NY pheasant stocking program may be eliminated

[Highlander Archery]

One by One, Inch by Inch for those who didn't believe me the first few times I mentioned it.


The Humane Society of the United States is commending state budget cutters for setting their sights on pheasant stocking in New York.
In a letter sent to state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis, the group thanks him for closing the Richard E. Reynolds Game Farm near Ithaca in central New York. It's the last remaining state-operated pheasant rearing facility.
Yancey Roy, a spokesman for Grannis, said Wednesday that the DEC has been evaluating all its programs, including the pheasant farm, to find potential savings. But he wouldn't comment on specific plans until Gov. David Paterson releases his budget proposal next week.
Mike Murphy, a wildlife biologist at the game farm, was quoted in the Post-Standard of Syracuse on Tuesday as saying the farm's five full-time staff members were told of the impending closing late last week, and that the DEC is formulating a plan to get rid of the remaining 9,000 pheasants.
"We are in some very difficult economic times and with so many legitimate programs in New York state that are facing cuts, it's absolutely inexcusable for taxpayer money to be going toward what is essentially recreational killing and target practice using live animals," said Patrick Kwan, state director of the Humane Society.
According to the DEC Web site, the annual operating budget of the pheasant farm is about $750,000. The agency says its small game hunter survey in 2006-07 indicated that about 60,000 hunters killed 130,000 pheasants statewide.
The ring-necked pheasant, listed by DEC as the state's most popular game bird, is not native to the state. It was introduced to Oregon from China in 1881 and spread across the country through public and private stocking programs.

[Squirrelhawker]

ORIGINAL: Highlander Archery

One by One, Inch by Inch for those who didn't believe me the first few times I mentioned it.


The Humane Society of the United States is commending state budget cutters for setting their sights on pheasant stocking in New York.
In a letter sent to state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis, the group thanks him for closing the Richard E. Reynolds Game Farm near Ithaca in central New York. It's the last remaining state-operated pheasant rearing facility.
Yancey Roy, a spokesman for Grannis, said Wednesday that the DEC has been evaluating all its programs, including the pheasant farm, to find potential savings. But he wouldn't comment on specific plans until Gov. David Paterson releases his budget proposal next week.
Mike Murphy, a wildlife biologist at the game farm, was quoted in the Post-Standard of Syracuse on Tuesday as saying the farm's five full-time staff members were told of the impending closing late last week, and that the DEC is formulating a plan to get rid of the remaining 9,000 pheasants.
"We are in some very difficult economic times and with so many legitimate programs in New York state that are facing cuts, it's absolutely inexcusable for taxpayer money to be going toward what is essentially recreational killing and target practice using live animals," said Patrick Kwan, state director of the Humane Society.
According to the DEC Web site, the annual operating budget of the pheasant farm is about $750,000. The agency says its small game hunter survey in 2006-07 indicated that about 60,000 hunters killed 130,000 pheasants statewide.
The ring-necked pheasant, listed by DEC as the state's most popular game bird, is not native to the state. It was introduced to Oregon from China in 1881 and spread across the country through public and private stocking programs.

The only thing that really bugs me about this is the fact that an anti-hunting org is jumping on this dying bandwagon. It has been a long time coming. I know this is gonna drive some people nuts but I'm not sure it isn't time for this to go. Nothing stays the same. Habitats change as they always do. In many places in NY we no longer have the preferred habitats for the ringneck. This is largely due to changing agricultural practices, suburban sprawl, and successional growth. These same things have been a boon to deer and turkey but detrimental to the pheasant. Not to mention dumping birds out of boxes and having hunters literally following the trucks is the toughest kind of hunting to defend. I love pheasants but I think that their future lies in the privatized managing of habitat with perhaps keeping some state funding earmarked to assist in the supply of birds. The property next door has been managed for several years with pheasants in mind and during bow season I flushed three wild roosters at once. Hunters and property owners will have to commit to the species as they have with the deer and turkey in order for this to work.

[Highlander Archery]

So you advocate a "canned hunting" scenario for Pheasants? See where this is going? One by One till they get them all.

Don't believe me, look at the HSUS website:
 http://www.hsus.org/wildlife_abuse/campaigns/pheasants/
http://www.hsus.org/wildlife_abuse/news ... 21008.html

Just as a couple of examples.

[JOEL]

I know what squirrelhawker is saying..Its a shame the program is closing down due to budget cuts .the humane society has nothing to do with it.

[Highlander Archery]

"We are in some very difficult economic times and with so many legitimate programs in New York state that are facing cuts, it's absolutely inexcusable for taxpayer money to be going toward what is essentially recreational killing and target practice using live animals,"

You don't think HSUS put the wheels in motion? Even after reading what has been posted on their website for over a year?

[Squirrelhawker]

ORIGINAL: Highlander Archery

So you advocate a "canned hunting" scenario for Pheasants? See where this is going? One by One till they get them all.

Don't believe me, look at the HSUS website:
http://www.hsus.org/wildlife_abuse/campaigns/pheasants/
http://www.hsus.org/wildlife_abuse/news/elk_hunting_rocky_mountain_121008.html

Just as a couple of examples.

 
No, not at all. But I'm not exactly jazzed about walking up and kicking a pen raised bird to try and get it to fly either. What I'm saying is that it may be that a viable pheasant stocking program has run its course in NY state. It has been for many years now, an absolute put and take endeavor with little to no replenishing of wild birds at least on a measurable, state wide level. Sure some survive here and there, but not many and I think we can all agree on that point. So every year the state spends our dough to raise birds, that we shoot, not really hunt, a lot of the time, the rest feed the local predator population ( hey, whatever. I love predators) and then we do it all over again. Not to mention that it is getting harder and harder for the state to find places to put these birds for several reasons:
 
They can't all logistically go on state land.
 
The ASK program is in trouble because pheasant hunting conflicts more and more with things like bow hunting. Not many of us A) want to grant access in general and B) want pheasant hunters running around while we're trying to bow hunt deer.
 
Take out the people who would say yes, but do not have suitable habitat for pheasants and you can begin to see the problems.
 
Then look at it from a PR standpoint. For the state and for us. A bunch of hunters ostensibly pheasant hunting by sometimes literally following the trucks by a day, hours or even minutes. I'm not crying boo-hoo for the birds. Heck, I'm a falconer. I'm still waiting to get the call in a situation where I can get my squirrel loving redtail over a bunch of stupid pheasants, but you have to agree at least on some level that this form of hunting can get a little hard to defend.
 
My original point was, that now we have an anti hunting org jumping up and down about something that maybe we should have been on top of, a long time ago. 
 
I'm not happy about this. I wish things were different. My only agenda is to seek the truth wherever that takes us.
 
 
 

[ranwin33]

We've looked into stocking programs for Quail and Pheasant for our farm - everything I've read indicates the birds won't survive, they don't have the skills.  If the New York stocking program is doing nothing more than providing pen raised birds that aren't going to survive and actually re-stock an area then it is time for the program to go away.  Especially given the economic times and budget constraints.   As a taxpayer, I wouldn't wan't my money spent on something that provides recreational sport for so few.

[Squirrelhawker]

We've looked into stocking programs for Quail and Pheasant for our farm - everything I've read indicates the birds won't survive, they don't have the skills.

 
I don't know much about quail but pheasants, if provided the optimum types of cover to feed, hide, and breed in, they can and do flourish. But in many areas and in my home state of NY in particular that form of cover(s) does not exist in the amounts that it did 30 years ago. Want pheasants?Take at least fifty acres and plant some strips of milo, sawgrass, orchard grass and or alfalfa. Don't cut it at least for a season or two. Keep any hedgerows you got. If you have any thick brush, knock some of it down and/or brush hog some open areas and let natural low growth get started.
Plant some corn. Cut it if you want but don't glean it. Now stock it with pheasants for a couple seasons. Call me [;)]
 
Few of us are in a position to do these kinds of things for the sake of pheasant hunting. It was farming practices of long ago that did it for us. Plant food plots for deer? Oh yeah. Brushhog prime bedding cover? No way.

[gutpile]

Why on gods beautiful green earth will hunters think that the hsus has nothing to do with hunting bans, if the newyork stocking program is like washington the hunters pay for the birds with our pheasant card, on the west side of the cascades we dont have many wild pheasants but on the east side we have tons. Makes it so we can enjoy hunting on both sides.
 Now why does anybody think that a program should go away like this?
 
Always amazes me that hunters will just lie back and watch things get taken away, then justify it. Just amazes me

[beagleman23]

SquirrelHawker-
  If you logic holds true then the NYS DEC should stop stocking trout in our streams as most won't support a population year round.  Not to mention that there is plenty of places to stock pheasants, at least in western NY.  I,m still flushing 'stocked' pheasants at one of the State Parks down the road from me, however, they will not be there not year.  Not because there isn't habitat but due to all the raptors, foxes and coyotes.  I was it behind my old house which butted up to a small air park that was loaded with pheasants, rabits and deer.  I trained all my dogs there.  The town ordinance prevented hunting but slowly at first and more rapidly I witnessed the complete demise of the resident pheasant population and a notible decrease in rabbits but no change or increased deer populus.  There was no change in the habitat except a slight improvement were the runway was brush hogged back more and clover either was planted or grew naturally.  It occured to me one sunny March day on 3" of fresh snow as I found prefect wing imprints and the remains of some pheasant feathers.  I looked up in the sky to see 9 hawks, all redtail I believe, circling.  They moved on before I sold that house in 2006 but not before wiping out the pheasants that had populated that 30 acres for decades.  Just my two cents.