You haven't heard of CRP? Hundreds of thousands of acres of warm season grasses, nesting cover, weeds, and all sorts of game friendly habitat.
Yes, I have heard of it, even mentioned it before you in my previous post.....
every farmer had land in what they then called "soil bank". Now we call it conservation reserve.
The intials CRP stands for
conservation reserve program.
While there still is a program to pay farmers to "set aside" land, there is considerably less of it being set aside around here for numerous reasons. Less money available means less land in the program. Less money paid per acre means the farmer is better off to farm it. Difficulty in getting land in or keeping it in means farmers don't bother. Add to the fact that not all natural grasses are conducive to Pheasant Habitat. CRP worked fabulously for pheasants in the Dakotas. While it helped in many areas of Eastern Washington, CRP also resulted in vast monocultures of crested wheat grass that became wastelands for pheasants. Used to be ditches and fencelines were left to grow. Now the county mows the ditches and the farmers spray the fencelines. Used to be farmers had windbreaks along fields to help fight erosion....now they are gone and turned into fields themselves because of new tillage practices.
Like I said, that won't pay the gas bill to drive to the fur house.
........and the $5-$10 bounty is? Again, it has been proven over and over that bounties do not greatly increase the numbers of animals killed or hunted. It only costs the state to pay for animals that would have been shot anyway.
Originally, you argued that removing varmints and raptors would cause a massive surge in the rodent population.
The elimination of every varmint and raptor would lead to massive surges of rodents. Look at areas like Australia and some isolated islands that had no native predators after mice rats were accidentally introduced. While I agree that reducing predator populations will help increase some game numbers, like anything else in nature, there must be a balance. This is why we have seasons on fox and bobcat around here. This is why raptors are under Federal protection. Man does very well at screwing up Ma Nature's balance, especially when it comes to hunting. We want ten Pheasants behind every cornstalk and five deer behind every tree without considering what those populations do to the habitat and what they need for habitat.
Over the decades I've been farming and hunting, I've seen plenty of regulations foisted upon the landowners and public by "game managers". Some worked OK and some didn't.
It's called learning from experience. It's also called changing the regs as the public and Ma Nature demand. For every Pheasant hunter that wants to limit out everytime he goes out hunting, there is another person that gets the same thrill from watching a pair of Red-Tails hunting or hearing a Horned Owl hoot at sunset. Like it or not, wildlife managers nowadays manage for both.
It comes down to Pheasants will not survive in the wild without the proper habitat.....period. This is one of those lessons learned. Monies spent on raising birds should also go to provide and pay landowners for habitat. Read the Mission statement of Pheasants Forever...
Our Mission
Pheasants Forever is dedicated to the conservation of pheasants, quail and other wildlife through habitat improvements, public awareness, education and land management policies and programs.
Many states will still stock pheasants on a give and take basis, just because the public and hunters demand it. Again, even with proper habitat, stocking needs to be done to supplement native animals when and where pressure demands. Just like the stocking of trout/walleyes in the best of habitat. These things are all viable and possible and have broad public support. Unlike the implementation of bounties on Raptors.
ay bounties on coyotes, foxes, and feral cats.