6/19/2007

Iowa Pheasant Harvest Down from 2005

DES MOINES - The estimated Iowa pheasant harvest for the 2006-07 season was just under 750,000 birds, which was a decline of nearly 60,000 from the 2005 harvest. While the harvest was down, Iowa remains one of the premier states to hunt pheasants attracting hunters from 43 different states.

This is the third year in a row that harvest was below 1 million.

An all-time low number of 118,000 hunters pursued rooster pheasants last fall in Iowa, including 27,000 nonresidents. The previous low was 122,000 hunters following the bad winter of 2001.

Just 10 years ago, Iowa boasted more than 200,000 pheasant hunters, including more than 50,000 nonresidents. The decline in harvest and hunter numbers can be traced to a decline in pheasant habitat.

As contracts covering large blocks of land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program were placed back in to row crop production, pheasants lost critical winter cover and spring nesting habitat. Other factors assisting the pheasant population decline include less small grain fields and a decrease in hay production.

While the pheasant harvest was down, the estimated quail harvest rebounded with more than 75,000 quail taken during the 2006-07 season. The number of resident quail hunters increased 16 percent from 2005.

Hunters harvested nearly 11,000 partridge and 156,000 cottontail rabbits from the previous year, which was a decrease of more than a 25 percent for each species.

For more information, contact Todd Bogenschutz at 515-432-2823.