April 2022 • Nebraskaland 47
needs of upland game birds: nesting,
brood rearing and winter cover.
However, asking one piece of land to
do three jobs takes intentional design
and heightened management eff ort.
All these challenges combined made
for a discouraging group rhetoric when
I was starting to learn how to be a
pheasant hunter:
"We have no pheasants, and we
have no habitat!"
"If I want to have a good day
pheasant hunting, I just cross the river
and spend it in South Dakota!"
Focus on Pheasants
Then, in 2014, there was a twist in
the story. CRP experienced an increase
in annual per acre payments at about
the time commodity prices were
dropping. This, combined with good
incentives for establishment made CRP
SAFE acres a popular option. Between
2015-2017, landowners enrolled or re-
enrolled over 20,500 acres in three of
the same counties that had recorded
some of the highest rates of grassland
loss in the nation from 2009-2012.
Clusters of habitat began to pop up
on the landscape, and all of a sudden,
learning to be a pheasant hunter
became a whole new ball game.
The timing of increased interest
in CRP enrollments was good. In
response to hunter concerns, many
state agencies poured resources into
improving pheasant habitat through a
number of named initiatives. The Focus
on Pheasants Initiative in Nebraska
soon morphed into our statewide
Berggren Pheasant Plan, and biologists
had fi nancial resources to incentivize
greater management eff orts on private
land. At the same time, Pheasants
Forever celebrated its 30th birthday
in the midst of unprecedented
organizational growth by adding more
biologist positions. With more CRP
available, many landowners chose to
allow public walk-in hunting access for
an additional payment.
As a result, my experiences in
the fi eld were no longer mirroring
what people had been telling me.
We suddenly had birds to pursue and
places to pursue them. For the last few
years, it's a rare day when we decide to
go walk for a few hours and don't come
home with dinner. On the days we
don't, I'm pretty sure it's because my
gun barrel must have been bent.
New Chapter
In this new chapter of learning
to become a pheasant hunter, I fi nd
myself gravitating toward places
From left to right: The author Cassidy Wessel, brother Colton Goc, father Tom Goc and brother Rogan Goc. This photo was
taken after the family's last hunt of the 2021-2022 pheasant season on CRP. COURTESY TOM GOC
