Where are the Pheasants?

[mike ohlstein]

Here's an excerpt from a hunting blog that I follow.

So it's not just us, bitching about corn fuel. I was supposed to go to SD for pheasants this year but the land owner cancelled the trip because there weren't enough birds….



http://bbs.shootingsportsman.com/showth ... #post52908


"20 plus roosters taken from grounds in SD not belonging to commercial operators may well be mind boggling this year.

I have taken thirty one birds total, hunting in MT and ND. I have also taken exactly three hunting 8 days in SD.

SD counties that just a year ago produced grains, wheat, milo, barley and oats are now wall to wall corn fields to feed the ethanol plants. Nearly every cat tail bog has been drained and shelter belts are falling to the bull dozer daily. CRP grounds have been going under the plow as they have come off contract. State wide in East River they are nearing being just a memory.

I am so thankful for my holdings and my contacts in MT and ND. They will allow me to hunt the very few years that my legs will carry me through good cover.

I thought non tox laws would be what would make me hang it up, but it is obvious that ethanol will be the cause.

I have seen habitat disappear from wonderful haunts east of here, all the way to the Finger Lakes area of Upper State New York and PA. and watched the pheasants disappear with it. I think I am seeing it again in SD. It will just be a year or two if the ethanol industry continues to receive subsidies, before it will happen in ND too.

I guess I should be thankful that I got to ride the crest of world class pheasant hunting on the High Plains. But I can't help feeling sad, at how it is coming down."

[MarkS]

Mike,
We bought the house in South Dakota in 2005 and rented 3 years previous to that. Thinking about the main 40 sections we have traveled past and hunted daily as well over that time I see no real noticeable difference in crop amounts It always seemed to me to be about 45% prairie, 35% corn and 10%/10% seeds and beans. I have not seen an attempt to create tillable land from what was previously swamp or tree lines either.

[Bruce]

Does that hold true for Grouse?