Dennis Anderson: Pheasant hunters need to open up their wallets

However challenging pheasant hunting will be Saturday when the state's ringneck season begins, it's likely to be more challenging in years to come. The Obama administration is considering dropping the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) cap to 24 million acres from its present 32 million acres -- a sum that is still some 8 million acres below what Pheasants Forever believes should be the standard.

CRP had its beginning in Minnesota -- a little-known fact -- and if it is to be sustained at a level that not only conserves wildlife habitat, but fish habitat, and topsoil, much of that work likely will originate here as well by Pheasants Forever, its chapters and members.

Pheasants Forever is the White Bear Lake-based habitat group founded in 1982. It was at one of the group's earliest board meetings that the late Roger Holmes, Department of Natural Resources Fish and Wildlife Division director, suggested a portion of Minnesota pheasant stamp money be directed to the Wildlife Management Institute in Washington to lobby for a more conservation-friendly federal farm program.

At the time, many farmers were going broke, and some were losing their operations to banks. Passage of the 1985 federal farm bill with the first CRP included was intended, then, not solely to aid wildlife and slow soil erosion. It was also designed to put money in farmers' pockets.

In the years since, CRP -- while not perfect -- has benefited wildlife particularly but fish also, in ways unmatched in American history -- better, even, than the old Soil Bank program of a half-century ago.

But pressure to reduce CRP acres accelerated about a decade ago, spurred, as always, by agribusiness, which generally views idled acres as money lost. In their world, no crops means no implements sold, ditto no fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, trucking and storage fees.

Stipulate this: Some American farmlands never should have been put beneath a plow. They're too highly erodible and too unproductive. In some instances, farmers plant them nonetheless to qualify for farm-program benefits. So rather than reward farmers for conserving sensitive lands, the federal government does just the opposite. Which in large part explains the devastation by plow now occurring in the virgin Missouri Coteau regions of North Dakota and South Dakota, where ducks, pheasants and other wildlife are threatened as never before.

Considered in this context, Saturday's challenges to pheasant hunters are no big deal. Yes, the state's corn harvest is way behind, and yes, the season is opening relatively early. But the corn eventually will be cut and, as October progresses, ringneck hunting will only improve.

Here's the bigger problem: Whither CRP?

No one knows. But if you're a Minnesota pheasant hunter -- and they number some 120,000 -- and you're not a member of or contributor to Pheasants Forever, you've got no right to whine, not Saturday or any day.

How is Pheasants Forever doing in this troubled economy? A fair question, given that many nonprofits have laid off staff in the past year, and cut programs.

Here's a snapshot:

• On average this year, the group's 720 banquets nationwide each were attended by eight fewer people than a year ago.

• Overall, revenue from 2008 to 2009 was flat, at $38 million.

• The chapters' gross revenues, however, were up 3 percent in the same period, and net chapter revenue was up 10 percent. This occurred because chapters, adjusting to the down economy, spent less money on auction and raffle items.

• Chapter program spending also increased, from $8 million to $11 million, because of an increase in land purchases. Again, because of the economy, more properties were available for sale than in recent years, and chapters took advantage.

These are pretty good numbers, and reflect the passion pheasant hunters have not only for their favorite birds, but for upland conservation.

It's unfortunate that society at large doesn't join more readily in the conservation fight. Worse, it's akin to a crime that only about one in six Minnesota ringneck hunters belongs to Pheasants Forever.

Want to help? Find out how online at www.pheasantsforever.org. Or phone 651-773-2000.

Dennis Anderson • danderson@startribune.com