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Pheasants Forever makes a home for wildlife
by Mark Steil, Minnesota Public Radio
January 9, 2003

The pheasant population in Minnesota and across the country benefits from the efforts of Pheasants Forever, which buys land to preserve habitat for the birds. (Photo courtesy of Minnesota DNR)

Land may be forever, but what grows on it isn't. Thousands of acres of Minnesota farmland each year are being converted back to a natural state. Private land owners, non-profit groups and government are all part of the effort. Hunting organizations are especially active. One group, Pheasants Forever, which started in Minnesota, has bought 85,000 acres nationwide to preserve natural habitat for pheasants and other wildlife. The organization is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Lincoln County, Minn. — Minnesota's best pheasant range is along its western flank. When settlers arrived more than a century ago, this part of the state was treeless prairie. Most of the land now is farmed. But in Lincoln County on the South Dakota border, Lonnie Willert looks at a field which is being returned to the wild.

"It is a nice chunk of land," says Willert. "Two guys and a couple dogs can spend all day out here and you'll be seeing a lot of birds. It's the perfect place to bring kids out hunting."

Willert is a member of Pheasants Forever. The organization observes its 20th anniversary this weekend with a meeting in the Twin Cities. It has more than 100,000 members in 28 states and Canada. The group bought this 150-acre field in Lincoln County and is planting trees and grass on it.

	Lonnie Willert

"It'll thicken up, give them (pheasants) a windbreak, a place to winter," says Willert. "When the rest of the farms are farmed fence line to fence line there's not much place for them to live."

The field is a small part of a growing phenomenon in Minnesota. Land farmed for a century or more is being returned to something close to its original state. Drain tiles are plugged so that water gathers in low spots and transforms crop stubble into marshes. Upland areas are seeded with wild grasses and flowers to regrow their prairie roots.

It's an idea with broad support -- not only with groups like Pheasants Forever, but also with private landowners, businesses and the government.

"I've served in five different states across the country, and I've never seen private interest groups take such an active interest in the protection of the natural resources -- including wildlife -- as I have here in Minnesota," says Bill Hunt, the U.S. Agriculture Department's conservationist in Minnesota.

	Grasses growing

Hunt says groups like Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited, the Nature Conservancy and others are buying land in Minnesota and returning it to a natural state. It's not a large amount, but does mirror a national trend.

The American Land Rights Association says private groups have bought large tracts of range land, 50,000 to 100,000 acres, in the western U.S. The organization's Chuck Cushman wonders what the impact on local economies will be if that land is switched from agricultural production to conservation use.

"Land should be part of what drives ... the economy," says Cushman. "I don't mean that some land shouldn't be saved, but there's no kind of over-arching ... look at balancing this out. So in a cumulative basis it's a little bit like aspirin. Two are good for you, 100 will put you in the hospital."

But buying land is the exception. The most common method of converting farmland to wildlife habitat involves federal and state government programs. Landowners receive a payment in return for not growing crops on the land. The USDA's Bill Hunt says in all cases, landowner participation is voluntary.

	Corn planted on the land helps feed wildlife

"Last year we were one of the leaders in the nation in terms of private land owners voluntarily signing up their land -- to put it in buffer strips, waterways, field borders, tree plantings," says Hunt. "We were, quite frankly, amazed ourselves at how those private landowners came into our office asking for technical assistance to get these practices installed."

Hunt says the most popular federal incentive is the Conservation Reserve Program. Nearly 3 percent of all the land in Minnesota, some 2,300 square miles, is enrolled in the CRP.

Back in Lincoln County, Lonnie Willert can hear a couple of pheasants crowing. It's a sign this land is doing what it's supposed to do.

"This is switchgrass here," says Willert. "This gets tall. It's easy to walk through. You can see the seeds on it. Birds like it -- it's good cover for pheasants."

Willert says Pheasants Forever and other groups likely will continue to buy land like this patch of Lincoln County. It's a refuge for pheasants, and for people who like being outdoors.

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