relay a story to everyone and see what opinions people have and shared thoughts, also. I started hunting with my Uncle in the mid 80's out in south-central Nebraska and fell in love with pheasant hunting and the people of Nebraska. The land was in CRP and the hunting was great or at the worst decent. We had to work for our birds, but that is what made it something special. At this time, I was just a teen and I only saw things the way a child sees things. I didn't understand the struggle what a farmer goes through to feed his family. I grew up and hunted the same family farm in the 90's and then the CRP grass started to disappear. The enrollment was coming to an end and I noticed the pheasant population started to drop as well. In the 2000's, I started to pay attention to the price of corn and beans which is going up and I start to put 2 and 2 together and figure out this is not good for pheasants. The new talk from the farmer out there is to plant fence row to fence row and cut more hay. I know now that farmers are making hand over fist compared to 20 years ago. Ethanol is a joke. So my question is can there be a balance again? I do love those people on the family farm more than some of my blood relatives. I have a son now and I want him to see things the way I saw them. I guess I am not much on change.
 
I understand that we all want to remember things the way we want them to be. Change happens, some times for the good and some times not. Things will change again. At the present times there are good profits being made in farming and ranching. In an ag persons lifetime there are a few times when things are really good, there are times when things are really bad and then there are the rest of the tomes when your either just getting by or doing ok but not great. Farmers and ranchers would not be doing justice to their families if they didn't take advantage of the good times. What happens in the good years determines whether they can stand the tough times the next time they come around. Will that take a toll on wildlife? Most likely. The Gov. cannot afford to pay for CRP like it has in the past and there are more people that want to eat. Those things will make a difference in wildlife's future. I don't know what is going to happen but it will depend on whether and how dollars get spent. They can be spent by Pheasant Forever type organizations, or to and by pay hunting type places or by individuals or a group of individuals that pool resources and develope habitat. The individual landowner may choose a path that is not one we want.
 
Pop-poof-thump said:
.....I guess I am not much on change.
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Change delivered pheasants...you should consider thanking it.

All bird populations track the natural boom and bust cycles of the many factors that affect them....from farm fields to clearcuts to political back rooms.
When natural black hats combine forces with the man-made lids then hunters most often begin to complain....which is understandable, at times, but gamebirds can reach populations that are high only by a lucky happenstance and it is often difficult to maintain any viablity with those levels.

The Future will be much like the Past...the trend tho may be in another direction entire.
 
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Change is constant

It's the only thing you can count on. Live enough years and you see that everything around you changes. Populations flux. Habitat changes. Much of the good habitat you've hunted would change to another form of vegetation given enough time and left alone.

I conduct yearly surveys of my grouse woods, always looking for those new patches of cover that will be holding birds in a few years. Spots I knew at a honey hole in the 80's produces very few birds today. Today I'm doing a lot of hunting in an area I never went to until a few years ago.

Even our lakes change. The lake I'm on is going through a down cycle in it's walleye population. Weeds are coming up in places that were barren before. Spots that used to produce limits of walleyes haven't produced a single fish in years.

Embrace the good times when you had a lot of pheasants. Work hard when there aren't as many birds and enjoy the ones you bring home. Each season is to be enjoyed for what it is, not spent worrying about what it could have been or worryin about whether it will be as good again next year. I am like the rest of you, who worry about the future of the birds and their habitat, but I'm going to enjoy each day in the field, regardless if I come home with a limit, or not.
 
So very well said--I shall try to go with that though--thanks:)
 
Good posts you guys.:thumbsup:
We all do have to remember though.
As far as pheasants, pheasants DO! need agriculture. Ring Neck Pheasants are NOT Native NOT Natural.
Pheasants are produced beyond doubt 99.99% something on private property.
Let's Not come down on privater property owners. :cheers:
 
Hang onto those memories. It's going to be awhile before we see some large scale changes. ;)

Lower corn prices won't bring fence lines/hedge rows back either. Once their removed (what few are left) their gone.

The only hope, as I see it, is re-instating soil bank. Can't see that happening any time soon--if ever.
 
A blending?

I also want to focus on what remains and to enjoy the finer points of pheasant hunting that I now have 46+ years of memories in.

As I read the above posts and posts on other forums/topics, I observed a blending of what nature is implementing on our bird populations and what influences man is having on those same populations. These are two entirely separate issues.

I agree that we all witness the "ebb and flow" of wildlife cycles and populations. Man's influence most definitely has a more immediate and longer-lasting impact on the birds we love to pursue.

I am not trying to stir any feeling amongst anyone. Just personally believe for future change and advancement of our sport that we all could use a "refresher" on the importance of not "blending" these two issues anymore.
 
The less/poorer the habitat the more severe weather will impact.
 
KBell said:
...As I read the above posts and posts on other forums/topics, I observed a blending of what nature is implementing on our bird populations and what influences man is having on those same populations. These are two entirely separate issues....
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Not necessarily seperate, no.
Man creates a demand for a crop or institutes government programs which may create habitat and bird populations beyond what Nature ever would give or be able to efficiently regulate.
Hunters simply are also not always satisfied with either species or populations that are natural and native...they want more.
Or Progress in some form rather than hunter demand alone, has delivered top habitat and an unnaturally high population of birds...such as pheasants and Set-Aside or ruffed grouse and turn-of-the-last-century timbering.
Nature's effects and repairs on issues beyond her ancient norms then can be both exaggerrated and stressed to the breaking.
There is the lack of seperateness.

Most any issue is best solved by considering that little today exists independently.
Man changed the rules of Nature's game...we can now not buy out or ignore everyone at the table.
 
I'm almost glad I missed the hey day of pheasant hunting around here. I only know what I have now and I'm grateful to bag the few wild birds I manage each season. The biggest flush I've ever seen was 8 birds, 3 hens and 5 roosters. I was out of range but even if the dogs and I were there when it happened I probably would've just stood in amazement.
 
I'm glad I didn't miss the hey day, saw it twice Soil Bank and CRP.
But I'm with you guys.:) Last Fall MT opener I logged 12 miles on my GPS. Saw 4 roosters and got 2. Same type thing next day.
It was a Great weekend.:thumbsup:
 
mnmthunting said:
I'm glad I didn't miss the hey day, saw it twice Soil Bank and CRP.
But I'm with you guys.:) Last Fall MT opener I logged 12 miles on my GPS. Saw 4 roosters and got 2. Same type thing next day.
It was a Great weekend.:thumbsup:
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I said I was almost glad.;) I hear my dads stories of going out after school with a couple buddies and no dogs and shooting limits in an hour or so. This was no more than 15 mins from my home, now the nearest wild bird is about 45mins away. If I had a choice to go to SD for a week or hunt my home county in the 70s for a week I would take good ol' Madera Co any day.:cheers:
 
Quail hound, Yes, I saw "almost glad" But you know:) Folks like you will be out there doing OK. Having a blast with the pups. :thumbsup:
Cool:cheers: good stuff.:10sign:
'
 
I would like to thank all the people who responed to the thread your thoughts and ideas are respected. When I wrote this I was influenced by the thought I cant control what is going on. Hearing everybody's thoughts makes me think dont take any day a field for granted. My situation I am lucky if I get to go to Nebraska every 2 to 3 years because of money or family. The other factor was seeing a old photo of me in a CRP field with grass about 4 1/2 feet high. An example of 1993, Uncle and I at sunrise hit an old hog pen with tumbleweeds and about 150 pheasants get up from a 50' by 50' hog pen. You really cant hear yourself think when that happens.:) I think I will just go for the ride instead of trying to control it.
 
I talked to the farmer yesterday and he told me what CRP there was is no longer around. It got put under the plow and I asked do you have any left and the answer was none left on his property. It is not all doom and gloom he said that, "The neighbors have CRP and he has seen a few birds". My friend asked if I was coming out this year and I told him I think I will. I have been in hell(Nebraska) for 25 years, but I am going to heaven(South Dakota) in 2 years. I am joking dont take that seriously, but I think South Dakota has a few more roosters than Nebraska:) Nebraska is always my first love!
 
Can't blame the farmer for the will to make good right now. I remember my Grandpa's words before he died. He said the dam price of corn has been the same for 30 *&^*in years. How are the kids going to make it. A small 600 acre farm, they weren't. 9 kids and all but one had to move on. But the crp thing may shorten the supply of birds. I just don't think it will be complete time of panic. If you were to visit Iowa the past 10 years with exception to the last one or so. It would have amazed you on the number of birds in such little acers of CRP. I suspect that will hold true for you in states like yours.:thumbsup: Just need mother nature to give em a bit of a break for a while again weather wise is all.;)
 
In the late 60's and early 70's as a youngster I used to walk out my back door with my mixed breed dog to hunt and flush wild birds in a sparsely populated suburb in northeast Ohio. The bird habitat was mostly comprised of a few small truck farms, overgrown or minimally cut pastures, orchards, second growth brush and wooded areas. As a kid I usually managed to bag a dozen or so roosters during the 6 wk. season, sometimes flushing flocks of up to 15- 20 or so wild birds. We bagged allot of bunnies and a few quail and grouse too. This was not a heavy ag area and it produced a viable wild bird population until the human sprawl took over.

I'm not a farmer but I think it's unwise to work the land edge to edge leaving almost nothing to it's natural course. Some degree of land and wildlife conservation should be inherent to owning and managing farmland and if it's not possible then there's something seriously wrong with the system that our ag culture and society has developed and bought itself into. It's not the Ag planting that's most beneficial to pheasants ... it's mostly the grass lands.

"...Common Pheasants are native to Asia, their original range extending from between the Black and Caspian Seas to Manchuria, Siberia, Korea, Mainland China and Taiwan. The birds are found in woodland, farmland, scrub and wetlands.In its natural habitat the Common Pheasant lives in grassland near water with small copses of trees. Extensively cleared farmland is marginal habitat that cannot maintain self-sustaining populations for long[17].[15]...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Pheasant


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