Ron, Sorry, but my friends who do a lot of pheasant scouting say they think numbers are down. I don't scout because I know I'm going to my usual early season chukar places anyway, whether the birds are there or not. Actually, if they're not there they won't be anywhere, because those spots are the best I know for early season hunts and even in bad years there will still be birds there, just not as many. After I look the situation over at those spots and compare notes with my buddies i'll know what kind of year it's going to be.
The situation on grazing CRP is this: They have a clause in the contract that allows grazing in case of an emergency. Naturally the ranchers think up any excuse they can for an emergency and start screaming they need emergency relief every year. They can always think up a reason they should be able to graze it. The real reason is that they can't stand to see tall grass. They think if it's not being eaten by cattle it's going to waste. After all, it's a renewable resource just like trees. The timber companies want to cut every tree and the ranchers want to graze every blade of grass. If they can get paid not to and do it anyway that's great, as far as they're concerned, so they might as well try.
