NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/873551
OCTOBER 2017 • NEBRASKAland 39 OC OC OC OC OC OC OC OC OC OC OC OC OCTO TO TO TO TO TO TO TO TO TO TO TO T BE BE BE BE BE BE BE BE BE BE BE BE BER R R R R R R R 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 2017 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 • NEB EB EB EB EB EB EB EB EB EB EB EB EB EB EB EBRA RA RA RA RA RA RA RA RA RA RA RASK SK SK SK SK SK SK SK SK SKAl Al Al Al Al Al Al A an an an an an an an and d d d d d d d 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 Tom Sands watches a hen fl ush from a CRP fi eld at sunrise. fund to pay for upkeep, taxes and, this year, a refrigerator. Jake pays the utilities, which even during the fall, never put the bill over the minimum. The Hunting Jake was born at just the right time. The same year he carried a shotgun for the first time on opening day, 1956, Congress passed the Soil Bank Act, which removed land from production and converted it to grass for conservation purposes and to reduce crop surpluses. Pheasant hunting was already good in the region. The first- ever pheasant season in Nebraska was held in adjacent Sherman and Wheeler counties in 1927. Greeley County was one of seven other counties opened to hunting the following year. But during the soil bank days, hunting was perhaps the best it's ever been. "The birds were like chickens running around," Jake said. The clan mostly hunted west of Scotia, where there was more land enrolled in the soil bank. "Some of those areas just went on forever and ever and ever," Jake said. "When my dad and uncles were here they had eight or 10 guys, so you could make a pretty good swath and you could spend a lot of time in one place." There weren't as many acres planted to corn, but they hunted any dryland field they could. "And there were birds in it all the time because it was short and weedy." They weren't the only hunters in town. "We saw license plates from all over … Tennessee, Ohio, Florida, Missouri, Michigan … including us. We lived in Illinois," Jake said. The cafe in Scotia, long since closed, was busy for the hunters' breakfast and again for lunch. Pheasant numbers have been on a roller coaster ride since the soil bank ended in 1965. Most of the areas the Jacobsens hunted are now pastures that hold few, if any, birds. When bird numbers dropped to the west of town, they were able to find some good areas to hunt to the east, and have stayed in that neighborhood. Bird numbers declined in the 1970s and '80s as agriculture grew. Pheasants boomed again after the Conservation Reserve Program began in 1985 and acres were once again shifted from crops to grass. When corn prices skyrocketed a decade ago, CRP acres dropped, more fringe land was put into production, and bird numbers again fell. But things are looking up. "It was only in the last three or four years that we've started to see more birds," Jake said. While they've hunted some of the same fields for years, their list