Is it a Concern Pheasant Hunters are Declining?

[Fish Felon]

OUTDOORS

Pheasant hunting dilemma: Where are the hunters?

By DOUG SMITH , STAR TRIBUNE
October 18, 2014 - 9:12 PM


Except for the oldest, numbers have slipped dramatically since 2007.

While Minnesota pheasant hunter numbers have plunged 40 percent in the past eight years, one segment of the hunter population has continued to chase roosters: older hunters.

The DNR sold about 129,000 pheasant stamps in 2006 and 2007 — when hunter numbers and pheasant harvest last peaked. Last year, it sold around 78,000.

An examination of stamp sales by age shows the percentage of pheasant hunters age 55 and older fell by just 7.5 percent since 2006.

All other age categories plummeted.

Pheasant stamp sales dipped by 49 percent for hunters age 18 to 24 and by 44 percent for ages 25 to 40. The numbers fell by 46 percent for ages 40 to 55 — the largest segment of pheasant hunters.

Officials are uncertain if the poor economy during that period contributed to the decline. But other hunter types fell far less, or increased, during the same period. State duck stamp sales, for example, fell by about 10 percent, and the estimated number of ruffed grouse hunters fell by about 11 percent. Deer hunter numbers increased by 6 percent.

Wildlife and conservation officials blame the drop in pheasant hunters primarily on declining pheasant populations spurred by loss of habitat. But older hunters are ignoring those factors and continuing to hunt ringnecks.


“That doesn’t surprise me,’’ said Bob St. Pierre, vice president of marketing for Pheasants Forever. “It’s tradition for them, and older hunters probably have the time and resources to own a hunting dog. When you own a dog, you are even more compelled to get out there [pheasant hunting].’’

Added St. Pierre: “If you’re 25 and living in an apartment with no dog and bird numbers are down, it’s easier to find something else to do.’’

Jay Johnson, Department of Natural Resources hunter recruitment and retention supervisor, said older pheasant hunters who do drop out also aren’t being replaced, which compounds the problem.

“We’re not recruiting younger hunters to pheasant hunting,’’ Johnson said.

But St. Pierre and Johnson both say the large drop in pheasant habitat is a major reason for the falloff in hunter numbers.

“In 2007, we harvested 655,000 birds, a 60-year high,’’ St. Pierre said. “That also was the peak of the Conservation Reserve Program [CRP] and bird population. Since then, we’ve lost millions upon millions of CRP acres [nationally], bird numbers have fallen and hunters have been lost.

“If we can boost habitat again, bird numbers and hunter numbers will come back. Those three components are absolutely interlinked.’’

Last year, Minnesota hunters killed 169,000 roosters, the lowest number in 27 years and the fourth lowest in 85 years. And pheasant stamp sales were the lowest since stamps were first sold in 1983.

Sales this season are off to a slow start. Through last weekend, the pheasant season opener, the DNR sold 54,000 stamps, about 3,400 fewer than the same time last year. After opening weekend in 2006, the DNR sold more than 91,000 stamps.


Pheasant habitat, too, has declined. In 2007, the state had 1.72 million acres of grasslands in the pheasant range. This year, there’s an estimated 1.63 million acres, a decline of 93,000 acres, or 145 square miles.

“Our biggest focus has to be on the habitat component,’’ St. Pierre said. “If we have habitat, we have birds and hunter access.

“Are we in a dire situation? Absolutely. But when haven’t we been in a dire situation? This is why we exist.’’

Johnson noted the DNR has been adding more public hunting lands and created the walk-in access program to help hunters find places to hunt. Under that program, 21,000 acres of private land at 181 sites are open to public hunting.

“But we’re losing the overall habitat war,’’ he said. “You have to have sustainable huntable pheasant populations and a place to hunt.’’

Johnson said changes in society also are playing a big role in the decline of pheasant hunters — and the chances of boosting hunter numbers in the future. The DNR offers hunting programs for youths and women, but ultimately, he said, it’s up to individual hunters to keep Minnesota’s hunting tradition alive.

“We can work to create an environment that best supports pheasants and pheasant hunters,’’ he said. “What we can’t do is social-engineer pheasant hunters.

“What we need is for existing hunters to make recruiting the youths in their families a priority. No one has a greater influence on a kid’s future.’’ He said the DNR plans to increase efforts to enlist young adults to hunting, so they, in turn, can bring their kids into the sport.

“Unless something structurally changes with familial recruitment into pheasant hunting, we’ll just be working with a smaller and smaller core group of people,’’ Johnson said.

There already have been financial ramifications. The loss of nearly 52,000 pheasant stamp sales represents a loss of nearly $400,000 in revenue to the DNR.

Minnesota membership in Pheasants Forever, the national conservation group founded in St. Paul in 1982, has grown from 22,870 in 2007 to 24,634 today. Nevertheless, the overall decline in pheasant hunter numbers is disconcerting, St. Pierre said. “It’s our target market.’’

Meanwhile, the issues of pheasant habitat and hunter numbers are expected to be primary topics at the first-ever Minnesota Pheasant Summit set for Dec. 13 in Marshall.

Doug Smith • 612-673-7667

[WALKER]

No worries

The governor's pheasant summit will fix everything

It is fairly basic in my area: No pheasants =less pheasant hunters

[Waterfowlist]

Of all of the exotic species that thrive why can't you pheasants be one of them.

[NitroZ9 Duck Killin]

Pheasants are no different than Zebra Mussels or Asian Carp.

Invasive species that should be exterminated.

[lanyard]

I thought it was interesting that used duck hunter number during the same period. Duck hunter numbers shed drastically over several years and are at bottom... It would be a big stretch to lose another 50% in a short period change, but dropping 10% plus will do it.

They more likely need to look at where the younger people went, not how much other game was lost. Based on other reports and the amount of media, product, and retail space devoted to it, I'd say their younger hunters are sitting in tree stands all fall.

The stat I missed was change in small game license purchases.... needed for the the three species mentioned above.

BS if they can't social-engineer pheasant hunters, or at least try.... that's what they're doing with the youth and women programs.

One more example of how DNR is living on a "past" way of thinking. Current land issues are what they are, they will now need to consider actions appropriate to the current reality. Stating, "well, when the land goes away the pheasants are less and we get less hunters and we are losing the land war..."..... News Flash: You've been losing the land war for 100 years.

Dayton's pheasant summit is going to be a joke. They will meet, they will yap at each other, then release a 50 year plan that says, "Pheasants need habitat!" Better off taking that money and managing some existing property so it can actually produce birds.

[Fish Felon]

I really don't think there even is an issue and I couldn't agree more that the summit is a complete joke.

We've been fortunate in MN when it comes to recent habitat loss (relatively speaking), only losing 93,000 acres in the pheasant belt since 2007. I know there's a lot of dedicated funding detractors but it is certainly working and putting a significant amount of permanent habitat on the ground (new WPA's especially).

Let's be real...there wasn't that big of a difference in habitat between '06-'07 and now. We've had pretty piss poor nesting seasons since then with some bad winters mixed in (versus the string of good winters and springs before that 'boom'). If we get a couple decent years of production back to back MN hunters will shoot 500,000 roosters. It's that simple.

It's just like Mille Lacs. All the doom and gloom is going to magically disappear as early as next year and no later than spring of 2016. I've been saying this for a year; the 2013 walleye year class on that lake will be unparalleled and 2014 isn't far behind it.

Mother nature is and always will be the best wildlife manager.

[lanyard]

Mother nature is and always will be the best wildlife manager.

Like hell... let's see her biology degree from the U of M!

[h2ofwlr]

^^^ Sounds like a bureaucrat in the making....

Spot on FF on your assesment of the last 15 years.

[lanyard]

^^^ Sounds like a bureaucrat in the making....

Irony is rather lost you at times.

[h2ofwlr]

Actually it was lost on you as I knew what you meant and took a jab at your stance as I knew how much you love bureaucrats.