Recent trends for pheasants have seen a rise in the population. Unlike turkeys in Iowa, pheasants have been a constant staple of Iowa wildlife. Pheasants Forever Senior Regional Representative Eric Sytsma tells KCII News about the fall and rise of the pheasant population in recent history, “Right now, we hit our low period for the pheasant population in 2011. That had to do with a string of really bad winters that had some really bad mortality on the population, and then wet springs which led to low nesting success. Then a combination of that and high ag prices which lead to less grass in the ground. Programs like CRP that’s run through the USDA, when commodity prices are really high, voluntary programs like CRP don’t compete as well so you’re going to see less of them in the field and that’s just a thing of economics. Since 2012, we have been seeing a rise in population, which is awesome. A lot of that comes from us having a little bit less terrible weather for winter survival and good spring nesting success. Combine that with new conservation practices and some more ground getting enrolled into conservation programs.” The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says last year’s population had the capacity to support a harvest of 400,000 birds and that the population has remained steady. Sytsma says pheasant hunting season won’t start until October, but he is excited to get out and participate this year.