Pheasant hunting in Utah is difficult, because bird populations are low. I remember my Grandpa Colt talking about going to Delta, Richfield, Price and the Uintah Basin hunting pheasants. Back then there were a lot fewer people and more farm ground, plus the Fish and Game was raising and stocking pheasants, and ground was easier to get permission to hunt. I think the main difference, however between then and now is the habitat. The key to pheasant numbers is overwinter cover. We farm differently now that we did 50 years ago. We have put the water into pipes (good for water conservation) and lost the cover along our ditches, farm clean from edge to edge, then what’s left we turn the cows on all winter. Take a drive out through some of Utah’s best farm country this time of year and look to see where you can hide a pheasant. The fencerows are way too skinny. The only places left are the marshes. This is really sub-optimal habitat, but that’s where most of our over winter survival of pheasants comes from.
I grew up pheasant hunting in western Kansas. I thought it odd when I invited a Utah friend from college to go pheasant hunting with us in Kansas and he asked if he needed his waders. “Waders for pheasant hunting, what?†I now better understand that in the marshes is where he found wild birds to hunt in Utah.
What can we do about it? I’m not sure. If a landowner can get 15 more bales of hay or winter a few more cows it is probably worth more that having 5 more pheasants around. It takes a lot of water to grow good winter pheasant cover and water is money in Utah. The one thing I am sure of is that the Farm Bill being debated right now is absolutely critical to upland game populations throughout the country. After recently having lived in Nebraska for five years, I fully understand that the CRP program is what has made the pheasant populations what they are today.
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