ShopPosts Tagged ‘conservation’
A Change at Ole Olson’s Farm
Friday, July 30th, 2010
Pheasant hunting changed forever when the CRP began back in 1985. What will the next quarter century bring for CRP? Its destiny is up to us. (Photo illustration member submitted)
From the day I became a hunter in the 1960s, I hunted Ole Olson’s farm in southern Minnesota’s Freeborn County. I shot my first goose on his wetland, which thankfully is now a Wildlife Management Area.
And since the day I became a hunter, the field across from Olson’s big white farmhouse was in corn or beans… that is, until one day in about 1986, I figure.
That autumn, I pulled up to Olson’s house and to my utter surprise and bewilderment, that field was covered in tall grasses. I stopped and spooked a flock of pheasants into the field not 20 yards in.
I had permission to hunt the field, so I jumped out, walked them up and shot two right off the bat. I was elated. Such good shooting didn’t happen too often in that heavily farmed area.
Curious, I ventured into Olson’s dairy barn to ask him what was up. Why had he let his field go instead of planting it? “Have you quit farming?” I recalled asking.
“No,” he said wiping off a cow’s teats before affixing a suction milker, “the federal government is paying some farmers to plant our tough-to-farm ground to a cover crop.”
I had never heard of such a thing, but I never forgot it either. Thus was born my consciousness of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a effort that today, nearly 25 years later, has become synonymous with upland conservation, great pheasant hunting and the rise of Pheasants Forever – for our destiny’s have been, and remain, intimately intertwined.
I imagine many a hunter has had the same experience over the past quarter century of CRP success. Lately, pheasant hunters and others are also experiencing the shock of finding their favorite CRP turned back to black dirt. In some cases, this isn’t such a bad thing: many of those old CRP fields need to be disturbed and reinvigorated as habitat for wildlife. Now that new planting and management rules apply, new acres enrolled in the August 2010 CRP signup will be much more productive for wildlife.
Perhaps someday, I’ll make it back to Olson’s field, if just to drive by and see if the grass and pheasants are still there that so changed a young hunter’s life and the organization he came to work for these past 12 years.
Note: The first CRP general signup in four years starts on Monday, August 2nd and runs through Friday, August 27th. Learn more. Help PF commemorate CRP’s 25th Anniversary by sharing your favorite CRP memories in our blog comment section.
Fly Fishing Idaho’s South Fork – A wing shooter gives it a try
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
PF Editor Herwig on his first fly fishing expedition for Upland Tales magazine, PF’s youth pub, on the South Fork of the Snake River in Idaho. (photo by Dan Burr)
Last July 17, I found myself in one heck of an idyllic situation: floating in a classic wood drift boat catching brilliantly colored Yellowstone cutthroat and rainbow trout on the South Fork of Idaho’s Snake River.
The South Fork runs hard, high and clear sandwiched between the Gros Ventre Range on the east and the Caribou Range on the west by the Wyoming border.
This was my first time in a drift boat and fly fishing. I had several fish on, one for quite a while – but never boated one. Dang hooks are too small and I got yelled at for reeling. Huh? Hey, I’m from Minnesota. Here we’re used to setting giant hooks in giant fish and muscling them into the boat where they are eyed over for their fillet potential. Grab the butter. These guys throw their fish back. What’s that?
My friend, and longtime PF magazine illustrator, Dan Burr of Tetonia, Idaho, generously provided nearly everything for my trip that day, including expert lessons and lots of muscle power to get us up and down that rowdy, fish-filled mountain river.
While I enjoyed the day immensely, Dan won’t be surprised to hear I won’t be taking up fly fishing anytime soon. I can’t see myself doing anything that would cut into my “trigger therapy” time.
So, at day’s end, I found myself sitting cross-legged on the boat’s bow sans fly rod, meditating over the magnificent scenery drifting by, taking notes for a story in our youth magazine Upland Tales and being thankful I lived to experience such a stupendous day.
Hey, all you hook-heads out there, there’s something new afoot for fishing conservation. Keep America Fishing™ has been formed by the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) to renew efforts to unite the sportfishing industry and the country’s 60 million anglers to keep our nation’s public waters open, clean and abundant with fish. A noble cause, indeed.
Check out www.KeepAmericaFishing.org™ for the latest news regarding efforts to keep our waters accessible and full of yummy fish. Hope they approve of using frying pans full of fillets and creamery butter!
Our Little Front Yard Prairie
Monday, July 26th, 2010
Some years ago I suggested a prairie for our blue grass front lawn. Then, four summers ago, the staff got on their hands and knees and planted hundreds of native prairie plant plugs. We watered it, weeded it and waited… and waited for it to thrive. Unfortunately, the last three summers have been as dry as a Wyoming sage brush flat in July. It’s like that here on the edge of the great North American prairie … dry, wet and then dry again. It’s been that way here since the last glaciers melted back some 14,000 years ago.
But this year, oh the glory, it has rained and rained … and our little prairie has flourished. A hen mallard even pulled off a brood in it this spring and now it is full of flowers, feeding birds and buzzing insects. (There are pheasants about too. We hope they’re next to take up residence.)
Habitat. It is who we are, just a bunch of hunters who like to plant prairie and tramp it a few times in fall to bag dinner … and memories and to leave a habitat legacy for future generations.
PF has been responsible for improving, planting and maintaining millions of acres of upland and other types of wildlife habitat all over this great land, coast to coast, north and south.
Blooming bee balm fronts a stand of 8-foot cup plants. Is this some prairie restoration in the wilds of the Dakota’s? No, it's PF national’s little front yard weed patch and wildlife haven.
But we always keep our eye on what’s local … our own front yards. Actions speak volumes. Sometimes smaller is larger. Symbols matter. And our little prairie speaks volumes about what PF is all about.
I walk among the flowers and buzzing bees of PF’s little prairie and wonder why anyone would want a lawn of blue grass; a farm with only crops; a country with only dollar signs in its eyes?
Have we inspired you to get out the hoe and seed packets; the tractor and drill? We hope so. When you do and the rains fall, take a walk … and a few photos to send me.
Love nature — want a good summer read?
Thursday, June 24th, 2010
Find a tree or a hammock and enjoy this classic book.
Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac remains at the top of the book list for nature writing even though it was published in 1949. Leopold’s writing is majestic in its descriptions of nature, wildlife, the land and his thoughts on conservation. If you love good writing, this could be an excellent summer read. Pheasants Forever sponsors the Leopold Education Project and uses this book as a way of teaching about conservation and connection to the land. Let me know what you think if you read the book. Give us a quick review, won’t you?
All Hail the Quail & My favorite moments on the quail trail
Thursday, June 17th, 2010
James Dietsch, Oklahoma #89 Chapter, with a nice bobwhite. Dietsch and I had the hunt of a lifetime on a private ranch where conservation and cattle coexist thanks to an enlightened landowner. (photo by Mark Herwig)
As editor of Quail Forever Journal, I’ve studied conservation of the bird’s habitat and hunted them from Washington State to North Carolina, from Nebraska to Texas and many points in between.
Of the quail conservation and hunting enthusiasts I’ve met, many of them have one thing in common: they cherish these little, threatened birds.
The bobwhite, especially, is under the gun. It was recently voted the top most endangered (formerly) common bird in America. Because it is so threatened – its population has dropped by as much as 80 percent the last 30 years – it is so cherished. Those who steward quail know from all too many examples how quickly then can vanish from the landscape once their habitat goes south.
But, quail worship arises for other reasons, to which I can attest. If you’ve ever held a quail, especially one of those western varieties with the top plumes, you know how beautiful they are with their iridescent plumage, clownish faces and plucky personae.
Another reason for quail worship, as if you needed more, is that I believe they are THE best upland bird I’ve ever eaten. Now, pheasants, grouse, Huns and chukar are all very good eating, but the quail tops them all as table fare in my humble opinion.
From a political side of things, quail conservation and Quail Forever has also made Pheasants Forever a stronger, national organization. That means more votes, more acres, and more birds – no matter which one you prefer to chase!
So, find a place in your heart to help the poor quail. Join us (www.QuailForever.org) if you’re the joining kind. If not, do something else to help these diminutive game birds. You’ll feel better about yourself if you do.
Here’s a few of my favorite quail moments:
*Watching a bobwhite fly directly at me at eye level in a northern Missouri forest.
*Coming upon a flock of over 1,000 scaled quail in Texas as they flew away.
*Crawling through a thick, 20-foot high blackberry bramble in eastern Oregon hunting California quail.
*Traversing a southwest Florida swamp in pursuit of bobs. The area was so flat, vast and filled with wildlife it must have looked like it did 500 years ago!
*Boating up the big, gorgeous, wild Snake River in Oregon in pursuit of California’s.
*Seeing my first armadillo and roadrunner while hunting bobs in Oklahoma.
*Hunting with Fred Gutherie and Dale Rollins, two southwest quail experts. It was really a teaching expedition for me, with a shotgun as a prop.
*The look on my wife Terri’s face every time I come home with a mess of quail for the roaster. She’s loves them as much as I do!
2 Million Pheasant Hunters. 125,000 Members. Why Haven’t You Joined Pheasants Forever?
Monday, March 29th, 2010
125,000 Pheasants Forever members are carrying the habitat conservation load for America's 2 Million pheasant hunters. Are you a member of Pheasants Forever?
Over the last five days, I spent 34 hours inside the Pheasants Forever booth at the Northwest Sportshow in downtown Minneapolis. Along with fellow Pheasant Bloggers Anthony Hauck and Andrew Vavra, the PF crew signed up 236 members at the show. If you were one of those 236 people, or if you are one of the 125,000 members across the country – THANK YOU! Unfortunately, we weren’t able to convince everyone that stopped by the booth to join Pheasants Forever.
What follows are the top three lamest excuses used for not joining Pheasants Forever this weekend.
- “My wife won’t let me.”
- “I already belong to too many other organizations.”
- “You guys don’t promote releasing chicks. It’s always ‘habitat, habitat, habitat’ with you guys.”
Are you a member of Pheasant Forever? Join through this special link today and receive a new Lucky Hunting Hat! If you hunt pheasants, it’s time for you to give back and join Pheasants Forever.
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