Free: Contests & Raffles.
I'm not aware of anything the WDFW does for upland birds, at all. I guess they figure setting aside a couple tracts of land, often *censored*ty habitat, will help our birds.
Here's an interesting read I just came across on the WDFW site:http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/water/pheasant_workshop.pdf
In the 1960's WA pheasant harvest was equal to or greater than the Dakotas. Even in the late 70's there was a harvest of over 500,000 birds. Now the harvest numbers include all the released birds but most estimated WILD BIRD harvest is around 50,000. Facts are facts. If they are managing for wild birds then they hardly could be doing a worse job of it.
Very good point. I read somewhere, cant remember the article or magazine, that in 2005 there was some 5-600,000 acres of crp that was lost throughout America. Everyone wanted to replant the land with wheat because of the price. That is alot of habitat.Brandon
I read the study, and it does seem promising. Does anybody know of the WDFW working with any farmers via the Farm Bill or anything of that sort? I have never heard of any in the Yakima Valley, but my experience is limited to there only. I have hunted some public CRP ground on the Snake, very over-hunted, very few birds. I think the Yakama Reservation has two great factors working for its pheasants still: they farm the old way, watering via ditches that provide cover; and the "Feel Free To Hunt" lands that they set aside to let go provide great cover. They seem to work best when they are next to a food source... corn, asparagas, etc. If this was implemented state-wide, we would have more birds. Our farmers would just have to care about pheasants, like they do in the Dakotas.
On a side note: I think the harvest numbers that they publish are total BS. They show Whitman county pheasant harvest at 15000 + birds. That means on average there are a 165 birds a day killed throughout the season. Put another way that means 50+ guys a day have to shoot their limits every day of the season. There's no way. Apart from opening weekend, Thanksgiving weekend, and parents weekend at WSU I'd be shocked if their are 50 guys even hunting on most weekend days.... let alone all shooting limits or hunting during the week. Their harvest reports are full of crap.
Growing up in Colfax and belonging to a farming family, I would have to strongly disagree with lack of habitat, 10 dollar wheat, etc as exuses for lack of birds in Whitman. In 1994, there was very little CRP in Whitman county - the amount of CRP cover that we have today is 10 fold what we had 10 or 11 years ago. We had 10 dollar wheat for one year - have you looked at recent wheat prices? I can also tell you that very little CRP came out to plant crop! Farmers could barely afford to plant the fall crop this year with inflated diesel and fertilizer costs. The harsh winter and wet spring are the reasons you are not seeing birds. Three years ago was the best pheasant year we ever had. You would see 500 birds a day easy on our place. This year you will be lucky to see 40. This is not from overhunting or lack of habitat - we allow very limited hunting and the habitat was outstanding this year with the wet spring. My
You dont know much about sustaining a good Elk heard do you bobcat.........dont feed them = dont hunt them.
For nesting and reproduction, some years are good, some years are bad. This year, not so good.For habitat, in dryland areas, things are worse than the 60's-early 70's, when all the fencerows were in. Things are better than the late 80's-90's, when everybody plowed and farmed everything.In irrigated ground, frankly, given the chemigation programs and the practices of industrial agriculture, it's amazing anything is alive.Wild bird production went gunnybag the year the idiout legislator from Gig Harbor decided that pheasant release as practiced on the west side should be done statewide. After that, all the funding left the wild bird program, and now they release prison raised birds. In western WA, so be it. In eastern WA, it feeds the coyotes and the hawks.We could have both, but we won't because there isn't enough money for both and the majority of W.Washington hunters want release programs in Eastern Wa. Look at where they are. Yes, they are exactly like planted trout programs, and it is easy to measure performance: raised x birds, deployed x birds, observed y hunters, = x/y birds per hunter. Success.Promote habitat, access and wild birds through chick raising programs in 4H and other civic clubs along with limited feeding programs, promote ethical hunting and tourism, and all of a sudden it works, the populations become able to naturally survive down condition years, but success is difficult to measure precisely. See turkeys. Promote hucking chickens out of the back of the truck so prisoners have something to do, and you have what we have.Promote wild fish and the values that create them, and you have a sustainable fishery. Promote hatcheries, you have what we have. Can't wait until they try to fix the "mule deer problem".I think to fix this minds need to change in the public, the legislature, and the department.
