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I'll Take Wild Birds, anyday!
By Tony Dean
For the Argus Leader
PUBLISHED: October 31, 2007
There were many pheasants in most parts of South Dakota on the opener, and again this past weekend. Our opening day party of 12, hunting near Kimball in the heart of some of our best pheasant country, saw lots of birds. However, I'm not sure there weren't as many a couple of years ago. Time and hunting in other locations will tell.
Truth is, opening day of our pheasant season ought to be a state holiday. I'm told the Cabela's store in Mitchell was jammed with residents and non-residents. I saw evidence of the interest in the Dakotamart sporting goods section in Pierre on the day before the opener. It was packed, and Ken Koistenen, a former high school football coach who works in the sporting goods department there, said Friday night would be even busier.
No question, pheasant hunting in South Dakota gives us a tremendous economic boost, somewhere near $200 million. It would be nice if it were that way every year. However, a South Dakota without a Conservation Reserve Program looms over the festive atmosphere that captures our state.
Almost everyone agrees. If we lose CRP, we'll quickly revert back to the days of the 1970s when low pheasant numbers prompted former Gov. Richard Kneip to create a Pheasant Congress tasked with coming up with ways to build the population toward 10 million birds. The original plan called for habitat, restocking and predator management - where necessary - but without the boost provided by the CRP, it would have been for naught. That's the reality we face as we bask in the glow of terrific pheasant hunting. Without the large expanses of CRP grass, predators will find easy pickings.
Some residents feel shut out of hunting places when bird numbers are high, and might even want a return to lower populations and a welcome mat laid out by landowners. One told me he always enjoyed better pheasant hunting when populations were lower, simply because he had more places to hunt. I'm not so sure that would be the case this time around because many landowners and small towns have grown accustomed to the cash injection the season provides and would attempt to insure it by restocking. But efforts like that resemble small Band-Aids that curb the bleeding a bit, though the patient dies of shock.
Even if they restock, you won't see anything like what I experienced on opening day. Large numbers of wild birds flushing out of a weed patch located on a draw surrounded by small, easy-to-hunt strips of milo. Moreover, I'm not sure, especially in this day of avian diseases, that it's healthy to fill the state with stocked birds that until their release are confined in crowded pens. Seems to me such places provide a healthy breeding place for disease. And no one knows how pen-raised birds released into the wild; ultimately affect the genetics of wild birds.
A friend who operates a preserve where releases are mandated, tells me he's convinced it takes those pen-raised stockers more than a few days to gain the wariness wild birds seem endowed with from the start. For the first time, they face danger in the form of avian predators. And doubtless, some will meet their first red fox.
As for me, I truly prefer a South Dakota where the birds are wild and act that way. If that weren't the case, I wouldn't enjoy the late season hunting the way I do. Those at-your-feet explosive flushes are great, but so is hunting wild birds when they learn to not trust anyone wearing blaze orange. I am always amazed at how a flushing bird can see two orange-clad hunters a hundred yards apart, and bisect the distance between them. At such times, you realize how few pheasants are killed at ranges beyond 50 yards.
No, I will take wild birds. How about you?
Tony Dean, an outdoor broadcaster, writes a column every Wednesday for the Argus Leader.
I'll Take Wild Birds, anyday!
