blake
Life Member
Not all Iowa barren for certain hunters
DesMoinesRegister.com-Farmers can sign up for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in exchange for payments for letting their land rest idle. Depending on the acres put in the CRP, an acre or more of the land must be sown with forge plants, such as corn and legumes for wildlife.
Those wildlife plots have turned into an oasis, islands of nourishment among the empty rolling crop fields.
Pheasants are drawn in, concentrating their numbers in one location.
Unfortunately, the right to hunt on CRP ground is sold by large farm operators. Well-paying hunters are eager to venture out of their urban centers for a weekend of hunting.
No wonder Iowa's iconic countryside symbol has dwindled in number.
No wonder the discrepancy: As many say there are hardly any birds, a big-spread farmer will boast that his out-of-state hunters just bagged their limit.
Between modern harvesters and some greedy farm operators, the CRP plots have become trap sites for frenzied shooting.
- John Clayton, Grinnell
DesMoinesRegister.com-Farmers can sign up for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in exchange for payments for letting their land rest idle. Depending on the acres put in the CRP, an acre or more of the land must be sown with forge plants, such as corn and legumes for wildlife.
Those wildlife plots have turned into an oasis, islands of nourishment among the empty rolling crop fields.
Pheasants are drawn in, concentrating their numbers in one location.
Unfortunately, the right to hunt on CRP ground is sold by large farm operators. Well-paying hunters are eager to venture out of their urban centers for a weekend of hunting.
No wonder Iowa's iconic countryside symbol has dwindled in number.
No wonder the discrepancy: As many say there are hardly any birds, a big-spread farmer will boast that his out-of-state hunters just bagged their limit.
Between modern harvesters and some greedy farm operators, the CRP plots have become trap sites for frenzied shooting.
- John Clayton, Grinnell