American Ranchers Contribution to Upland Hunting
Often overlooked and under appreciated are the American rancher’s contributions to game bird preservation. I’m Susan Allen and I’ll back to tell you about them. My husband, Scout and I plan to burn calories this weekend chasing chucker. Much of upland habitat is located on private ranches yet hunters from what we call the “west side” are often unaware of the efforts and measure ranchers take to create and preserve habitat and even to allow hunting. Many ranches will let hunters on by permission while others lease portions for hunting clubs. The Department of Ag has sweetened the pot for hunters by launching new incentive payments for landowners who open up their CRP to public access. In addition the Open Fields program in the Farm Bill we hope will open an additional seven million acres of hunting habitat over the next five years. Some facts: Last year nine thousand hunter’s harvested over twenty five thousand roosters in Oregon compared to Washington ‘s over twenty two thousand hunters harvesting seventy thousand pheasants while Idaho reported drought conditions that severely decreased their pheasant population. So if you are heading out hunting respect the property rights of ranchers without them you’d find hunting options limited..... And best wishes to my dad, Don Thomas whose out chasing antelope today on his 80th birthday.
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