Here in Pa., at one time in the area where I live now, was probably the pheasant capital east of the Mississippi, back in the 70's mid 80's.
That was then, now it is like an endangered species The state doesn't release the young ones any more, and now in this section you are allowed to shoot hens if you as a hunter don't release any it doesn't make any difference if the season was open all year long.
Turkeys have taken over
So, I'm kind of bitter in that this state has let this program go the way of most other eastern states. They say lack of habitat, bull, there is still plenty of cover, they have to address the predator situation and re-introduce wild pheasants from wild pheasant states.
Please be advised that PA was never the "pheasant capital east of the Mississippi" except for people who never traveled beyond the borders of the state. However, PA is the "flyer" capital of the USA, but them's pigeons. Introduced pheasants never took on the east coast, even though George Washington was importing them before he had wooden teeth.
The pheasants we have in America were imported by Judge Owen Denny to Oregon in the 1880s, took, multiplied, and spread east, naturally or by stocking. They were particularly successful in the dry states like ND & SD because they could tolerate 50 below and dry, but not 40 above and wet. Illinois has historically been a productive state for wild pheasants, and, to my knowledge, the state has never had a stocking program in my lifetime (since 1940). As a kid in the 1950s I could stalk wild pheasants with my bow and "flu-flu" arrow within the city limits on the north side of Chicago. One prosperous day, my friend and I (both age 14) got up 178 birds in one field at Touhy and Central ave's. My first shotgun kill (1956) was with my Stevens/Savage Mod.24 .22/.410 O/U out behind my dad's warehouse in Franklin Park IL. When I started driving in 1957, I could go out to what is now part of Ohara International Airport and shoot wild pheasants, or on a farm on Shoe Factory road near Elgin. All these venues are now built up and paved over. This is called "lack of habitat."
But lack of habitat close in to a major city shouldn't affect the situation where I am now, on the IL/WI state line due south of Madison WI (about 110 miles NW of Chicago). What I have observed in my 35 years of living "where the deer and antelope play" is that the pheasant populations rise and fall depending on weather. As I type this I can close my eyes and visualize the 25 to 30 pheasants that once grazed my corn just outside my window on a December day just like this (6 degrees at noon, thin snow cover) about 6 winters ago...and then came spring, a wet early spring dampened the over-winter survivors and weakened (or killed) a percentage; the early spring germinated the good seeds and rotted the others, minimizing a food source before the bugs began to flourish...a double whammy! The survivors nested and we had several big rains; a large percentage of the first hatch failed and the survivors started a second nesting, which produced late-commer chicks that were, on the average, not going to survive the winter. The cocks shot that fall were mottled about the plumage at the head and not quite mature and robust.
Suffice it to say that the year following we didn't hear much squawking at dawn and dusk during the summer and fall, and hunting season was tough, numbers were down...and this is all FACT. As to OPINION(S), everybody has one or many, freely given, and worth what paid. Yes, we have coyotes and hawks, but living among them I have not seen evidence of depredation. We have turkeys, so many that they can spoil an evening's bow hunt for deer as they clatter to their roosts in my woods; my neighbor to the west has a "herd" of turkeys, I have counted over 50 and estimate as many as 75, and they are there in the field every day when I go to town to ship books (thanks to our Homeland Security, an author cannot put a boxed 4-lb book in his rural mail box with postage for pick-up, but it has to be hand carried to the PO and personally inspected by the postmaster). Anyway...
Pheasant populations have gone up and down over my 35 years of on site observation, but I don't recall a down cycle lasting so long (5 years and counting). As to pheasant cover and winter food sources I do not detect any changes, except with all the CRP it is probably for the better. The coyotes and feral cats aren't going to get any of that which isn't there, and the hawks come and go. But tings ain't what they used ta was. I have a pheasant heaven: 100 acres of 180 bu. corn stubble and 100 acres of bean stubble, with enough dropped grain to feed an army; there's 83 acres of CRP cover and trashy internal tree rows and several woods...and all my neighbors' properties are much the same. This is historically "pheasant heaven," but no pheasants! This may be a fluke, or it may be something as subtle and stealthy as "BT" corn or Roundup-Ready beans where the new-fangled production of the crops interferes with the production of pheasants...but not turkeys...or maybe the super-abundance of turkeys are driving out the pheasants (Canada geese are super-abundant, but ducks scarce, go figure?). I just don't know. But here's what I do:
This year I released 30 cock pheasants and shot 9 (plus one quail; we have always had one covey of quail); my neighbor releases hen pheasants, but doesn't hunt; so we shall see...yet I'm not seeing any today in that corn patch north of the house. ParkerDog is not finding any evidence of depredation; the presumed surviving 21 are either laying low, or have vaporized. Investigation continues.
Meanwhile, Pheasants Forever fiddles while the pheasant populations crash and burn. These guys have their drunken bash and raise money for two mis-directed projects:
(1) The local chapter proudly announced a donation of hard-raised cash to the Forest Preserve Taxing District, not for the propagation of pheasants, but for a program to bus inner-city kids to the Severson Dells Forest Preserve to enjoy a day in the country. Talk about losing focus!
(2) A portion of the local chapter's funds raised to forward the interests of pheasants goes to the national office where it pays lobbyists to go to Washington D. C. to "bite the hand that feeds." By and large the PF members are city folk who started out by raising $$$ (al la DU) to convince their country cousins to set aside pheasant cover, plant rows of winter feed, etc. Some chapters arranged with farmers to raise and release pheasants with various long-term results, mostly depending on location and climate. But then they over-played their hand: Instead of working with farmers the started to work against them in congress and with the regulators. Here's how...
Until about 10 years ago I would get a threatening letter the end of June from the USDA telling me to comply with state and local noxious weed laws under penalty of losing my CRP rent and government program entitlements. This meant spot mowing (or spraying) Canada thistle before it went to seed about July 4th, which every good farmer did as a matter of opportunity after crops were in and when the weeds reared their ugly heads, weather taken into account.
But then PF got the regs changed by convincing the powers that be that all the stupid farmers (upon whom they depend on to hunt) were doing all kinds of "recreational mowing," destroying pheasant nests on the CRP ground that they as taxpayers were supporting...and then I got the nasty letter in June telling me that if I cut my noxious weeds before August 1st the government would come down on me, cancel my CRP rents, make me pay back what ever they had ever paid and tie me on the economic railroad track--an exact 180 degree reversal of policy. The problem, of course, is that the noxious weeds head out and scatter their seeds before August 1st. What to do?
Well, some farmers went on as before and spot mowed as needed when needed to comply with state law. But there are groups of the proverbial "little old ladies in tennis shoes" who devote their lives to objecting to roadside mowing by the state, counties, and townships, because they believe wild animals ought to be encouraged to live in close proximity to traffic. After being frustrated in their efforts against the various governments, they turned their attentions to enforcing the new CRP regs, using the Freedom of Information Act, to get names and locations, etc. and blowing the whistle on hapless farmers caught between federal regs and state laws. Thank you Pheasants Forever...Oh! yes...
There is now a relief provision. I can now go out and scout for weeds in late June (not on the tractor with mower) but in the truck. I can produce a map and mowing plan and drive 30 miles to my local gov. Farm Service office and file it, asking for permission to mow the selected areas. This petition must be heard by the county committee (assuming they meet and have a quorum), and I suppose they can send out someone to investigate...etc. If and when they approve my mowing request/plan and time and weather permitting, I may be able to mow the Canada thistle, but likely not. Thanks again Pheasants Forever!
And now you see why Pheasants Forever is giving their money to the Forest Preserve Taxing District instead of raising pheasants for release and/or establishing cover and food plots with the cooperation of farmers. Every time I see a patch of Canada thistle in my neighborhood, I think of PF throwing a monkey wrench in the ordinary scheme of things...and don't you think this hasn't affected pheasant hunting hereabouts. Pheasants Forever has truly bit the hands that feed. The symbiotic relationship has been diminished. If I were a local pheasant hunter contemplating joining an organization devoted to busing inner-city kids to the Forest Preserve for a day of non-hunting, I think my money would be better spent with PETA. As Pogo was wont to say, "We have found the enemy and he is us>" EDM