Over the first 100 years of pheasant hunting in South
Dakota, policies to encourage conservation and the creation
of habitat have ebbed and flowed. Needless to say, sound
conservation is an essential component in the plans for the
second century.
“If we can’t save pheasants in South Dakota, we should
get out of the business,” notes Dave Nomsen, vice president
of governmental affairs for Pheasants Forever (PF). “There
are lots of great places, but South Dakota is the flagship, the
premier destination.”Habitat Conservation History
According to data from South Dakota Game, Fish and
Parks (SDGFP), there were three notable blocks of time with
high pheasant populations over the last century. In the 1940s,
the average estimated pheasant population was about 11
million birds annually. From 1958 through 1964, estimated
populations averaged almost 10 million birds a year. And
from 2003 to 2010, the average population was about 9
million birds. What do these time periods have in common?
In general, there was more land out of production allowing for
more quality habitat. However, it is also important to reflect on
what happened between these pheasant boom times and those
times when populations were low.About the time the first pheasants were introduced
in South Dakota and the first hunting seasons took place,
agricultural production was increasing. Farmers were
sodbusting native grasslands and planting crops to feed
a growing nation and support the country during World
War I. But then grain prices dropped because of the glut of
commodities, and farmers needed to plant more acres of
crops in an effort to meet their expenses. This resulted in
even greater surpluses of grain. The plowing of the prairies
followed by severe drought in the early 1920s caused the
significant ecological damage of the “Dust Bowl” era and,
coupled with the economic collapse brought about by
the Great Depression, caused thousands of farms to fail.
Eventually, through President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New
Deal, federal programs helped stabilize agricultural lands, in
part by setting aside marginal acres from production. During
the 1940s, South Dakota and many other states established
conservation districts that encouraged practices like plantingbuffer strips and shelterbelts to reduce soil erosion. These
conservation efforts helped the state to realize its highest
average pheasant populations in history.
As farms got back on their feet, there was a new push for
production during the post-World War II era. The nation was
economically stable again, families were growing during the
Baby Boom and farmers responded to the demand. However,
once again, overproduction of grains led to significant drops in
commodity prices. To help provide more stability in prices, in
1956 Congress passed the Agriculture Act and created the Soil
Bank to provide rental payments to farmers who voluntarily
took land out of production. The Soil Bank idled 29 million
acres across the country, and cost sharing helped establish
310,000 acres of wildlife cover and 10,000 acres of marshland
between 1956 and 1964. Pheasants responded again to the
increase in quality habitat with populations nearly doubling
from the previous decade.
The most notable and long-term dip in the pheasant
population occurred in the late 1960s through the 1970s.
Much of this time is marked by the leadership of Earl Butz,
U.S. department of agriculture secretary from 1971 to 1976.
Butz advocated for increased commodity production, urging
farmers to plant from “fencerow to fencerow” and to “get
big or get out.” He eliminated government support programs,
established international markets for grains and encouraged
far wider use of grains in the food system. To keep up, farmers
borrowed heavily to improve the machinery needed to farm
huge swaths of land. Between 1969 and 1974 there was a
nearly 19 percent increase in acres of harvested cropland in
South Dakota. Pheasant populations tanked with average
populations dropping to around 2 million birds.By the 1980s, this policy of production crashed, causing
the greatest farming crisis since the Great Depression. “Old
timers” remembered the success of the Soil Bank program
and encouraged development of another set-aside program for
environmentally sensitive and highly erodible lands, and inGraphs illustrating both pheasant numbers and the number of acres of retired lands
shows a clear correlation between conservation habitat and pheasant populations.
(Graphic/South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks)
The Conservation Reserve Program and the associated Conservation Reserve
Enhancement Program (CREP) pay farmers to set aside acres of sensitive or highly
erodible lands to produce excellent pheasant habitat. This has been particularly
beneficial in targeted areas such as the James River Watershed where South Dakota
Game, Fish and Parks has also been working with the landowners to allow walk-in
hunting access on these areas. (Photo/South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks)