The future doesn't look good at all for CRP. And that's sad. CRP brought us a real resurgence in bird numbers in the Midwest, especially pheasants. Here in Iowa, we went from what was then an all-time low season bag of 724,000 in 1984 to 1.4 million in 1987. 2 million acres of instant habitat will do that for you. And having lost many of the little spots that used to hold a bird or two . . . fewer fencerows, draws, small pocket wet spots, etc . . . things don't look great.

These days, Iowa pheasant hunters would whoop and holler with joy if we had a 700,000 bird season.