Spring Pheasant Planting Begins

Fish and Game personnel are busy planting ringnecks while private trappers remove predators in selected areas across southern Idaho. On March 15 and 16, 450 game farm hens and 100 roosters were released at C.J. Strike Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and on private property in Minidoka and Cassia Counties. Releases included 25 radio-collared hens to help track survival of stocked pheasants where predators are being controlled. Similar stocking efforts will be made at Mud Lake WMA and on private lands in Jefferson County at the end of March. Crews will also plant from 100-200 wild pheasants this spring but that effort depends on trapping success in California where weather has been a problem. Wild pheasants will be stocked evenly at the four release sites and also monitored by radio telemetry. Predator trapping will be carried out at these spring pheasant stocking locations as well as at WMAs where waterfowl and wild upland game birds nest. Trapping has been underway on five Wildlife Management Areas since February 1. Trapping will take place on seven more WMAs as well as private land adjacent to spring stocking areas. Private trappers have been hired by Fish and Game to remove predators from these areas over the next several months. Trapping so far has removed 193 predators from WMAs including 33 fox, 44 skunks, 16 coyotes, 33 raccoons, 31 mink, two bobcats, eight magpies and two porcupines. In addition to spring stocking, game farm pheasants were planted during the fall hunting season at eight WMAs. Pheasant hunters on those WMAs were charged a $21.50 fee last fall. That fee allowed a take of six birds. Hunters were allowed to pay the fee and take six birds as many times as they wished. Nearly 12,500 roosters were released at these WMAs last fall. In addition, 1,500 roosters were released in the Magic Valley on public lands that did not require a WMA pheasant permit. A follow-up survey revealed that the average cost per rooster bagged at $18.18 last fall. This is the cost of the pheasants divided by the number actually harvested. An estimated 2,833 hunters took 6,776 pheasants. The WMA program provided 13,723 days of hunting and is expected to continue at this level again this fall. The overall cost and associated benefits of the stocking program will be compiled at the end of the nesting season. This information will be provided to the Joint Finance Committee of the Idaho legislature, the body that instructed the department to implement spring pheasant stocking with predator removal and to increase the fall stocking program to its current level.