There is an old axiom in wildlife management that says the best land produces the best wildlife crops. Unfortunately, wildlife managers have always had to work with the marginal stuff that's too difficult to farm. That’s what occupied my thoughts as I drove east on I-80 just outside Missouri Valley, IA, and began to climb the Loess Hills. As I drove toward Des Moines, where I was scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the Pheasants Forever convention, I soon realized those hills would hold most of the grass I'd see during a trip that would eventually take me over a large portion of the Hawkeye state.
Just a few years ago, Iowa provided good to great pheasant hunting. However, that was when the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) dominated a fair portion of the Iowa landscape, especially the hilly portions of western Iowa. That it no longer does is painfully obvious as I later travel Highways 63, 30, 218 and others, for no matter where I look, I see little other than the flattened corn stalks of winter. And I ask myself if Iowa's farmers really want things this way? After all, I've come to know many of them as they travel to the Dakotas in the spring, summer and fall to fish and hunt pheasants or ducks...or to fish perch through the ice in the "new" lakes in the eastern Dakotas.
Yet, I know the answer to the question. Farming is a bottom line business, like any other, and farmers learn quickly that certain provisions of the Farm Bill make it difficult to do anything but plow and plant more crops that are already in surplus. Few of them say today that we do this to feed a hungry world because most know that those nations that need it, can't afford it. And I wonder as I drive Iowa’s highways, who, other than the providers of the seed and chemicals, fertilizers and implements, really like what much of Iowa has become? Can we sustain an economy in farm states if we continue down this road? Small Iowa towns are disappearing, just as in the Dakotas and the farm country of Minnesota. I am mindful that even achieving that parity that farmers have always sought, will do little to restore small town economies, because pouring more money into these economies isn’t likely to happen because the real problem is that small town retailers are running out of farm customers.
Aldo Leopold once pondered the time required for Iowa's tall grass prairies to create the rich, black topsoil that would later make it one of the leading producers of corn and soybeans. Today, the grass in the ditch on either side of the Interstate, is in many areas, what remains of the tallgrass prairie. Historians wrote that a man on a horse would have his feet tickled by Iowa’s tall grass. This was the home of Hugh Bennett's version of soil conservation, and it was Iowa farmers who showed the rest how to conserve topsoil through terraces and contour plowing. Yet, as I drive past the terraces on each side of the road, I realize that other than along creeks and rivers, the only wildlife habitat I see is the vegetation growing on those terraces and along the drainage ditches. This is land that must provide an easy living for a fox or skunk.
I think back to the day several years ago in Mason City; about the old gentleman who waited until others had left, following a duck-hunting seminar I had delivered. He asked about hunting in the Dakotas, saying he wanted to go on one good duck hunt before he died. He told me that he once had good duck hunting on his northern Iowa farm but in recent years, there have been few ducks.
"We drained the marshes," he said. "This land is just too valuable for ducks."
And that may be the problem Iowa, Minnesota and to a lesser extent, the Dakotas, face these days.
Yet, there is still some wonderful hunting in Iowa. Giant Canada geese now nest in every Iowa county. And one biologist told me that the flock now numbers over 200,000 "resident" birds. With that, of course, will come the usual "goose" problems. Deer and turkey hunting has never been better. Iowa held its first deer season in 1953, and it’s far better today than it was when I hunted there for six consecutive seasons during the 1960s, going through five before seeing my first deer. Iowa today is considered one of the top destination deer hunting states in America. Richard Bishop, who heads things at the Iowa DNR shows me photos of the heavy-racked bucks that have been taken off his southern Iowa farm, and I understand why so many deer hunters want to come here.
Yet, the preponderance of bucks with big, heavy antlers creates new problems, one of which is that few seem to want deer that do not have them, thus, the doe harvest isn't what it should be. And there’s a growing trend among well-heeled hunters to pay more than current land values for property that contains some timber. Land leasing and fee hunting seems to be causing the same pain for many Iowa deer hunters that their pheasant hunting counterparts in South Dakota have been experiencing. On many Iowa farms, I’m told, only a few bucks are harvested each year and the population continues to grow. That has prompted some landowners to demand more free licenses to affect a higher doe harvest. Some, feeling locked out, talk about banning non-residents, the thinking being that it is the wealthy hunters from outstate who are responsible for these hunting ills. And also not surprising, the Iowa Farm Bureau seems to be right in the middle, stirring pots for all they are worth. Why is it that wildlife only has value to some when it creates wealth?
At about the time you are reading this, I will again be in Iowa, at a sport show in Cedar Rapids, where I once lived for nearly a decade during the 1960s. The last time I visited, I was astonished at the changes and I am anxious to see what’s changed since that last visit almost a decade ago. Back then, I got the feeling that Cedar Rapids, like a youngster that outgrew his shoes, was stretching out toward Vinton, Monticello, Iowa City and Mount Vernon. Even out in the rural areas, places that once featured large stands of walnut, oak and hickory, now grow corn and soybeans or become yet another housing development. And all of this means more “edge,” habitat, which is just the thing to trigger more whitetail expansion.
Iowa’s hunters are still smarting over Gov. Tom Vilsack’s veto of legislation they hoped would allow mourning dove hunting. Yet, because of the great hunting opportunities provided by geese, deer and turkeys in recent years, some seem almost ready to believe that intensive farming and wildlife can not only coexist, but might actually benefit wildlife. Such a conclusion is both misleading and erroneous, because behind every effect, there is a cause.
The wild turkey prospers in mature forests and Iowa's larger woodlots and river bottoms indeed, are mature. Pheasant populations responded to the CRP acres, but Iowa does not have as much CRP these days, and in fact, most acres are located now in south central Iowa, which isn't good ringneck country. As for the burgeoning goose population, it's hard to find a place, anywhere in America, where introduced Canadas have not prospered. And somehow, geese that live on golf courses and city parks in the shadow of tall buildings, don’t seem, at least to me, to offer the same magic as those raised on a tundra landscape. Yet, some will argue that Iowa’s hunters are enjoying banner days as we enter a new millenium. And they’re at least partly correct. However, that view avoids looking at what’s been lost.
Bobwhite quail come to mind. During the 1960s, I walked brushy areas between Cedar Rapids and Ely, IA and nearly always flushed several coveys in a day, all the while, focusing primarily on pheasants and rabbits. The truth is, those species that have proven more adaptable, continue to do well.
Already, some cities such as Davenport, are employing paid "sharpshooters" to rid themselves of surplus deer. And with an estimated 200,000 resident geese, depredation problems are only beginning.
As in the Dakotas, urban areas continue to grow, encroaching into rural Iowa, generally at the expense of shrinking small towns. So, notes Iowa’s largest newspaper, the Des Moines Register, these are the two Iowas; urban and rural. They ask, is this all happening because Iowa is so intent on maintaining a healthy agricultural economy that it neglects other opportunities? They write of the things I see daily in South Dakota; things that are likely also occurring in Minnesota.
"The frustration when rural (and some urban) lawmakers think it is a hilarious joke to kill any legislation that is perceived as benefitting Des Moines." (Feel free to insert Minneapolis or St. Paul, Sioux Falls or Fargo where applicable.) "There is frustration when some farming practices pollute Iowa's lakes and streams, making it a less attractive place to live. There is frustration when enhancements such as bike trails and national designation for the Loess Hills are blocked by rural interests that see land-ownership rights as superceding all others."
The Register notes all Iowans must adjust their thinking in accord with what they already know to be the truth: The 160-acre farm isn't coming back and the fortunes of small towns will never again lie in selling retail goods to farm families. And it is this truth, that small towns are running out of farmer customers, that so skewers the big lie, that CRP is responsible for their demise.
And so, this is life in 2002 in the farm country of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. As a South Dakotan, I feel a bit smug that things aren’t as bad in North or South Dakota, for the truth is, there is more species diversity here, largely because more natural resources remain. The Dakotas still maintain a strong wetland base, and as long as they keep these as well as protecting the prairie, water quality and fishing and hunting will remain excellent.
However, I’m not sure that Iowa…or southern and western Minnesota can ever repair the damages. These areas remind me of a man who smoked four packs daily and finally quit at 100 years of age. So, as I travel Iowa and see the changes that have taken place over the past four decades, I can only imagine what a paradise this must have been. The eastern portions were hilly and forested, a landscape that gave way to rolling tall grass prairies from the central to the western regions. But, according to historian and professor of animal ecology at Iowa State University, James Dinsmore, by the time most settlers arrived, many species had already disappeared. He notes that after traveling Iowa in 1833, Indian agent Joseph Street described it as “a country so full of game.” There were elk and bison, and according to some accounts, more deer than today. But perhaps you do not miss what you have never known. There are doubtless many young Iowa deer hunters who do not know that prior to 1953, the deer herd was so low, there was no hunting season. And, notes Dinsmore, Iowa has undergone more changes than any other state.
So there is truth to the editorial belief of the Des Moines Register, that there are two Iowas, rural and urban? I suspect there is and that is cause to worry because the farther one becomes removed from the land, the more ensconced one becomes with concrete, the harder it is to retain concern about what’s happening on the back 40.. I talked with enough Iowans last week to conclude that more than a few don't like some of these changes, including many farmers, who are locked into government programs that reward those who grow crops that are already in surplus. Some ask, where is the sense in a farm program that builds its house on such a fragile foundation? Where is the sense in a program that enriches a few but invests nothing in the maintenance of a rural heritage? And where’s the sense in a program that focuses on loan deficiency payments instead of land health?
We know, for example, that the deer, goose and turkey hunting won’t always be this good. The larger the herds or flocks grow, the higher the probability of major disease outbreaks. And the more the wealth of wildlife is shared by only a few, the more the now simmering resentment of those standing on the outside looking in, will also grow.
There are bright spots, tiny bits of encouragement that suggest not all are in step with where we’re at today. I saw it in the faces and attitudes of the more than 500 who attended the Pheasants Forever State Convention. And they were merely the representatives of many others back home. I heard no talk of stocking birds, but a lot about putting habitat on the ground. In a society where so many have enough wealth to pay as they go, it is tempting for some to turn hunting into put and take. In such an intensively farmed state, it is encouraging to know that while most PF members probably do live in towns and cities, they are taking the time to go out and work with their landowner friends. It was encouraging to know a goodly number of those attending the Pheasants Forever convention were…Iowa farmers. And in this way, urban meeting rural, you get the feeling a healthy relationship is underway, and the result can be a well-thought project that can inject life into a farm where margins are often very thin. It can make it possible for a man who enjoys wildlife but has a spreadsheet to balance, to enjoy both without traveling to the Dakotas.
I saw it also in the attitudes of the several hundred employees of the Iowa County Conservation Boards that I spent a few days with after leaving the Pheasants Forever convention. Most of us aren’t familiar with such boards that report directly to county supervisors, and at least on the surface, appear to duplicate the efforts of the DNR. But if that's the case, that clearly wasn't the view of either they or the few DNR biologists who were attending the conference. One evening, while a few of us were telling fish stories over cold beer, I asked what advantage County Conservation Boards offer to their constituents...and three of them answered almost simultaneously, "Local accountability.”
These boards regularly partner with various other agencies including the DNR and the result is often better than when the DNR or other agencies try to direct local policies from the state capitol.
I’m not under any illusions that these hard working folks believe they’re going to turn around a century of habitat destruction. But, you sense in their quiet, but determined demeanor, the realization and belief that just as marshes, woodlots, brush piles and weedy fencerows were eliminated one at a time, that’s also the recipe for getting them back.
If there’s a lesson for each of us in all of this, it’s this: Take the time to travel into western and southern Minnesota and into Iowa. Look around. Ask yourself where a pheasant could live. Where can a covey of quail make it through a February blizzard? Where does the water go when it runs off this land? And if you’re not satisfied with the obvious answers, dedicate your time to helping the others reclaim a home for wildlife, a marsh, woodlot, fencerow and brush pile at a time.
The tragedy is that it’s a lot harder to cure the disease of land abuse, than it is to prevent it.
