OutdoorNebraska

10 FOCUS ON PHEASANTS: ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND LESSONS LEARNED The Focus on Pheasants ini a ve began in 2002 as a partnership among the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Pheasants Forever, and Nebraska staff of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These organiza ons had a common interest in restoring pheasant habitats and providing informa on to landowners, policy makers, and others working towards that same goal. Most projects and ac vi es accomplished as part of this ini a ve would not have been possible without the coopera on of all the FOP partners, and keeping this partnership strong will remain the cornerstone for any future efforts. The Focus on Pheasants program has been involved in projects on focus areas, as well as through other habitat projects, such as the Early Successional Habitat Management program on WMAs and other satellite projects statewide. The 2002 Focus on Pheasants plan iden fied 6 priority FOP development areas: Stanton County (private land), Dixon County (private land), Branched Oak WMA (public land), Sherman Reservoir WMA (public land), Harlan County Reservoir (public land, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), and One Box Hunt (community-directed Focus Area in Custer County). Focus Areas were developed in each of these areas. Between its incep on in 2002 and 2007, Focus on Pheasant ini a ves affected over 45,000 acres and spent more than $1.3 million on incen ves and management ac vi es. Management techniques included disking, chemical applica on, drilling, broadcast seeding, adding food plots, removing trees, controlled burns, interseeding grasses and legume mixtures, stubble management, and restora on seeding, as well as other incen ve- based prac ces. These ac vi es required a minimum of 16,875 person-hours coded over the 6 year period. Addi onal funds were expended in noxious weed control and other herbicide treatment ac vi es. In addi on to management ac vi es, more than $3,400 was spent on educa on and promo on of FOP ini a ves, and nearly $168,000 on research and evalua on. The Focus on Pheasants program has many other notable accomplishments related to its work across the state. Among these accomplishments are habitat tours of the focus areas for landowners and resource professionals. During the 2004 and 2005 Stanton County tours, 250 people from 19 states and 25 government agencies a ended. Addi onal tours have occurred across the state, including at Sherman and Harlan County Reservoir focus areas. These tours and research related to FOP partnership ac vi es have had a significant impact on USDA conserva on program policy, resul ng in the current emphasis on early successional habitats in programs like CRP. Another significant accomplishment was the cost savings related to habitat management ac vi es resul ng from Pheasants Forever chapter partners hos ng "work days" at Focus Areas. For example, for several years, local Pheasants Forever chapters near Sherman Reservoir organized local farmers to disk with two passes over 300 acres in one day. The work of coordina ng Focus Area ac vi es with partners and of organizing habitat tours was facilitated with the hiring of a Coordina ng Wildlife Biologist in partnership with Pheasants Forever. The "Want more pheasants?" pamphlet, containing a list of Focus on Pheasants accomplishments and lessons-learned from early focus area projects, was distributed to all Nebraska landowners. Although the results of research related to Focus on Pheasants habitat projects is important, a complete evalua on of the program should include lessons learned about the implementa on process. Perhaps these implementa on lessons are equally important, because they can help increase the efficiency with which the program is delivered. Among the lessons learned during implementa on of habitat projects thus far was that landowner par cipa on was con ngent on incen ve payments. For example, once incen ve payments ceased, including annual rental payments from USDA through CRP, so did the management ac vi es, and almost all of the FOP-CRP tracts in Dixon and Stanton coun es were returned to row crops when these commodi es became unusually lucra ve. All of the wildlife benefits created by these programs were lost. Further, some early FOP efforts relying exclusively on disking and interseeding with legumes resulted in noxious weed problems that damaged rela ons with local landowners, communi es, and USDA personnel, and made implementa on efforts more difficult. In areas with histories of noxious weeds, alterna ves to soil disturbance will lessen the likelihood of nega ve publicity that could make further work difficult, and will also make sure resources are spent on habitat crea on and not weed eradica on. Many of the ques ons we have been able to address have been related to short-term effects. This short-dura on research is a consequence of both the funding cycle and the me constraints of graduate student research. We have begun to address this deficiency with the ongoing, long-term research in the Southwest Focus on Pheasants area.

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