High Corn Prices Hurt Pheasants

With corn crops reaching $7.55 a bushel, farmers in Nebraska are plowing up their land and cashing in this year. This is bad news for the state's pheasant population.

Pheasant populations depend nesting cover and habitat suitable to raise a brood of chicks. In previous years, the Conservation Reserve Program provided this crucial habitat. The United States Department of Agriculture formed the Conservation Reserve Program to protect our nation's soils after conservationists realized the need to prevent soil erosion. In an effort to prevent another Dust Bowl type event,  the U.S. government paid landowners to keep their land out of production. Instead of raising crops, farmers planted grasses that used to dominate the Great Plains. As a result, wildlife populations that declined  due to habitat loss, began to rebound.

Quality habitat is paramount in maintaining healthy pheasant populations. Nesting cover is crucial to raising a healthy brood to replace adults killed in the previous year. The less a hen pheasant has to move her brood to find resources, the better the chance of the brood's survival, according to a 1989 article in Nebraskaland.

An article from Larkin Powell's blog says that research has shown that CRP fields hold more pheasants which have an increased survival rate.

The problem is that more and more farmers and landowners are taking their land out of the Conservation Reserve Program and replacing native grasses with corn. The state has lost about 400,000 acres of CRP land since 2007, according to a June 19 article from the Lincoln Journal Star. Such a huge reduction in habitat will take a heavy toll on already declining pheasant populations.

It is understandable that landowners are trying to make a little more money to support themselves and their families, but we must strike a balance between economics and conservation. As we move forward, wildlife biologists must find a way to work with landowners to continue to promote the conservation of wildlife and their needed habitats while still making economic gains. Education and sustainable farming practices need to be implemented to protect ourselves and wildlife.