Pheasants almost certainly rely on trends in agriculture more than any of our other upland birds. CRP reversed a decline in pheasant numbers and gave us an additional couple decades' worth of really good hunting. The confluence of a tight economy with less govt money available and high commodity prices is rapidly reducing those gains.
There are various reasons to rejoice that one has reached seasoned citizen status. One of mine is that I lived through years of truly excellent pheasant numbers, and was fortunate enough to have a lot of time to hunt them. And I'm also old enough to remember when Iowa still had good numbers of both quail and ruffed grouse.
