Pheasant stocking underway at nine Wildlife Management Areas

Pheasant hunting is a popular form of upland game hunting, and hunters can find a place to hunt them at Fish and Game's Wildlife Management Areas. The department is stocking 15,800 male pheasants at the following areas during the hunting season: - Southwest Region: Fort Boise, Payette, Montour, and C.J. Strike WMAs. - Magic Valley: Niagara Springs WMA. - Southeast Region: Sterling WMA. - Upper Snake: Market Lake, Mud Lake and Cartier Slough WMAs. Hunters 17-years old and older must buy a $23.75 WMA permit to hunt for those birds. Permits are available anywhere licenses and tags are sold. WMA permit allows the hunter to take six rooster pheasants. To get locations of WMAs, go to http://fishandgame.idaho.gov and under the Hunting tab, click on Hunting Access/Maps. Direct link is here: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/wildlife/wma/. Pheasant hunting at WMAs is popular, which means they can get crowded. To maintain safety, All upland game bird/animal hunters are required to wear visible hunter orange (minimum size 36 square inches) above the waist during pheasant season when hunting on WMAs where pheasants are stocked. A hunter orange hat meets this requirement. Idaho's wild pheasant population is a fraction of what it was decades ago as habitat has been developed or agriculture practices changed. The stocking program is popular with hunters, but often misunderstood, here's a Q&A about the program: How much does it cost? Fish and Game will spend about $268,000 to have pheasants released on those nine WMAs. Last year, it received about $144,500 from the sale of WMA permits. Fish and Game does not expect to break even on the program. "This is Fish and Game providing continued pheasant hunting opportunity," said Jeff Knetter, upland and migratory bird coordinator. It costs about $17 for each pheasant stocked, and the price of the permit has not been increased since 2006, so WMA pheasant hunters get a good bargain. The WMAs and pheasant stocking are also intended to provide youth and novices with an easily accessible and inexpensive hunting opportunity. How often are pheasants stocked? About twice a week in most locations. Unlike fish stocking, Fish and Game does not publicize which day pheasants will be released, but typically it tries to spread the stocking so there are birds available during the week and for the weekend. Stocking schedules are sometimes altered due to weather, driving conditions and other factors. Pheasants will be stocked through the week of Dec. 20 in the Southwest and Magic Valley regions and through the week of Nov. 15 in the Upper Snake and Southeast regions. To get more information about stocking, including how many are stocked in each location, go to Fish and Game's website and look under the Hunting tab for "Game Species Information" and click on pheasants. Direct link is here: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/hunt/?getPage=133 When can they be hunted? Pheasant hunting on WMAs where birds are stocked begins daily at 10 a.m., except in the Upper Snake Region. That allows time for other hunting activities to occur, such as waterfowl hunting earlier in the morning. It also allows the birds to be stocked before hunting starts for the day, but that doesn't always occur. If pheasants are being stocked during hunting hours, hunters should be safe, respectful and ethical. Do not follow the stocking truck or shoot near it. Although Fish and Game does not publicize the stocking dates or times, in the smart-phone era, word travels fast when it happens. Do they all get shot? No. Surveys have shown about 75 percent of the pheasants released are harvested by hunters. While pen-raised birds can be na•ve when they are first stocked, those that survive a few days wise up quickly and can be a challenging quarry. Knetter recommends hunters look beyond the obvious, well-trodden places for birds. "Seek out the hard-to-reach, thick places," he said.