Hate for this to be my first post but..

[pheasant14]

I live in the southwestern part of the state, Mount Ayr, which is about 15 miles from the MO border. I took my kids ages 14 and 12 out for youth season the last couple days. We walked for ten hours in two days and seen ONE hen! I cant believe its gotten this bad, I am truly contemplating selling my bird dogs as the price of food is getting out of hand and whats the use of having dogs if there aint anything to hunt lol. I had a feeling it was gonna be this bad because when I would take my dogs out to run them I wouldn't see much of anything. And the local farmers all said they didnt see much during the hay season so my hopes werent that high to begin with but damn... its worse than I thought. Where the hell is DNR in all this? Don't they understand we are fast losing much needed hunting revenue in these small towns? I remember a time when celebs like Tom Seleck and Fuzzy Zellor were regular visitors to my town. The local motel and hunting lodges were booked solid november through january. All thats gone now.

[M. R. Byrd]

Sorry to hear of the poor bird populations there in SW Iowa. A group of us in Kansas are working to try to prevent that from happening here as the CRP acres expire.

[only a pointer]

I saw lots of phez in waterloo iowa i posted on here on a thread a few weeks ago its probably like mo it has pockets of birds you can always come over to gods country KANSAS, i remember big pheasnt numbers a few years ago around victor iowa hundreds of birds would get up just cant beleive hardly none around!

[parkerman]

I hunted in the Clearfield area, not far from Mnt Ayr from 1997 to 2001. Seems like the birds peaked around 1999. We used to get our limit on the opener, then were glad to get 2/hunter after that. I guess the demise of CRP is hurting things down there. I now hunt SD, get limits every day, but that might be a memory as SD is loosing CRP and the trend is not a friend. If I were you I'd go to the perserve there in Mnt Ayr and spend my time after those monster size bucks we would kick out of the ditches!

[UplandHntr]

sorry to hear of your low bird numbers but I could never even think about getting rid of my dogs. Ever
Ever

[pheasant14]

I wish I had the money to go to SD or hunt on the pay to hunt places but with five kids I just dont have the extra cash. I really have to disagree about the CRP having anything to do with the pheasant population decrease. I truly believe it has more to do with the weather and predators like cyotes, hawks, bobcats and turkeys. Its just a shame that Iowa's DNR is not near as proactive as SD's. Oh, and I hate to sell my dogs and it makes me sick to my stomach to even think about, but I cant justify keeping them if there isnt anything for them to hunt. It isnt fair to them, they need to be somewhere that the birds are. I have actually started coon hunting quite a bit and it aint bird hunting, but there are tons of coon out there lol! I truly wish there were more birds out there for my kids sake. I just about cried when my 12 year old son looked at me at three o'clock today after ten hours of walking in two days and said "Dad, lets go on home, there isnt any birds out here. All this walking for nothing." :-(

[pheasantaddict]

Bring back the crp and right habitat and you will have birds again! plain and simple. I live in SW Iowa and get as many pheasants as anyone in SD,ND,or Kansas.

[muddycreek]

Hmmm take away thousands of acres of habitat and it's the DNR's fault there are no birds? Not sure what they were supposed to do plant them with the corn and beans?

[pheasantaddict]

So what action are you taking to improve pheasant hunting in your area? Are you a member of PF? Do you volunteer help with the local conservation board? Are you educating landowners where you hunt about the benefits of crp and buffers? I never spent a day of hunting or working the dogs for nothing even if I didn't get anything. My dogs love just getting out. Theres no crying in hunting, unless its tears of joy.

[pheasant14]

So bring back the thousands of acres of CRP and the birds will come back? Its not that easy my friend. Most people I know around here didnt take their land out of CRP untill this and last year. The pheasant population was falling fast a long time before that. Fact is that Iowa farmers are involved in big business with the $4 corn and pheasant numbers mean very little to them. I am a member of our local conservation group called Ringgold County Outdoor Alliance. Its like pheasants forever or ducks unlimited but its a strickly local group that supports all kinds of hunting in our county. We hired a biologist to tell us what we needed to do to get pheasant numbers up and he said we needed to plant certain kinds breeds grass buffers in fence rows and such. We spent quite a bit of money on seed this last year a planted it all over the county. Next year we are getting a bunch of pen raised birds that have special breeding that gives them a better chance of survival. It may not be much but at least its something.