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Post by richg on Apr 13, 2013 8:07:28 GMT -5
Several? 20 years now Doug...... time flies. LOL That's OK Doug,the older you get the faster time flies.I guess you're getting older.Soon you'll be considered an old coot like Brad. ;D
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Post by Dutch on Apr 13, 2013 8:30:47 GMT -5
Several? 20 years now Doug...... time flies. LOL That's OK Doug,the older you get the faster time flies.I guess you're getting older.Soon you'll be considered an old coot like Brad. ;D I try to be nice and this is the thanks I get. LOL
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Post by richg on Apr 14, 2013 17:58:07 GMT -5
You are a nice feller Brad and so is Doug but one of you are an old coot and the other aint far behint. Speaking of which,Doug why do people in Clearfield say behint instead of behind?Yinz got bad water up there abouts?
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Post by dougell on Apr 14, 2013 20:45:51 GMT -5
Couldn't tell you much about the local culture of lack there of as I'm a transplant.Weather was pretty good today.
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Post by Roosterslammer on Apr 16, 2013 9:57:14 GMT -5
The wild pheasant plan has been in the works for many years. Habitat work started at PPL over 20 years ago with the idea that pheasants would reproduce and establish there if the cover were improved. Now before you say "that sounds very familiar", there was a missing ingredient. Wild birds to start the program evaded the project for a lot of years. Finding a state to let us trap pheasants was very difficult and continues to be one of the hardest parts of the plan. Even though SD has millions of them, it isn't politically easy to let your birds be trappped and taken somewhere else. As soon as a hunter doesn't get his limit of birds, it's because "they're sending them to Pennsylvania." Through a joint effort of PF and the PGC, a number of Indian reservations were contacted and paid for the birds that were taken. SD also allowed a turkey/pheasant swap so SD could say they were getting something the hunters in SD could benefit from. So now we had the much needed wild bird. Game farm birds will not create a wild population. It is either genetics or behavioral or both but it just won't happen. Better cover will allow more to survive longer but surviving in an area where everything wants to eat you requires a smart and conditioned bird.
The second part of the puzzle came through with the CREP program. Tens of thousands of acres of grassland habitat. Just what the Dr. ordered. It was a combination of cool and warm season grasses that would provide nesting and winter cover. Two things the PA landscape was in short supply. Everything started to go well but we weren't seeing the kind of growth explosion that is possible with wild pheasants in good habitat. It didn't take long to see the problem as the warm season grass fields we were counting on were providing little to no winter cover. The big bluestem and indian grass would be flat on the ground even before the winter snows came. The only places we were seeing good growth was on a few select farms that had something the others didn't have- switchgrass! The more switchgrass on a farm, the more birds there were on it. The larger the switchgrass fields, the more birds there were as you might expect. We are now in the process ( which started last year) to seed and interseed as much switchgrass as we can on existing CREP fields. We also found out we can change cool season fields to warm season fields at CREP renewal time alowing us to reseed even more acres. Even though we have less CREP than before, we still have a few thousand acres in the WPRA to develop and provide hunters with an opportunity to hunt wild birds. We will continue to work to expand habitat outside the WPRA so the population can grow across the landscape. We don't think this is a statewide option and never have. Much of PA is not suitable habitat but things are constantly changing, a good crop year will lower the price of corn and beans and if they stop using corn for ethenol, things can change a lot on the agricultural scene.
Hunting these areas will be slow as we test options to allow hunters the opportunity to hunt these birds either on private or land open to hunting. There will be some of both as there is for anything else. I believe that a short season (2 weeks) and a 1 rooster/season limit, through a PALS tag. This allows all those who want to try and hunt a wild pheasant the chance. Harvesting up to 90% of roosters has shown to not affect a pheasant population. With posted ground, safety zones etc, this won't be a problem. Protecting the hens, will be the primary goal. We will do all we can to help hunters understand that NO hen shooting will be allowed and the PGC will work to enforce that rule. If we shoot the hens, it's not going to work. My idea of the first wild pheasant hunt will be pointing and flushing a number of hens and one person in the party bagging a wild pheasant. If that is not suitable, there will be 250,000 game farm birds you can limit out on and fill your bag. Something for everyone is the goal. As we monitor the impact on the birds, restrictions can be relaxed.
We have a plan in place to plant 4 to 5 hundred acres of switch a year going forward. Only $$$ is holding us back. As we see more success, we think that will come. Grassland habitat is in short supply in PA and many of the birds on the threatened and endangered list are grassland birds. Deer, turkey and a lot of other wildife use switchgrass due to it's excellent cover ability. We think it's a win-win for wildlife.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2013 10:31:00 GMT -5
I just got done hunting woodchucks on SGL 145. I saw two cockbirds but no chucks!
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