Sports

Rebirth of a game bird

Releasing of wild pheasants in region paying off

By Tom Venesky tvenesky@timesleader.com
Sports Reporter

WASHINGTONVILLE - A joint project by the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Pheasants Forever is coming close to re-creating history in one part of the state.

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Since 2007, the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Pheasants Forever have released approximately 1,000 wild pheasants in Columbia, Montour and Northumberland counties in an effort to establish self-sustaining populations of the birds. Wild pheasants disappeared from much of Pennsylvania’s landscape decades ago.

Joe Kosack/Pennsylvania Game Commission

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Central Susquehanna Wild Pheasant Recovery Area

Northumberland, Montour and Columbia counties

Project Details:

- Wild Ring-necked Pheasants from western states were released in Columbia, Montour and Northumberland counties in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

- The pheasants were released on private farms in undisturbed grasses and brushy cover.

- If you see pheasants, especially hens and chicks, contact one of the individuals listed below.

- Some of the hen pheasants are wearing radio collars. Pheasants Forever and Game Commission biologists are tracking the hens to monitor their survival. Brood Surveys, Crowing Counts and Flushing Surveys also will be conducted to monitor the pheasants. Volunteers are welcome to help with Brood Surveys and Flushing Surveys.

New Regulations protecting Wild Pheasant Recovery Areas (WPRA): The PA Game Commission passed the following regulations to protect wild pheasants.

- It is unlawful to release pen-raised pheasants any time within any WPRA.

- It is unlawful to train dogs in any manner from the end of the late small-game season, in early February, to July 31 within any WPRA.

Season and Bag Limits

-There is no open season for the taking of pheasants in any WPRA.

Contacts: Colleen DeLong, PGC / Pheasants Forever, 570-259-0348; Lynn Appelman, Pheasants Forever, 570-490-3997; Shon Robbins, Pheasants Forever, 570-925-5870; Keith Sanford, PA Game Commission, 570-675-1143; Kevin Wenner, PA Game Commission, 570-675-1143

Four years ago, the two groups began releasing wild pheasants from Montana and South Dakota into the vast farm fields of Columbia, Montour and Northumberland counties. At the time, the goal was to establish a sustainable population of wild pheasants that was of huntable proportions, similar to what existed through much of the state decades ago.

After releasing approximately 1,000 wild pheasants during the course of the last three years, that goal is close to becoming a reality.

“Not only are the birds still at the release sites, but they’re reproducing and expanding,” said Colleen DeLong, a pheasant biologist with the Pennsylvania Game Commission. “They’re increasing.”

The first three years of the six-year project, which is a joint effort between the PGC and Pheasants Forever, consisted of trapping the birds from sites in Montana and South Dakota and releasing them in the three-county area, known as the Central Susquehanna Wild Pheasant Recovery Area. It cost approximately $200 a pheasant to have them trapped, transported and released. Along with the three-years of releases, DeLong, agency staff and volunteers conducted year-round monitoring to determine if the wild birds were becoming established in the area and, if they were on track toward establishing a huntable population.

During a public meeting last Wednesday at the Montour Environmental Education Center, DeLong said part of the Central Susquehanna WPRA is on track toward having a sustainable population of wild pheasants.

According to DeLong, the area surrounding Turbotville and Washingtonville currently has nine hens per square mile. It’s a promising number, DeLong said, because the population would be considered sustainable once it reaches 10 hens per square mile.

“We may exceed the goal in Turbotville before the end of the six-year study,” she said.

If that happens, the Pennsylvania Game Commission board can decide whether to reopen the area to hunting. Since the project began the area has been closed to pheasant hunting, and dog training has been restricted to protect the wild birds.

Wilkes-Barre resident Jay Delaney, who serves as the president of the PGC Board of Commissioners, said he would be in favor of opening the area to hunting, with restrictions, if the 10-hen per square mile goal is met. Delaney added that agency staff would have to make a recommendation first, and then the entire board would debate the pros and cons of allowing hunting in the WPRA.

“In three short years we’re almost at our goal. If that’s not success, I don’t know what is,” he said.

PGC Land Manager Keith Sanford said the main reason why the wild pheasants are doing well in the Turbotville release site is because of the abundance of farmland enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. Those farms consist of vast acreages of tall grass, which provides valuable nesting cover for wild pheasants.

Without so much land enrolled in CREP, Sanford said the project would have never had a chance.

“If we did this five or six years ago, it would’ve been a waste of time, money and the pheasant resource,” Sanford said. “The big key to this is the habitat.”

The numbers back up Sanford’s claim.

Hen survival in the Turbotville area is 40 percent annually, higher than the average figure of 30 percent needed to increase the population, DeLong said. During spring crowing counts, Sanford said as many as 30 to 45 roosters (male pheasants) were identified in a single day.

“To me, that’s phenomenal,” he said. “Most of the birds we’re starting to see here now are true wild pheasants born in Pennsylvania.”

And perhaps the most encouraging number of all is the amount of adult hens with broods spotted each spring by those who live in the WPRA.

DeLong said wild pheasant reproduction has been confirmed throughout the Central Susquehanna WPRA, with broods as high as 14 chicks being seen.

Landowner John Hoy, who has 100 acres of his Anthony Township farm enrolled in CREP, said he saw two broods of pheasant chicks this summer and sees the wild adult birds frequently.

For a long time, such a sighting was unheard of, according to Hoy.

“Before this program, if you saw a pheasant around here it was few and far between,” he said, adding the area should remain closed to pheasant hunting for another three years to give the wild birds more time to establish themselves.

While things in the Turbotville area seem to be exceeding expectations, that’s not the case in the other half of the Central Susquehanna WPRA.

The Greenwood Valley section has lower rooster to hen ratios than Turbotville, DeLong said, and the number of hens per square mile is two.

DeLong acknowledged that the Greenwood Valley section has a ways to go to meet the 10-hen per square mile goal, but she isn’t giving up hope.

“I’m not ready to throw in the towel on Greenwood Valley,” DeLong said. “It might simply just need more time than Turbotville, which has a higher amount of CREP acreage.”

DeLong said that when the six-year project expires at the end of 2012, it will probably take at least an extra year to reopen the area to pheasant hunting.

But despite the extra time, Sanford was optimistic that the same scene that dotted rural landscapes decades ago would soon be seen again in the Central Susquehanna WPRA.

“The ultimate purpose of this program is to establish sustainable populations of wild pheasants that can be hunted,” Sanford said. “The same bird that was plentiful in Pennsylvania in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.”

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