JDW-
Revenue from bird hunting didn't save the Iowa's pheasants. I'm wonder if it will matter in SD.
OWD
OWD, when it comes to looking at pheasant hunting as a source of revenue, there's a world of difference between IA and SD. It's been regarded as a business and a very important source of revenue in SD--both for the state and for the private sector. Even when IA was the #1 pheasant state in the nation--which we tend to forget it was, for 11 out of 15 years 1985-99--not many people thought of it that way, even though it was by far the major "tourist" industry for quite a few small towns. But Iowa never had the big outfitters and pheasant hunting lodges like SD, and the state actively discouraged landowners from charging hunters a "trespass fee"--even though they were allowed to do that under CRP regulations. Thus, there has not been much of a "business" lobby for pheasant hunting in Iowa. What Iowa does have, however, is more Pheasants Forever chapters (more of them than the state's 99 counties) and more PF members than any other state. But that hasn't saved Iowa's pheasants either.
However, weather has played more of a role in the pheasant decline in Iowa than it has anywhere else: a succession of winters with above average snowfall followed by springs that were cooler and wetter than average. Luck of the draw. Very bad luck. For as long as there have been weather records kept in Iowa, the state had never experienced anything like that. CRP losses also hurt, and even without the long run of bad weather, pheasant numbers would have declined some. But they would not have dropped anywhere nearly as drastically as they have (to about 10% the number of birds that were being bagged just 10 years ago) had it not been for the bad weather.
