The Traveling Wingshooter Forecasts 2014
by Dave Smith
The 21st century version of the good ole days of upland gamebird hunting was a grand era.
From 2007-2010, hunters experienced the finest upland bird hunting of the last 50 years. Habitat conditions were the best they had been since the early 1960s, weather conditions were generally favorable, bird populations boomed, and hunters shattered modern-day state harvest records. South Dakota’s pheasant harvest averaged 1.88 million pheasants per year over the four years; the ruffed grouse cycle peaked in the Great Lakes states; and hunters harvested nearly 620,000 quail in a single year in Arizona. It was high time to get out and experience the glorious collage of fall colors, endless habitat, and wingbeats exploding over fine bird dogs – and most hunters did so with passion, zest, and dedication reminiscent of that of parents and grandparents during the Soil Bank days. In an intoxicating sense, it seemed like it would go on forever.
The crash came in equal doses of weather and habitat: harsh winters, cold and wet springs in the North, epic droughts in arid regions, and perhaps most devastating, the commodity boom-fueled loss of over 11.2 million acres from the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) from its peak in 2007 (see sidebar). It came so hard and fast that the full effect is only now being realized.
This much is clear: Pheasant hunting in the Great Plains and Upper Midwest will be different until the bottom falls out of the commodity market for corn, soybeans, and wheat. Yet, the reality is that we are only about five years removed from what was collectively the best it’s ever been in most of our lives. Anything that has happened that recently can happen again – and that inspires hope.
Upland bird hunters caught a break from Mother Nature in 2014. Reports from around the country indicating favorable weather trends – for pheasants in Kansas and the Dakotas; bobwhites in Georgia, North Carolina, and Oklahoma; chukars in Idaho; ruffed grouse in Michigan; and, perhaps most exciting, quail in Texas – contribute to cautious optimism for fall hunting prospects.
The future of upland bird hunting may be different species or different regions than during the recent heyday, but there’s still a world of great hunting opportunities available. The 2014 forecast looks to be a mixed bag of weather-related upsides and downsides. Here are some early returns.
