GRATZ - Location is said to be "everything" so far as a business is concerned, but when it comes to the Pennsylvania Game Commission Wild Pheasant Recovery Area program, location is only as good as the willingness of landowners to participate in helping bring back a huntable population of pheasants.
Regionally, the Central Susquehanna WPRA is a model of what the game commission hoped to achieve when the program finally got off the ground more than six years ago. Now, just three years into the Hegins-Gratz Valley WPRA project in Dauphin and Schuylkill counties and only one introduction of wild pheasants from the Midwest, there is every indication it will equal the project in Columbia, Montour and Northumberland counties.
According to Pheasants Forever private land biologist Jim Kauffman, who helps oversee the Hegins-Gratz project, it has been the willingness of landowners to enroll with the Farm Service Agency to manage their land to maximize pheasant habitat that has been the key to success. This program has been so successful that there are no FSA funds available, but landowners can still participate by enrolling in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, which has open enrollment until Friday, Sept. 30, through the FSA.
Once land becomes part of a WPRA, pheasant hunting is not permitted within its boundaries. Dog training and the release of any pen-reared pheasants is also not permitted.
"Based on flushing surveys and crowing counts, certainly the potential is there for the Hegins-Gratz WPRA because in three years we've had wild pheasants begin reproduction," Kauffman said. "We didn't know how many birds would be needed to establish a population, but if we keep the habitat we have now, in 20 years we'll have thousands of birds in Hegins Valley.
"Our goal is to release a total of 600 wild pheasants, but so far we've been able to release just 300 birds in 2011. We were unable to get birds in 2012 because the numbers were down on the Western Indian reservations where they are trapped, and earlier this year the winter wasn't cold enough in South Dakota, so the birds weren't coming to the bait in our trapping nets.
"Right now we have more than 800 acres enrolled in the Hegins-Gratz WPRA, meaning these landowners have agreed not to mow their fields until after the hatching season. We'd like to find more grassland because to be successful we need farm land for habitat."
Last year the estimated hen densities in the Hegins-Gratz Valley WPRA were 21 hens per mile in the Gratz Valley Study Area and seven hens per mile in the Hegins Valley Study Area. Considering just half of the allotted pheasants have been released, with another release scheduled for early 2014, these numbers are reason for optimism.
Kauffman said the Schuylkill County Pheasants Forever Chapter has been the driving force behind wild pheasant restoration in the Hegins-Gratz WPRA by supplying manpower and funds to benefit habitat conservation projects. As far as pheasants are concerned, success of the habitat projects rely on landowners who are willing to participate by enrolling in CREP.
"In my position as a private lands biologist I provide landowners with technical assistance needed for grassland conservation programs, focusing primarily within the Hegins-Gratz WPRA," Kauffman said. "Grassland habitats within agricultural landscapes are vital for many species of grassland wildlife, such as meadowlarks, cottontails and pheasants.
"Farmers are compensated for setting land aside by receiving rental rates for implementing wildlife habitat. There are many reasons the population of wild pheasants have declined in Pennsylvania, but it is primarily due to changes in and the sophistication of farming practices within agricultural landscapes.
"This is why grassland set-aside programs and the Deferred Use of Grasslands program by the Pennsylvania Game Commission are so important. Patience is important in any restoration project, as there are many variables, and we need to give the existing population time to continue to grow, which will occur if recruitment into the next generation is greater than annual mortality of adults."
Kauffman said variables include the number of pheasants released, their fitness, stochastic events such as weather and quality and quantity of existing habitat. Meanwhile, population trends through various surveys will be monitored and the conservation of grassland habitats that are essential for pheasant survival will be promoted.
For information about CREP enrollment in Schuylkill County, call the FSA office at (570) 622-1555; in Dauphin County call (717) 921-2378; for information about Pheasants Forever projects and the Hegins-Gratz WPRA, call Jim Kauffman at (570) 591-0147.