Des Moines Register

01-19-07

Pheasant lovers have bigger agenda

Iowans in group holding Des Moines conference work for clean water, habitat

By PERRY BEEMAN
REGISTER STAFF WRITER


Pheasants Forever, the group bringing close to 30,000 people to Des Moines for the national Pheasant Fest conference that begins today, is more than a collection of hunters.
The organization's 110,000 U.S. members, including 21,500 Iowans, also are responsible for cleaning waterways and providing habitat to a range of wildlife including songbirds that migrate to this state from Mexico and South America.
In Iowa alone, Pheasants Forever has been involved in 77,864 projects involving 754,603 acres, spending $25.1 million here since 1982. That work includes adding land to state and local wildlife areas, protecting nesting spots, providing food plots for wildlife, and opening land for hunting.
Pheasants Forever's environmental protection story, which will gain more attention in Iowa as thousands visit downtown Des Moines, is one that gets lost on many who are less familiar with that group or similar ones such as Ducks Unlimited.
"The work we do ensures water quality and soil conservation and the quality of life," Pheasants Forever spokesman Bob St. Pierre said.
Not just pheasants
Pheasants Forever has aggressively worked with farmers to encourage the planting of buffer strips. The ribbons of grasses and trees along fence rows and streams are critical habitat for a state in which 88 percent of all acres are in farms.
The group's partnership with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has been one of the top environmental success stories of recent decades.
In addition to sheltering wildlife, the buffers stop soil and chemical pollutants from reaching streams. The grassy strips and re-created wetlands the group helps finance produce plenty of pheasants, and they also trap pollution and shelter snakes, songbirds, turtles and other species.
Charles Corell, Iowa's water-quality bureau chief, said the organization's work on habitat, particularly along rivers, helps slow down water. That keeps soil and pollutants out of streams, he said.
"When they put in habitat, that is permanent vegetation," Corell said. "That is much preferred, from a water-quality standpoint, than crop ground."
Jeff Joens, a state wildlife bureau staffer, said Pheasants Forever's practice of letting local chapters decide how locally raised money is spent makes it easier for the chapters to approach businesses for support, too.
"They are probably among the top three or four nongovernment organizations in this state, and probably the top one or two" involved in habitat work, Joens added.
Impact on Iowa
The group's work also helps clean waterways and protect a variety of species, including rare Blanding's turtles, sandhill cranes, snakes and the songbirds that draw 813,000 bird-watchers a year, according to a federal census of outdoor recreation.
Why care? Iowa State University studies have shown residents of areas that have good recreational offerings see incomes rise faster than areas without those attractions. Outdoor recreation is important economically in Iowa, where 1 million wildlife watchers spend $188 million a year, according to a federal survey. That amount is in the range of what is spent in Iowa by 243,000 hunters each year.
Researchers at Iowa State and the Iowa DNR also have found that Iowans will visit lakes with the cleanest water more frequently than others. Some of the state's top tourist spots, such as the Iowa Great Lakes and Clear Lake, rely on water recreation to help drive the economy.
Also, Iowa has more than 200 waterways that violate at least one water standard. In addition to silt, fertilizer ingredients nitrogen and phosphorus lead to algae blooms that can rob oxygen from lakes and rivers, causing fish kills, a loss of aquatic species and a drop in fishing activity.
Pheasants Forever has shared efforts to clean up waterways with groups such as the Izaak Walton League of America, Sierra Club, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and the Iowa Environmental Council.
For example, Pheasants Forever spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to help add land to the Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt, which spans 8,600 acres in Polk and Jasper counties, said Loren Lown, a Polk County natural resources specialist. The group also supports urban outdoor classrooms.
"Conservation is a citizens' movement," Lown said. "When these very citizens demand clean water and habitat, we'll have it."
Don Lamb, a 71-year-old hunter from Milford, said the Dickinson County chapter helped install 31 wetlands that produce pheasants - and good water.
"One of our main goals is to provide habitat for pheasants, but our habitat helps probably 100 other species, too, and cleans the water," Lamb said.
Concerns remain
Although many Pheasants Forever projects are in cooperation with landowners, concern remains.
Some Iowans, including some farmers, cringe when cropland comes out of production. Craig Lang, president of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, has noted that some of the less marginal of the acres now in habitat will need to be farmed if the demand for corn, ethanol and similar purposes is to be met.
What happens in downtown Des Moines this weekend, Lamb said, will set the stage for work on the new Farm Bill and other initiatives to protect waterways, a range of species - and to produce pheasants.
Lown, the Polk County resources specialist, agreed.
"Their support, both monetarily and in volunteer support, has been crucial," he said. "The public steps up when someone says it's important. To have Pheasants Forever say it's important gets citizens involved."