34 NEBRASKAland • NOVEMBER 2016 34 NEBRASKAland • NOVEMBER 2016
create and improve habitat. But to truly build the population,
this has to occur on the landscape scale. With the Berggren
Plan, we'll be ramping up our efforts to impact more acres
– at least in targeted areas of the state. But realistically
we can't do all this alone. We'll need to continue working
cooperatively with new and existing partners to deliver
habitat, influence Farm Bill policy and secure additional
conservation funding.
The biggest challenge I see is that we are working in an
agricultural landscape that is always changing. There will
always be pressure to make farming more and more efficient,
and historically, this has not been good for pheasants. At
the same time, changes can also lead to opportunities. We'll
need to think of innovative ways to create more habitat in
targeted areas and incorporate wildlife benefits into these
changing agricultural systems. For example, cover crops are
trending right now and represent an opportunity to create
pheasant habitat along with all the other agronomic benefits.
I think we're continuing on our upswing from
the 2012 drought. We saw a pretty big increase in hunter
harvest last year and hope to see the same again this year.
We had a pretty mild winter throughout most of the state,
so we carried a pretty good breeding population into the
The pheasant population is continuing its upswing from the 2012 drought, with
numbers expected to be similar to last season.
Q:
What do you think is the state of
Nebraska's pheasant population as well as
hunting opportunities?
