Statewide Iowa — The numbers from the latest pheasant season show the fifth straight increase in the number of birds taken. D-N-R researc
h biologist, Todd Bogenschutz says it is nice to see the pheasant recovery continue.
The harvest is up 24 percent from 2014 and it’s the highest since 2009.
Heavy snows and wet spring weather had devastated the pheasant population, and it has been a slow build back up. Bogenschutz says the conditions are right to see another increase.
Habitat has been another issue that’s impacted the pheasant population. Bogenschutz says the land that’s put into the Conservation Reserve Program really makes a difference.
While the pheasant population has rebounded, Bogenschutz doesn’t think it is all the way back yet.
He says it will be tough with the habitat situation to get up to 40 birds a route, and he says previous highs for the harvest are a long way off.
Bogenschutz will conduct a new pheasant survey in August of this year to determine the outlook for the next season.
