blake
Life Member
From the Iowa DNR website:
With New Farm Bill, Additional Winter Pheasant Habitat Available
Iowa has 50,000 acres available under a new Conservation Reserve Program called Iowa Pheasant Recovery SAFE. This new CP38 practice requires top quality winter habitat and food for pheasants.
That top quality winter habitat and food is in demand after last Friday’s blizzard devastated pheasant habitat across central and north central Iowa.
About half of Iowa received 3 to 10 inches of wet heavy snow that collapsed most grassy cover. Falling temperatures then turned the wet snow into a white layer of ice. The cover that did not collapse was drifted full of snow from the high winds.
“This was a bad storm for upland game birds,” said Todd Bogenschutz, state upland game biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “It’s very likely we saw some bird mortality with this blizzard, birds likely trapped under the frozen wet snow.”
For much of northern Iowa most waste grains are now frozen below the snow and birds will be very visible searching for food which will increase their predation. “We need a 50 degree thaw to reduce the ice layer but the forecast calls for fridge temperatures for the next week,” said Bogenschutz.
Landowners have the opportunity to enroll in this program first come first serve until the acres are gone. For more information click on the Iowa Pheasant Recovery link on the DNR’s website at www.iowadnr.gov/habitat.
For more information contact Todd Bogenschutz, Upland Game Bird Biologist, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, 515-432-2823.
With New Farm Bill, Additional Winter Pheasant Habitat Available
Iowa has 50,000 acres available under a new Conservation Reserve Program called Iowa Pheasant Recovery SAFE. This new CP38 practice requires top quality winter habitat and food for pheasants.
That top quality winter habitat and food is in demand after last Friday’s blizzard devastated pheasant habitat across central and north central Iowa.
About half of Iowa received 3 to 10 inches of wet heavy snow that collapsed most grassy cover. Falling temperatures then turned the wet snow into a white layer of ice. The cover that did not collapse was drifted full of snow from the high winds.
“This was a bad storm for upland game birds,” said Todd Bogenschutz, state upland game biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “It’s very likely we saw some bird mortality with this blizzard, birds likely trapped under the frozen wet snow.”
For much of northern Iowa most waste grains are now frozen below the snow and birds will be very visible searching for food which will increase their predation. “We need a 50 degree thaw to reduce the ice layer but the forecast calls for fridge temperatures for the next week,” said Bogenschutz.
Landowners have the opportunity to enroll in this program first come first serve until the acres are gone. For more information click on the Iowa Pheasant Recovery link on the DNR’s website at www.iowadnr.gov/habitat.
For more information contact Todd Bogenschutz, Upland Game Bird Biologist, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, 515-432-2823.
