WASHINGTONVILLE - For many in the room, it had been more than 40 years since they hunted wild pheasants in the Washingtonville-Turbotville area.
A large portion of those hunters had been in the same room seven years earlier when the groundwork was laid, and plans outlined, by the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Pheasant Forever representatives for what has become the Central Susquehanna Wild Pheasant Recovery Area in Columbia, Montour and Northumberland counties.
Now, those hunters were among the near capacity crowd at the PPL Montour Preserve visitor center to hear an update on the Central Susquehanna and Hegins-Gratz WPRAs by PGC biologist Colleen DeLong. For the most part, they heard what they hoped to hear, even though hunting the Central Susquehanna WPRA's reproducing population of wild birds imported from the Midwestern American Indian reservations could be at least two years away. There is no timetable for the Hegins-Gratz WPRA, created in 2011.
In addition to the regional WPRAs, the Somerset WPRA was created in 2009 and the Franklin WPRA was created in 2012. This year Hegins-Gratz, which has had just one release because of weather-related circumstances, prevented birds from being trapped on the reservations.
"This year the really good news was that Pheasants Forever members were able to find a new trapping location on a Crow Reservation in Montana at almost the last minute," DeLong said.
"Jesse Putnam and Megan Gerber travelled west on short notice and were able to trap 49 hens and nine roosters in a very short period of time, actually flying out and back because it is quicker, cheaper and is less likely to have an adverse effect on the birds than driving.
"Megan Rake, Ray Grater and Brandon Black also rallied to trap a few roosters in the Turbotville area to help boost the rooster numbers, and Sunday, March 9, just before dawn, the wild pheasants were released in the Franklin County Wild Peasant Recovery Area. This is the first wild pheasant release for this wild pheasant recovery area, but we were unable to have the second release scheduled for the Hegins-Gratz WPRA because of the brutal winter conditions.
"In most areas what had been snow froze solid and turned to slick, ice-covered fields. There was simply no way that released birds could have established nesting areas."
In addition to the harsh winter preventing a release at the Hegins-Gratz WPRA, flushing surveys that rely on the participation of volunteers and their dogs had to be first postponed and then cancelled. Since then, PGC and Pheasant Forever personnel have been able to conduct crowing surveys that produced positive news.
"There was no way we were able to reschedule our wild pheasant flushing surveys this year, as the ground conditions were so problematic, and with pre-breeding season dispersal, any data we might have gotten could have been inaccurate," DeLong said. "Instead, we used sex-ratio data from previous years for hen density calculations in areas not surveyed this year.
"It is because of the volunteers that we have all the data from previous years, so once again, we can't thank those people enough for all of their help. Once again, we had plenty of people and dogs ready to go this year, even though the weather repeatedly interfered, but all we can do is all look forward to next year's surveys."
With the addition of the Crow Reservation, there are two reservations in Montana and another in South Dakota that are participating in the trap-and-transfer program. Funding for the project has come primarily from a grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and Pheasants Forever.
"We have a very good population of birds in the Central Susquehanna WPRA, but most of them are remaining in pockets and haven't dispersed throughout the area," DeLong said. "Before any hunting can be held, the birds have to disperse, because as long as they remain in pockets all the progress we made over the last seven years could be destroyed in one season.
"During the upcoming 2014-15 season we will conduct an extended habitat analysis and data collection in the Central Susquehanna WPRA. Meanwhile, even with just the one release, there are pockets of 10-34 birds that have dispersed throughout the Hegins area, but they have yet to disperse in the Gratz area.
"Overall, in the Central Susquehanna and Hegins-Gratz WPRAs 7-of-10 areas are at or have more than the target goal of 10 pheasants per square mile.''