The farm crisis of the 1980s fundamentally changed the Midwest in multiple ways, as did the large-scale loss of habitat on farm land leading up to it, which was the circumstance that ultimately created Pheasants Forever (PF) in St. Paul, Minn., in 1982.
Iowa is proud to be home to the first chapter outside of Minnesota, the Iowa Pioneer Chapter, and that excitement continues today as Iowa is home to the most chapters in the country with 94 active chapters across the state. Chapters and volunteers were motivated to create more habitat on private land, and in turn more pheasants for the hunters pursuing them.
Josh Divan, state coordinator for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever in Iowa, has been part of the long-standing partnership for habitat development with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) since he was hired as a PF Farm Bill Biologist in 2009.
The Iowa DNR and Pheasants Forever have been partnering to improve public lands in Iowa for more than 40 years, through funding, and for the last 20 years, by the addition of wildlife specialists employed by Pheasants Forever under contract with the DNR. Today, there are 11 wildlife management specialists across the state who provide additional capacity for Iowa DNR wildlife units to conduct habitat management on public lands which benefit a wide array of wildlife species including pheasants and quail.
The Iowa DNR began a private lands program to help landowners enroll in the Conservation Reserve Program and other federal programs in 2000. In 2009, an opportunity came to expand Iowa’s existing private lands team with additional PF staff to help the USDA provide wildlife technical assistance to even more landowners across the state. The common goal of more habitat on private lands made it a natural outcome for the state agency and conservation organization to expand their partnership.
“Without habitat on private land, we wouldn’t have the wildlife resources that we have in the state,” Divan said. “The more staff we have in the field, the better we can serve the landowners looking for wildlife habitat assistance. It’s important that people have a good experience with their habitat projects because we want them to be repeat customers.”
This DNR-Pheasants Forever partnership, along with other partners, including the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Farm Services Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Soil and Water Conservation Districts, has allowed for more contacts with landowners and subsequently more acres enrolled in the federal farm programs.
In addition to the wildlife specialists, Pheasants Forever will soon employ 16 farm bill biologists (currently six) and two precision ag & conservation specialists (currently one) across the state for habitat development. Contacts are available on the Pheasants Forever website at https://www.iowapf.net/staff/
Last year, PF field staff made 3,000 landowner contacts, wrote more than 550 plans and proposals, conducted 2,000 site visits and held 64 field days. In total, they provided technical assistance on 47,000 acres across the state. With the recent increase in staff, Divan expects to see the team connect with even more landowners and write more habitat plans in the coming years.
One potential habitat opportunity that Divan is particularly excited about is Iowa farmers’ interest in understanding the variability in crop performance within their fields. Divan said the use of precision conservation is a newer practice which utilizes agronomic data, such as yield data, to demonstrate how targeted habitat on specific areas can provide an increased benefit to the landowner by only enrolling the most problematic cropland acres
“A little bit of habitat on the right locations can benefit the farm and wildlife, improve the farmability and profitability of a working farm,” he said. “Marginal cropland makes great wildlife habitat. Our precision ag and conservation specialists work with farmers to improve the acres in production and improve their bottom line.
The Iowa DNR-Pheasants Forever partnership goes beyond habitat.
Pheasants Forever chapters play an important role in the state’s outreach effort to recruit, retain and reactive hunters, support learn to hunt events for youth and increasing more often, adults, and partner with the Becoming an Outdoors Woman workshops. Iowa PF also just gained its first Women on the Wing chapter.
“We certainly want to increase the number of people who are passionate about continuing in the tradition of hunting wild birds across Iowa,” Divan said. “But we also know that when we create a bird hunter, we’ve also created an advocate for habitat, an advocate for wild places, and an advocate for sound policies that support those things.”
The Iowa DNR and Pheasants Forever are celebrating 100 years of pheasant hunting in the Hawkeye State. The first season was held Oct. 20-22, 1925, when 13 counties in north central Iowa were opened to pheasant hunting. Hunters were allowed a three-rooster limit, for a half-day of hunting. An estimated 75,000 hunters participated.
Hunters can commemorate the 100th anniversary by purchasing a hard card featuring Iowa Pheasants Forever Print of the Year. Information on places to hunt, the August roadside survey results and more is available online by clicking the 100 Years of Pheasant Hunting graphic at www.iowadnr.gov/pheasantsurvey.
Pheasants Forever is offering commemorative apparel featuring both the 100 Years of Pheasant Hunting graphic and PF logo through an online, pop-up store at the following link https://iowahunting100.itemorder.com/shop/home/. According to PF staff, the store will be available intermittently throughout the year, with its initial opening running from Feb. 5-23, so mark that date on your calendar to visit the store.
