Pheasant Politics

zoops

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I'm not much for politics, but an interesting article nonetheless. I'd be in favor of an increase to the habitat stamp in ND.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — It's a Republican rooster battle.

South Dakota gubernatorial candidates Marty Jackley and Kristi Noem revealed over the weekend detailed initiatives to enhance the state's pheasant population while campaigning at the 2018 National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic.



Both acknowledged the importance of pheasant hunting as an economic driver for South Dakota and used the gathering as a platform to discuss their respective five-step programs.
As bird numbers have declined in recent years in South Dakota, officials with Pheasants Forever were happy to see Noem and Jackley committed to improving habitat conditions and keeping the state the top pheasant destination in the nation.
"Both of these candidates are talking pheasants, and that's huge," said Dave Nomsen, Pheasants Forever's vice president of governmental affairs. "We absolutely have to do more."
Noem and Jackley each issued their plans on Friday, the first day of National Pheasant Fest, which was held for the first time in South Dakota.
Pheasants Forever, the event's organizer, said 28,868 people checked out the hundreds of booths and dozens of seminars throughout the Premier Center and Sioux Falls Convention Center floor during the three-day event.
"The fact that they announced these platforms the day that Pheasant Fest starts ... it demonstrates how important this culture — hunting and habitat — is to this state," said Bob St. Pierre, Pheasants Forever's vice president of marketing.
Noem and Jackley on Saturday, Feb. 17, spoke pheasants to the event's attendees, detailing their plans, if elected, to revitalize the bird population. The two Republican candidates will square off in the June 5 primary to move on to the November general election. Jackley is South Dakota's attorney general, while Noem is a U.S. Representative for South Dakota.
Nomsen acknowledged both plans have positives, including Noem's focus on the farm bill and Jackley's promotion of next generation youth hunting.
Noem outlined her plan and took questions from attendees at Pheasants Forever's South Dakota State Chapter Meeting on Saturday and said she was disappointed that only 101 acres were accepted from South Dakota in the Conservation Reserve Program in 2016.
"This is so important to our state's economy," Noem told reporters Saturday afternoon. "The initiatives I put out focus on habitat and predator control."
Jackley said Saturday that, while on the campaign trail, he's hearing South Dakota residents bring up the declining pheasant population. A pillar of his plan is to create a volunteer habitat stamp and a sportsman license plate. Jackley said private business owners have told him they will partner with him "if you put skin in the game."
"This is a plan that will work," Jackley said, "because it has a funding source, a voluntary funding source, from both sportsmen and women buying the habitat stamp, to the private business owners and landowners that will invest."
Nomsen also pointed to one area in each of Jackley and Noem's plans that he believes ineffective to sustaining long-term pheasant populations. Jackley's plan talks of having a pheasant release program, while Noem's will explore a bounty on pheasant predators.
"Science tells us how minimally effective both of those areas can be to raise populations of birds," Nomsen said. "We absolutely know that if we have the habitat base that we need, predator control becomes less of an issue.
"And we absolutely know as scientists that pen-raised bird releases with a goal of propagation to the population is extremely ineffective, at best. So when you have limited dollars, put them in the ground."
Noem's Second Century Initiative

  • Increase resources for habitat management — without raising taxes
  • Crowdsource habitat solutions
  • Target predators, while inspiring the next generation of South Dakota hunters
  • Maintain habitat management as a national priority
  • Serve as sportsman in chief for South Dakota pheasant hunting
Jackley's Pheasant Hunting Initiative

  • Create a pheasant restoration blue ribbon commission
  • Build public-private partnerships for habitat
  • Implement pheasant release program
  • Create volunteer habitat stamp and sportsmen license plate
  • Promote next generation youth hunting

 


Sum1

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In other words neither one of them is gonna do a damn thing for pheasants. Just politicians talking out of their asses again.
 

Fly Carpin

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“Crowdsource habitat solutions”. Because if there’s one place to find the answers to habitat loss, it’s the chowderheads on social media and hunting forums. Just what we need! Armchair biologists that are validated by politicians
 

gst

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So you are saying the ones here in our state that claimed mt lions in huntable numbers never existed until a couple out of state bikers shit their pants and those same ones that suggest coyotes are not an issue with deer depredation and the same ones that talk out both sides of their mouth regarding deer populations yet actually have no idea about deer populations and the same ones that claimed baiting deer is a disease risk at the same time they were using "intercept feeding" as a method t................well ya okay then.
 


Kurtr

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Complain about no habitat complain about habit . We will handle our business down here all while we hunt bucks more than every seven years.
 

LBrandt

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If you know nothing just throw out some bullshit and see what sticks.
 

Kurtr

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The more I read the happier I am. Might not be the best ideas but at least it's on the radar. They help pheasants they help all our wildlife. What has the governor up there outlined as his plan to help wildlife or even just pheasants?
 

Rowdie

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They have no clue what habitat is, all they are worried about is tourist hunting $$$.
 


Kurtr

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They have no clue what habitat is, all they are worried about is tourist hunting $$$.

which will equal dollars going into habitat. Tourist hunting dollars give us more to spend on walk in areas. Seems people will bitch at any thing that is done or it is never good enough. I would like to hear the solutions the brain trust would come up with on here vs the blah wont work blah dont care blah blah we always get.
 

ndlongshot

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which will equal dollars going into habitat. Tourist hunting dollars give us more to spend on walk in areas. Seems people will bitch at any thing that is done or it is never good enough.

Welcome to ND. No wonder nothing nothing ever gets done up here. People just complain but when something is proposed "oh golly gee, lets not get ahead of ourselves and go changing the status quo...change is bad, mkay?" Complaining is comfortable.

Good on SD for having the conversations publicly and admitting the value of these things to everyone involved. Landowners, hunters, and the general public all benefit.
 

guywhofishes

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the financial aspect is always going to win on average - that's just how things work

if you value hunting for you or your decedents... get your finances figured out cuz eventually you're going to need $$ to have the best experiences (buy land, travel to remote areas, or paid hunts)

there's a reason you see people from far far away spending lots of money/time to hunt/fish in ND/SD/MT - supply/demand

and they're not making more habitat - they're tearing it down and plowing it up (again... it comes down to $,$,$)

in other words, long term, there's few solutions I can fathom

I bet Iowa used to be a sportsman's paradise too
 

zoops

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Lots of good points. I too cringe a little when habitat and economic development are thrown together but I guess that's inevitable. Gotta be careful that programs aren't set up just to benefit fee hunting. I wish our PLOTS program had a lot more money to play with to not only enroll acres but to make those acres better for wildlife but maybe I'm in the minority there.
 

Kurtr

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the financial aspect is always going to win on average - that's just how things work

if you value hunting for you or your decedents... get your finances figured out cuz eventually you're going to need $$ to have the best experiences (buy land, travel to remote areas, or paid hunts)

there's a reason you see people from far far away spending lots of money/time to hunt/fish in ND/SD/MT - supply/demand

and they're not making more habitat - they're tearing it down and plowing it up (again... it comes down to $,$,$)

in other words, long term, there's few solutions I can fathom

I bet Iowa used to be a sportsman's paradise too

The dollars that pheasants bring into the state is a reason that habitat will be helped. I know since i moved to mobridge in 2002 the walk in areas have increased by a substantial amount around here and public hunting access has gotten better and better. Lots of grass got planted last year it was nice to see
 


KDM

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which will equal dollars going into habitat. Tourist hunting dollars give us more to spend on walk in areas. Seems people will bitch at any thing that is done or it is never good enough. I would like to hear the solutions the brain trust would come up with on here vs the blah wont work blah dont care blah blah we always get.

The ONLY solution to the reversing habitat destruction and the ever decreasing wildlife populations is found in INDIVIDUAL land owners making habitat preservation and wildlife a part of their priority list. That's it!! The more "Ag producers" we get to replace farmers, the worse it will be for the critters. Ag producers are those individuals that manage land by what some book, computer program, govt. program, futures report, or similar information source says will yield the most profit. A farmer looks at what's good for the land not just his bottom line so he will have a bottom line for years and years to come. What we have in ever increasing numbers, is a bunch of college taught "Ag producers" planting beans on beans on beans who think crop rotation is rotating bean varieties. The land is being mined of all it's nutrients and on top of that we can add draining, tree removal, slough removal, grazing the hills to within an inch of it's life, and any number of other practices that eliminate much of the habitat and cover on the land. Which is their prerogative. However, when the dust blows and these folks start to squeal, I hope there's a mirror close by so they will know who's to blame. As far as this issue is concerned, EVERY politician cares about the environment, clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat, the bunnies, squirrels and tiny mice critters when it election time. When it isn't election time ALL they care about it kissing the right asses to get re-elected and deer, pheasants, and ducks don't get a vote or have deep pockets of cash. There ISN'T a single politician that will put wildlife or habitat above Ag profits.
 

Fly Carpin

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The ONLY solution to the reversing habitat destruction and the ever decreasing wildlife populations is found in INDIVIDUAL land owners making habitat preservation and wildlife a part of their priority list. That's it!! The more "Ag producers" we get to replace farmers, the worse it will be for the critters. Ag producers are those individuals that manage land by what some book, computer program, govt. program, futures report, or similar information source says will yield the most profit. A farmer looks at what's good for the land not just his bottom line so he will have a bottom line for years and years to come. What we have in ever increasing numbers, is a bunch of college taught "Ag producers" planting beans on beans on beans who think crop rotation is rotating bean varieties. The land is being mined of all it's nutrients and on top of that we can add draining, tree removal, slough removal, grazing the hills to within an inch of it's life, and any number of other practices that eliminate much of the habitat and cover on the land. Which is their prerogative. However, when the dust blows and these folks start to squeal, I hope there's a mirror close by so they will know who's to blame. As far as this issue is concerned, EVERY politician cares about the environment, clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat, the bunnies, squirrels and tiny mice critters when it election time. When it isn't election time ALL they care about it kissing the right asses to get re-elected and deer, pheasants, and ducks don't get a vote or have deep pockets of cash. There ISN'T a single politician that will put wildlife or habitat above Ag profits.
This guy gets it
 

ndlongshot

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the only solution to the reversing habitat destruction and the ever decreasing wildlife populations is found in individual land owners making habitat preservation and wildlife a part of their priority list. That's it!! The more "ag producers" we get to replace farmers, the worse it will be for the critters. Ag producers are those individuals that manage land by what some book, computer program, govt. Program, futures report, or similar information source says will yield the most profit. A farmer looks at what's good for the land not just his bottom line so he will have a bottom line for years and years to come. What we have in ever increasing numbers, is a bunch of college taught "ag producers" planting beans on beans on beans who think crop rotation is rotating bean varieties. The land is being mined of all it's nutrients and on top of that we can add draining, tree removal, slough removal, grazing the hills to within an inch of it's life, and any number of other practices that eliminate much of the habitat and cover on the land. Which is their prerogative. However, when the dust blows and these folks start to squeal, i hope there's a mirror close by so they will know who's to blame. As far as this issue is concerned, every politician cares about the environment, clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat, the bunnies, squirrels and tiny mice critters when it election time. When it isn't election time all they care about it kissing the right asses to get re-elected and deer, pheasants, and ducks don't get a vote or have deep pockets of cash. There isn't a single politician that will put wildlife or habitat above ag profits.
spot on
 

Kurtr

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[FONT=Roboto, helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Well i guess i will just stick with my positive attitude that we are being a little proactive as a group down here in sodak and as long as winter doesnt go to shit we will have lots of critters to hunt once again next year[/FONT]
 

Zogman

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Agree with you and if I may add.


The ONLY solution to the reversing habitat destruction and the ever decreasing wildlife populations is found in INDIVIDUAL land owners making habitat preservation and wildlife a part of their priority list. That's it!! The more "Ag producers" we get to replace farmers, the worse it will be for the critters. Ag producers are those individuals that manage land by what some book, computer program, govt. program, futures report, stockholder, board of directors, CEO or similar information source says will yield the most profit. A farmer looks at what's good for the land not just his bottom line so he will have a bottom line for years and years to come. What we have in ever increasing numbers, is a bunch of college taught "Ag producers" planting beans on beans on beans who think crop rotation is rotating bean varieties. The land is being mined of all it's nutrients and on top of that we can add draining, tree removal, slough removal, grazing the hills to within an inch of it's life, and any number of other practices that eliminate much of the habitat and cover on the land. Which is their prerogative. However, when the dust blows and these folks start to squeal, I hope there's a mirror close by so they will know who's to blame. As far as this issue is concerned, EVERY politician cares about the environment, clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat, the bunnies, squirrels and tiny mice critters when it election time. When it isn't election time ALL they care about it kissing the right asses to get re-elected and deer, pheasants, and ducks don't get a vote or have deep pockets of cash. There ISN'T a single politician that will put wildlife or habitat above Ag profits.

At the present the average farmer or ranger can NOT buy land at the current prices. And the land prices are NOT going to go down!
 


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