Falcon:
While living up on the northern boundary of Clinton Country in the Preston, Iowa area I noticed a strange habit that obviously has contributed to the decline of pheasant in Iwa, I also saw this in the Reinbeck area back in the 90’s.
Farmers are now cutting the ditches just as they cut their lawns destroying cover that was once used by the pheasant. I noticed in Clinton County the country crews were knocking down all the trees along the fence and hedgerows and when I asked them why they were doing it I was told, “Farmers are complaining the spots of shade on the fields are causing them to lose crops.” In Clinton County they just knocked down the trees with a back hoe splintering them something terrible leaving the landscape looking like a bomb had gone off.
Even in Des Moines County people living in the country are cutting the ditches to the extent they do their lawns eradicating a favorite place for Iowa’s once famed pheasant population to seek cover in.
I always wondered why a farmer would waste fuel to cut the ditches a quarter mile either side of this home and in some cases much further than a quarter mile.
The human population has done much to restrict the growth of the pheasant population as has anything Mother Nature has thrown at them.
KS
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