Pheasant release kicks off youth hunt

When Jim Hagedorn and volunteers released pheasants Saturday along the Palouse River west of Potlatch, their purpose was not to restock the area with wild birds in an effort to repopulate the Palouse farm country.

The 35 birds they let go are meant to be harvested, maybe that day, with a shotgun burst.

Hagedorn, who operates the Gamebird Foundation, a group of volunteers whose mission is to raise and release pheasants for youth hunters to chase, as an educational experience, has over several years pushed Idaho Fish and Game to back efforts to augment wild pheasant populations through the release of pen-raised birds.

Saturday’s pheasant release on the 925 acres of mostly farmland along the Palouse River just east of the Washington-Idaho state line kicked off the youth hunting season at the site.

Idaho Department of Fish and Game leases the land through its Access Yes! Program, a sportsman access program the department funds through depredation fees, resident and nonresident surcharges and special hunt fees.

According to IDFG the department in 2017 opened 371,707 acres of private land to hunters and anglers, and provided access to 549,635 acres of public land through its Access Yes! Program.

The Palouse River bottom lands, and the surrounding fields and woodlands that gradually meet it is a special place for Hagedorn, 88, who lives in nearby Viola.

He hopes to someday have land along the entire stretch of bottomlands from the border to U.S. 95 donated or leased for kids to hunt.

If that happens, it would at least resemble the opportunities he had as a youngster growing up in Midwest pheasant country, and later in Washington’s Columbia River country.

“We hunted the Columbia Basin when the bird hunting was really starting there,” Hagedorn said. “We would hunt the beet fields and limit out within seven rows of beets.”

That was in the 1960s and early 1970s, when hunters would be out for a few hours and come home with five roosters and two hens, he said.

Saturday’s pheasant release, and subsequent stocking on the property, is part of a plan by Idaho Fish and Game and the foundation to provide hunters with birds.

Pheasants will be released at both the Palouse River upland game area and the Peterson Loop property south of Moscow. Birds will continue to be released throughout the general season Oct. 13 through Dec. 31. The Peterson Loop includes more than 2,300 acres of range and farmlands. For information on the properties visit the Idaho Fish and Game website and look under Access Yes!

Biologist Kyle Lunsford, Idaho Fish and Game’s Farm Bill coordinator, likes the idea of stocking birds for kids to hunt, although he knows the birds that have out sleuthed hunters and their dogs by the end of the season aren’t likely to survive the winter. Hawks, owls, fox and coyotes as well as adverse conditions will take their toll.

“It’s not a population restoration tool,” Lunsford said. “It enhances hunting opportunities and gets kids into the sport.”

Long term, however, the work Lunsford does with farmers and ranchers in counties from Nez Perce to Benewah is meant to increase and enhance upland game bird habitat.

“If it’s a big enough parcel they may enroll it in Access Yes!,” he said.

For more information contact the Game Bird Foundation at 208-883-3423.