Weather tough on pheasants, too

The Christmas blizzard and an unrelenting winter have focused attention on the need for well-planned wildlife habitat, according to leaders of the local chapter of Pheasants Forever.

“It’s been a severe wake-up call,” said local guide and Pheasants Forever member Mike Kuchera. “It’s been a tough year on wildlife, and we lost a good percentage of birds this winter.”

Kuchera said the birds that have done well are those in areas offering sufficient cover and feed for survival. He remains hopeful that March’s weather will be mild, so it won’t impact pheasants negatively at a time of year when their energy reserves are already low.

Improving and expanding pheasant habitat is a prime mission of the Pheasant Country Chapter of Pheasants Forever, said Kuchera, who with Marc Bernard serves as club habitat co-chairman.

Chapter President Dave Allen said his club is coming off its best year in its history and has taken several major steps to improve bird habitat and guarantee great hunting for future generations. One such recent step was the purchase of 400 acres of prime habitat near Woonsocket, for preservation as a hunting area.

South Dakota has an economic stake in the well-being of its state bird. Pheasants Forever estimates that in 2008, 176,000 hunters spent $219.6 million and took home more than 1.9 million birds during the state’s pheasant-hunting season.

Mitchell’s 775-member club, formerly an independent organization, joined with Pheasants Forever in 2009 to take advantage of the national organization’s broad expertise and its connection to a wider array of conservation issues and projects.

Mitchell immediately became Pheasant Forever’s largest U.S. chapter, Allen said. The only North American chapter that exceeds Mitchell’s membership is in Calgary, Alberta, and Mitchell’s Pheasants Forever still has the largest banquet attendance. The local chapter’s 25th anniversary banquet will be Oct. 15, on the eve of the 2009 Pheasant Opener.

High grain prices have negatively impacted bird habitat statewide, and in some cases, landowners have cho- sen to plant crops rather than renew contracts with the federal government’s Conservation Reserve Program. Farmers receive an average of about $49 an acre for land under CRP contract in South Dakota, which is under the national average of about $53 an acre.

A 2009 Pheasants Forever survey revealed a 26 percent decrease in bird habitat from 2008, mainly attributed to the loss of 24 percent of the CRP land in South Dakota over the past three years. South Dakota had a total of 1.075 million CRP acres under contract in November, down from 1.247 million in September.

Last month, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Pheasants Forever members in Minnesota that his office will try to encourage conservation by opening 300,000 acres nationally to a new CRP general sign-up program. About 33,500 of those acres will be in South Dakota. The acres selected from offered contracts will be chosen for the land’s potential benefits to air, water and wildlife.

Locally, the Pheasant Country Chapter recently boosted its own habitat efforts with a $25,000 purchase of 400 acres of prime hunting land. The site, which is southeast of Woonsocket in Sanborn County and about 26 miles northwest of Mitchell, will be developed as model pheasant habitat. The site could be available for public access hunting as early as this fall.

“It’s flat ground with fairly good cover, and its use will be strictly limited to wildlife habitat,” Kuchera said. “It won’t be farmed or grazed.”

Kuchera said the sheer size of the plot makes it attractive to hunters who are often restricted to hunting on smaller acreages. Habitat biologist Mike Blaalid’s expertise will be used to develop the site, he said.

Blaalid, hired in August 2009, now works full-time for Pheasants Forever. The Pheasant County chapter donates $10,000 annually to Blaalid’s pay. The balance of his three-year contract is being paid by the Department of Game, Fish and Parks and the national office of Pheasants Forever.

Blaalid said his services are available free to any landowner who wants advice on developing wildlife habitat.

“We don’t do any bird stocking; we leave that to the landowner,” he said.

Blaalid said he often helps farmers who want to become involved in CRP. Under CRP, landowners convert crop or grazing land to prime wildlife cover. Enrollees receive an annual payment while they are in the program and the costs of adding plantings and other vegetative cover are often shared with the government.

Blaalid said he frequently works with long-time CRP enrollees and also with the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), a voluntary landretirement program that helps agricultural producers protect environmentally sensitive land, decrease erosion, restore wildlife habitat, and safeguard ground and surface water. There’s about 100,000 CREP acres under contract in South Dakota, said Daryl Campbell, conservation chief with the Farm Services Administration.

Blaalid said he’s hopeful that, with all of the habitat efforts going on in South Dakota, the pheasant population will remain strong.

“If you have habitat and good places for the pheasant to be, they’ll be OK,” Blaalid said.

A great year

In the past year, Mitchell’s Pheasant Country Chapter of Pheasants Forever:

• Became, with 775 adult members and 144 junior or “Ringneck” members, the No. 1 largest Pheasants Forever chapter in the nation.

• Hosted 550 people at the annual Pheasants Forever banquet at the Corn Palace.

• Helped hire full-time wildlife habitat biologist Mike Blaalid.

• Purchased, at a cost of $25,000, 400 acres of public-access hunting land.

• Donated $12,000 to the Davison County Conservation District for a no-till seed drill; $2,500 to the state youth trap shoot; $1,500 to Davison County 4-H shooting sports; $7,500 for trees for wildlife habitat; 3,000 bags of corn, milo, and sorghum seed for bird habitat.

In the near future, the chapter plans to host the following events:

• April 10: Seed Giveaway, 8 a.m., at the Big Green Fertilizer building.

• Oct. 15 Pheasants Forever Banquet, Corn Palace.

Tags: pheasants forever, news, local