South Dakota is working to improve pheasant numbers through better habitat. Loss of conservation reserve money and more intensive farming after recent high grain prices have hurt. The governor's Pheasant Habitat Work Group released its Final Report today on efforts to improve habitat. It's available as a .pdf through a link at SD GF&P if you're interested.

While it's a South Dakota issue there's some interesting tidbits on what affects pheasant numbers and the efficacy of alternate efforts such as predation and stocking. Scroll down to page 20.

Followup:

Here's a link to the story on tonight's (Tuesday) news on KELO TV in Sioux Falls. We're working to get those pheasant numbers back up to record highs.

Conserve Pheasant Habitat, Increase Pheasant Population

How are the pheasants looking now? The guy we hunted on was near Huron, and a couple of years ago advised us not to come up due to winter losses.

We had a good winter and spring brooding conditions so pheasant numbers rebounded well, up 76% over last year overall. The best source of info is the SD GF&P brood survey and pheasant outlook. The link to that is Here

Even last year with historic lows hunters had fair success but they had to try a lot of spots to find hot ones. Pheasants don't travel much so survival and reproduction depends on very local conditions.