Pheasants Forever Hosting 14 CRP Landowner Workshops in North Dakota
Pheasants Forever 03.08.12
Pheasants Forever is hosting 14 CRP Landowner Workshops in North Dakota this March to inform farmers, ranchers and conservationists about the Conservation Reserve Program General Sign-Up 43. The sign-up, which runs from March 12, 2012 through April 6, 2012, is crucial to North Dakota’s ring-necked pheasant population.
At the workshops, landowners can learn from Pheasants Forever Farm Bill Wildlife Biologists how to improve the chances of their land being accepted in the competitive CRP General Sign-Up 43. Pheasants Forever will also be informing producers on how conserving marginal lands through CRP can prove mutually beneficial for wildlife and agriculture production.
Grassland habitat in North Dakota has helped maintain the state’s status as one of the nation’s top pheasant producing states, but North Dakota has faced a continued loss of critical CRP acres in recent years. This loss, combined with a prolonged 2010/2011 winter, led to a 36% decline in North Dakota’s pheasant population last season. “These 14 workshops are intended to provide landowners with guidance and an opportunity to interact with qualified biologists regarding their options for the sign-up. We will also focus largely on ways in which producers can increase their EBI scores,” said Ginger Walker, Prairie Pothole Region Farm Bill Wildlife Biologist Coordinator. “We are very excited to play a role in this important technical assistance opportunity.”
| Date | County | Time | Place |
| 3/7/2012 | LaMoure | 10 am – 2 pm | Verona Café |
| 3/7/2012 | Bowman | 1:30 pm | Bowman Public Library (Prairie Rose Room) |
| 3/8/2012 | Hettinger | 1:30 pm | New England Memorial Building |
| 3/9/2012 | Barnes | 12 pm – 7 pm | North Dakota Winter Show |
| 3/10/2012 | Barnes | 9 pm – 7 pm | North Dakota Winter Show |
| 3/11/2012 | Barnes | 11 am – 5 pm | North Dakota Winter Show |
| 3/14/2012 | Stutsman | 2 pm | Friends Bar and Grill |
| 3/15/2012 | Stutsman | 10 am | Pingree Café |
| 3/15/2012 | Stutsman | 2 pm | Spiritwood Bar |
| 3/19/2012 | Stark | 11:30 am | Elks Lodge #1137 |
| 3/20/2012 | Hettinger | 11:30 am | Pheasant Café and Lodge |
| 3/26/2012 | Stark | 11:30 am | Elks Lodge #1137 |
| 3/26/2012 | Adams | 1 pm | Hettinger Research Extension Center |
| 3/27/2012 | Hettinger | 11:30 am | Pheasant Café and Lodge |
Pheasants Forever launched Quail Forever in August of 2005 to address the continuing loss of habitat suitable for quail and the subsequent quail population decline. Bobwhite population losses over the last 25 years range from 60 to 90 percent across the country. The reason for the quail population plunge is simple - massive losses of habitat suitable for quail. There are five major factors leading to the losses of quail habitat; intensified farming and forestry practices, succession of grassland ecosystems to forests, overwhelming presence of exotic grasses like fescue that choke out wildlife, and urban sprawl.
