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THE GREAT OUTDOORS — The upcoming Utah pheasant hunt has been extended to 30 days on private land this year and the Division of Wildlife Resources recently released more than 10,000 birds for it.
The 2017 general pheasant hunt will run from Nov. 4 to Dec. 3 on both private and public lands — a change from the previous 14-day hunt on private lands, according to wildlife officials.
The longer season on private lands will not have a negative effect on the state's pheasant population, and will provide more opportunities for hunters, said Jason Robinson, upland game coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources.
In the 1970s — during the “heyday of pheasant hunting in Utah,” according to DWR — close to 100,000 people hunted pheasants, and most of them hunted on private agricultural land, Robinson said.
"Biologists were concerned about the pressure the state's hunters might put on the pheasant population," Robinson said. "Since then, the amount of farmland has decreased, but so has the number of pheasant hunters. Today, about 20,000 people hunt pheasants.”
Because of the fewer numbers of pheasant hunters, biologists felt the longer season would not affect the overall population numbers, Robinson said.
The DWR will also be releasing more than 10,000 pheasants on 54 public areas during the hunt. The pheasants will be released before each weekend during the hunt, except for the week of Thanksgiving. The birds were purchased by DWR and the Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife from two private bird breeders.
Editor's note: The content of this article was taken from a press release sent out by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. This is not information gathered by KSL.com reporters.
