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TALL WHEAT STUBBLE INCENTIVES |
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| No more striking decline in habitat quality for pheasants exists in
Colorado than the decline in quality and quantity of wheat stubble.
During a Division research study conducted in the mid 1960's, wheat
stubble and weed canopy in the core pheasant range of eastern Colorado
averaged nearly 20 inches tall. Similar studies conducted in the mid
1990's resulted in averages of only 8-10 inches tall, and that today's
best quality stubble was equivalent to the average in 1960's era wheat
stubble. The importance of this decline is not always obvious or
intuitive with regards to region-wide pheasant populations, most of
which depend on wheat stubble. Pheasants, originally being grassland
birds, have adapted to using green wheat and wheat stubble as an
alternate habitat in Colorado. Needless to say, whether nesting in green
wheat in the spring or night-roosting in wheat stubble in the winter,
both wheat and stubble play a critical role in pheasant population
dynamics. In the 1990's, the Division also compared survival rates of
pheasants in different qualities of stubble. Results were not
surprising, with pheasants in tall weedy wheat stubble showing much
higher winter survival than birds in 'average' or 'below average' wheat
stubble complexes. As a result, in 2001 a practice was created in PHIP
that allowed chapters to provide a $5/acre incentive to farmers to leave
wheat stubble tall and unsprayed after harvest. |
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Copyright © 2003-2007 Colorado State Pheasants Forever. All rights reserved. |
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