Pheasant hunting dilemma: Where are the hunters?

While Minnesota pheasant hunter numbers have plunged 40 percent in the past eight years, one segment of the hunter population has continued to chase roosters: older hunters.

The DNR sold about 129,000 pheasant stamps in 2006 and 2007 — when hunter numbers and pheasant harvest last peaked. Last year, it sold around 78,000.

An examination of stamp sales by age shows the percentage of pheasant hunters age 55 and older fell by just 7.5 percent since 2006.

All other age categories plummeted.

Pheasant stamp sales dipped by 49 percent for hunters age 18 to 24 and by 44 percent for ages 25 to 40. The numbers fell by 46 percent for ages 40 to 55 — the largest segment of pheasant hunters.

Officials are uncertain if the poor economy during that period contributed to the decline. But other hunter types fell far less, or increased, during the same period. State duck stamp sales, for example, fell by about 10 percent, and the estimated number of ruffed grouse hunters fell by about 11 percent. Deer hunter numbers increased by 6 percent.

Wildlife and conservation officials blame the drop in pheasant hunters primarily on declining pheasant populations spurred by loss of habitat. But older hunters are ignoring those factors and continuing to hunt ringnecks.

Added St. Pierre: "If you're 25 and living in an apartment with no dog and bird numbers are down, it's easier to find something else to do.''

Jay Johnson, Department of Natural Resources hunter recruitment and retention supervisor, said older pheasant hunters who do drop out also aren't being replaced, which compounds the problem.

"We're not recruiting younger hunters to pheasant hunting,'' Johnson said.

But St. Pierre and Johnson both say the large drop in pheasant habitat is a major reason for the falloff in hunter numbers.

"In 2007, we harvested 655,000 birds, a 60-year high,'' St. Pierre said. "That also was the peak of the Conservation Reserve Program [CRP] and bird population. Since then, we've lost millions upon millions of CRP acres [nationally], bird numbers have fallen and hunters have been lost.

Last year, Minnesota hunters killed 169,000 roosters, the lowest number in 27 years and the fourth lowest in 85 years. And pheasant stamp sales were the lowest since stamps were first sold in 1983.

Sales this season are off to a slow start. Through last weekend, the pheasant season opener, the DNR sold 54,000 stamps, about 3,400 fewer than the same time last year. After opening weekend in 2006, the DNR sold more than 91,000 stamps.

Pheasant habitat, too, has declined. In 2007, the state had 1.72 million acres of grasslands in the pheasant range. This year, there's an estimated 1.63 million acres, a decline of 93,000 acres, or 145 square miles.

"Our biggest focus has to be on the habitat component,'' St. Pierre said. "If we have habitat, we have birds and hunter access.

"Are we in a dire situation? Absolutely. But when haven't we been in a dire situation? This is why we exist.''

"But we're losing the overall habitat war,'' he said. "You have to have sustainable huntable pheasant populations and a place to hunt.''

Johnson said changes in society also are playing a big role in the decline of pheasant hunters — and the chances of boosting hunter numbers in the future. The DNR offers hunting programs for youths and women, but ultimately, he said, it's up to individual hunters to keep Minnesota's hunting tradition alive.

"We can work to create an environment that best supports pheasants and pheasant hunters,'' he said. "What we can't do is social-engineer pheasant hunters.

"What we need is for existing hunters to make recruiting the youths in their families a priority. No one has a greater influence on a kid's future.'' He said the DNR plans to increase efforts to enlist young adults to hunting, so they, in turn, can bring their kids into the sport.

"Unless something structurally changes with familial recruitment into pheasant hunting, we'll just be working with a smaller and smaller core group of people,'' Johnson said.

Minnesota membership in Pheasants Forever, the national conservation group founded in St. Paul in 1982, has grown from 22,870 in 2007 to 24,634 today. Nevertheless, the overall decline in pheasant hunter numbers is disconcerting, St. Pierre said. "It's our target market.''

Meanwhile, the issues of pheasant habitat and hunter numbers are expected to be primary topics at the first-ever Minnesota Pheasant Summit set for Dec. 13 in Marshall.