2005 Numbers

[Mayfly]

Take a look at these numbers from last years roadside counts. It is a little more detailed than the general map we all have seen on the DNR site and in the papers. It breaks things down by counties.

Enjoy

http://www.mayflyvid.com/upload/files/1/CoDataMemo_ARS05.pdf

[ATM]

I did my own June roadside count on the way home from Bismarck ND this weekend. I took HWY 83 So. to Highway 12 in SD then went East to Wilmot SD then took 7 East from Ortonville through Minnesota.  I saw some pheasants in all 3 states I travelled 500 mile and saw around 50 pheasants, took a bit longer than just taking the interstate home but I found some land I want to try this fall so it was worth it. Adam 

[GOGETTER]

I had the opportunity to spend time on the road last fall in Yellow Medicine and Lac Qua Parle county's and I haven't seen that many birds in a lot of years.  2006 looks to be the Glory Year. 

[Mayfly]

DNR Reports

Favorable weather and nearly 2 million acres of grassland protected under farm conservation programs made 2005 one of the best pheasant hunting seasons in 40 years.
According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), hunters harvested 585,000 pheasants last fall - the highest harvest since 1964 - well above the 2004 harvest of 420,000 birds. Individually, hunters also harvested more doves and ducks.
?Landowners and conservationists have put together all the habitat elements for excellent pheasant production and in the last few years it has all come together.? said Dave Schad, director of the DNR Division of Fish and Wildlife. ?Severe winters in the mid-1990s and cool, wet springs more recently have limited pheasant production in the past 15 years. But in the last several years, the weather has been favorable and grassland habitat is abundant, thanks in large part to the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM).?
The number of active pheasant hunters increased to 111,000 in 2005 from 104,000 in 2004. Hunters averaged 5.3 birds each for 2005, compared with four birds per hunter in 2004.
Last year marks only the fourth time the pheasant harvest topped 500,000 birds since 1964, when Minnesota saw the last large-scale land retirement program expire. Under the Soil Bank program, which began in the mid 1950s, pheasant harvests of more than 1 million birds were common. In two out of the last three years, Minnesota?s pheasant harvest has topped the 500,000 mark.
?These are good times for pheasant hunters,? Schad said, ?but CRP contracts that cover some 1 million acres are set to expire from 2007-2009. If CRP is drastically altered, landowners will no longer have financial incentive to protect their most environmentally sensitive lands. Pheasants and other grassland bird species will decline.?
In the immediate future, pheasant hunting should be very good again, Schad said. ?Nesting conditions have been very favorable this year and habitat continues to be abundant. We will have more information on this fall?s prospects when annual roadside wildlife counts are completed in late August.?
The 2006 pheasant hunting season begins Oct. 14.