UPLAND- GAMEHUNTING NEEDSSOMEHELP
IDNR working on things to bring pheasants, quail back
Odd as it seems, Illinois’ push to help monarch butterflies might boost upland- game hunting.
Pheasant, quail and rabbit hunting opens Saturday in Illinois. Opening day was once the social event of the year in rural areas, but those days are decades past.
Upland- game hunting is an afterthought to deer hunting in the 21st century. More than 200,000 people have hunted deer annually in Illinois since the late 20th century. Compare that with 13,835 pheasant hunters, 7,665 quail hunters and 23,586 rabbit hunters in 2015- 16, according to the Illinois Natural History Hunter Harvest Survey. Illinois once had 250,000 pheasant hunters, 150,000 quail hunters and 80,000 rabbit hunters.
Odd reasons for habitat hope came from Stan
McTaggart, the agriculture and grassland wildlife program manager for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
‘‘ There are also some changes on the agricultural landscape that may actually be good for upland game,’’ he emailed. ‘‘ Precision agriculture, a recently stoked interest in the monarch butterfly and cover crops, to name a few.’’
‘‘ Stoked interest in the monarch butterfly’’ caught my attention.
‘‘ In addition to planting more milkweed here in the United States, there has also been a push to provide and manage more pollinator habitat for monarchs, bees [ and] other native pollinators, and upland game will benefit, as well,’’ McTaggart emailed.
Much the same goes for cover crops.
‘‘ Cover crops are becoming more mainstream and covering more and more acres of the state,’’ McTaggart emailed. ‘‘ Researchers are currently evaluating the benefits of various types of cover crops for different species of grassland birds. Time and research will tell if there are types of crops and rotations that are truly beneficial for pheasant and/ or quail.’’
Precision agriculture uses modern technology to document what works on a farm and what doesn’t.
‘‘ Some precision agriculture businesses embrace conservation programs and often provide recommendations to enroll portions of fields into Conservation Reserve Program practices rather than continue to farm those acres at a loss,’’ McTaggart emailed. ‘‘ This is win- win for growers and wildlife.’’ That’s the future. Here’s the present: The annual survey saw a 3 percent increase from 2015 on pheasants observed at each stop. The roadkill index ( just what it seems) for rabbits was up 4 percent from 2015. Quail observations were down 13 percent per stop.
Vote no
Like most, I thought the Illinois Transportation Taxes and Fees Lockbox Amendment on the ballot made sense. The constitutional change would guarantee transportation funds are used only for transportation.
But one tangential impact would cost the IDNR about $ 30 million. I offered Rep. Brandon
Phelps ( D- Harrisburg), one of the strongest voices for sportsmen and sportswomen in Illinois and a leading backer of the amendment, the chance to explain, but he didn’t respond.
The IDNR response is this: ‘‘ When election results are known for the Lockbox Amendment, staff will do any evaluations necessary to determine its potential impacts on IDNR’s [ 2017 fiscal year] budget.’’
Stray cast
Thought on November baseball: Water will keep rolling over ‘‘ TheWaterfall’’ at the confluence of the North Branch and North Shore Channel, then keep flowing— eventually— to the Gulf of Mexico, where it will evaporate. Then the cycle will repeat.