Down but Not Out

Maybe you've heard that the SD Game, Fish & Parks annual brood survey showed a 64% decrease in bird numbers compared to last year, and a 76% decrease from the 10-year average.  I know that sounds horrible, but I believe there are several bright spots to this years upcoming hunting season.  You can read the full report here.  Within this report the State lost nearly 50% of the hens they had collared between last years brood survey, which is conducted in August, and November.  If you recall the extreme drought that we experienced last year, we felt as though we were in decent shape according to last years numbers and what we were seeing early on.  As the drought continued it had detrimental affects, not only on chicks, but apparently also on adult birds.  

This year has been a completely different story.  After a fairly mild winter, we began to receive significant snow fall in April when birds normally begin to nest.  The moisture was welcome, but set back the birds nearly a month in their nesting activity.  After the April snow, conditions remained fairly cool, and dry.  Significant moisture did not return until sometime in mid-May, and then again June, July and even August.  The cover that the birds depend on to nest in and later raise their chicks in had been severely hampered by last years drought, and did not recover until sometime near the end of May or even June.  We received nearly 5 inches of rain in both July and August, when the average is near 2.5 inches per month.  Some of our property received nearly 12 inches of rain from July 15-August 15.  This has been great for the food plots, row crop, and CRP cover.  The cool temperatures that we experienced in July did hamper some row crop development, but things have returned to normal, if there is such a thing, since the 90-100 degree temps we have experienced in the past couple of weeks.

Soooo..... what am I getting at?  What are the bright spots??  I think we will see the opposite results of last years brood route surveys.  We've seen more birds appearing in the past couple of weeks then we have all summer long.  With nesting so far behind and the cover in such good shape, there just weren't many birds near the roads or visible for the annual counts.  Nearly 90% of the winter wheat crop was removed and planted to row crop this year, which makes for a lot of milo, corn, and sunflowers for the birds to hide in.  There is water everywhere, so the birds are not congregated around limited water sources.  This by no means is going to be a run-away year, but I do believe it will be as good as last year, if not slightly better.  There is going to be a lot of crop in when we start beating the bush, so birds may be hard to find to begin with, but things should improve as the season progresses.

A few other things also.  We've added some great property to our arsenal, which are a few of the pictures that you see posted here.  It's going to be some interesting hunting, as we figure out how things work on this new property, but it has a lot of good CRP and undisturbed habitat, and a steady water source.  It's got  a ton of potential and will only get better as we figure out it's secrets and continue to develop it as we have everything else.  We look forward to another year, and can't wait to get into the field with all of you.

Snake Den family loses a good one

John Jund Jr. (October 10, 1945 - July 5, 2013) John Jund, 67 of Pierre, died Friday, July 5 at Avera McKennen  Hospital in Sioux Falls. Visitation will be 5-7pm, Monday, July 8  at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Pierre with a Prayer Service  at 7:00pm, Monday at the Church. Services will be 10:00am, Tuesday, July 9 at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Church with burial  at Calvary Cemetery in Pierre    John was born October 10, 1945 to John and Rose (Salwei) Jund  in Zeeland, ND. He moved with his family to Mobridge in 1960  graduating from Mobridge High School in 1963. In April of 1964 he started working for the State of South Dakota  where he worked until his retirement in January of 2003.  On January 29, 1966 John was united in marriage to Carla Schlomer,  to this union two children were born: John Wayne and Lori. He was a member of the South Dakota National Guards retiring in 1985. Since his retirement he spent his time doing the things he loved the most: hunting, gardening and spending time with his grandkids. He always planted a garden large enough to feed a small community. John spent many hours weeding and watering and he took great pride in hand delivering his goods to anyone who would enjoy  them.    Hunting has always been a very important part of his life and something he spent a great deal of his time doing. He also greatly enjoyed his years of guiding at the Snake Den Lodge. It allowed him to make lasting friendships while spending time doing what he loved most. He loved time with his grandkids  whether it was mowing, playing dominoes or just watching them  in the back yard. He is survived by his wife Carla, Pierre; children: John Wayne, and special friend, Shelly Wanner, Pierre and Lori (Brad)Klemann, Pierre; five grandchildren: Dalton Grassel, Brevin Klemann, Braya Klemann, Kindra Jund and Carter John Klemann;  siblings: Francis (Carol) Jund, Mobridge, Joe (Eleanor) Jund,  Aberdeen, Mike (Sharon) Jund, Davenport, IA, Mary (James) Holzer, Stevens Point, WI, Eva (Darrold) Fischer,  Rapid City, Caroline (Mike) Jackson, Broomfield, CO and Sally (Daryl) Isburg, Ft. Pierre;  sister-in-law Maureen Jund, Rapid City, uncle Joe Salwei, Bismarck, ND and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. He was preceded in death by his parents, John and Rose Jund and one brother, Gerald Jund. Back

Once was... is not.

"Copper" waits patiently at the end of a food plot in a CRP field.

The scene pictured above, will take on a drastically different look in the fall of 2013.  No... it's not that "Copper" will be older and fatter.  Although that may be the case, as with most of us, the CRP field where this picture was taken has fallen to the plow and will be farmed this spring along with 9.7 million acres that have been released from the CRP program since 2007.  With the increase in grain prices and land prices, CRP has failed to keep up with support and demanding values.  Although we are currently playing both sides of the fence, where we will see it affect us the most is definitely in our hunting.  The Snake Den will lose approximately 960 acres of CRP ground in 2013.  Luckily we have teamed up with another landowner, who is very pro-active in enrolling his ground in the program, and should combat the loss with the addition of another couple thousand acres.  In the scheme of things though, it's a drop in the bucket.   South Dakota lost nearly 168,000 acres of CRP in the last year, Lyman County nearly 20,000.  CRP provides vital nesting and brood-rearing ground needed for hen and chick survival.    

Attached is a snippet of the newsletter that I receive from Pheasants Forever.  There are a ton of stats contained within the article, but the bottom line is this: as CRP acres decline, so do pheasant numbers.  You can also see the correlation provided here by SD Game, Fish and Parks.  We can only hope that congress and landowners alike can see the value in CRP, along with pheasants and other wildlife.

USDA Secretary Delivers Welcome CRP News to Pheasants, Quail and Hunters
CRP General Sign-up announced along with opening continuous CRP
Minneapolis, Minn. - February 16 -
Pheasants Forever (PF) and Quail Forever (QF) were pleased to be joined today by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack during its sold out 30th anniversary banquet in Minneapolis. During his keynote address at the event, Secretary Vilsack announced much needed conservation tools to the attendees. The audience for the announcement included U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Senator Al Franken, U.S. Representative Collin Peterson, and more than 1,000 Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever members.
The Secretary outlined three major USDA conservation measures for Ameri-ca’s farmers and ranchers. First, a new 4-week Conservation Reserve Pro-gram (CRP) General Sign-up is scheduled to start May 20th and will provide landowners with a competitive opportunity to enroll their toughest-to-farm, environmentally sensitive acres in CRP for the benefit of wildlife, water qual-ity and soils. The last general signup occurred during the spring of 2012, in which nearly 4.5 million acres were offered and 3.9 million of those acres were enrolled in the program.
Second, Secretary Vilsack announced there will be a review of soil rental rates in an effort to keep CRP competitive with current near-record commodity-driven land prices. And third, Secretary Vilsack announced plans to reopen enrollment for Continuous CRP acreage made possible by the extension of the 2008 Farm Bill through 2013. The reopening of Con-tinuous CRP makes available 1 million acres reallocated in 2012 to some of CRP’s most targeted and effective practic-es, like CP38 SAFE and CP33 Buffers.
“Under President Obama’s leadership, USDA has worked with a record number of farmers, ranchers and landowners – more than 500,000 across the nation – to achieve record benefits in soil and water conservation,” said Secretary Vilsack. “By ensuring that CRP remains strong, vibrant and an economically viable option for producers, we can ensure impactful conservation efforts in the years to come – including healthy wildlife habitat in every corner of our nation.”
“We absolutely needed these tools to be delivered now. Considering the massive habitat losses experienced as a result of last summer’s drought and the fact producers are planning their spring plantings right now, this was a critical announcement for farmers, hunters and conservationists,” says Dave Nomsen, Pheasants Forever’s vice-president of governmental affairs. “Of particular importance today was mention of the soil rental rates review. Improving CRP’s financial viability is critical to making this program successful for our farmer friends.”
The Conservation Reserve Program is a voluntary program designed to help farmers, ranchers and other agricultural producers protect their environmentally sensitive land. Through CRP, eligible landowners receive annual rental payments and cost-share assistance to establish long-term, resource conserving covers on eligible farmland. Land can be enrolled on a continuous basis for a period of 10 years. Land currently not enrolled in CRP may be offered in this sign-up provided all eligibility requirements are met.
Landowners interested in learning more about the upcoming general signup, review of soil rental rates or the continuous CRP acres available, are asked to contact a Pheasants Forever Farm Bill wildlife biologist. For additional inquiries, please contact Dave Nomsen, Pheasants Forever vice-president of governmental affairs at (320) 834-3076 or email Dave.
Pheasants Forever, including its quail conservation division, Quail Forever, is the nation's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to upland habitat conservation. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have more than 135,000 members and 720 local chapters across the United States and Canada. Chapters are empowered to determine how 100 percent of their locally raised conservation funds are spent, the only national conservation organization that operates through this truly grassroots structure.

Secretary Vilsack Announced Welcome CRP News
Is Anyone Paying Attention? We’ve Lost 9.7
Million Acres of CRP Land in Five Years.
The amount of land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), at 27.1 million acres, is down by 26 percent, or 9.7 million acres in the past five years, to a 25 year low. During this same time period, corn acreage has increased by 13 million acres. Farmers are once again planting crops on marginal lands “fencerow to fencerow” to cash in on today’s high commodity prices. CRP payments haven’t risen to compete with crop returns, and the program itself is being whittled away by Congress.
The Conservation Reserve Program exists to provide land owners with some financial incentive to idle their land, which in turn benefits the environment while providing commodity price sup-port by reducing surplus production. But now, ethanol policy makes that curb of surplus production unnecessary. The original CRP legislation, the Food Security Act of 1985, set a goal of enrolling over 40 million acres into the program by 1990 but that has never been reached and is now falling sharply. The laws regulating the program have been tweaked many times since begun in 1985, being tugged and pulled by various special interests. Prior to the CRP, we had “set aside acres” in the 1970′s and “soil bank” acres in the 1960′s.
If you visit one of the USDA’s websites promoting the benefits of the Conservation Reserve Program, you will see a long list including the following:
• Reduces soil erosion by an estimated 450 million tons per year, compared with pre-CRP erosion rates.
• Protects surface waters from sediment and nutrient enrichment with enrollment of 1.8 million acres of streamside grass and forested buffers.
• In prime pheasant habitat, a 4 percent increase in CRP grassland acres was associated with a 22 percent increase in pheasant counts.
By K. McDonald on March 7th, 2013
• Sequesters 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually in soils and vegetation on enrolled lands.
• Includes 8.3 million acres enrolled in the Prairie Pothole region providing habitat important for migratory waterfowl, grassland birds, and dependent species.
There’s nothing not to like in that list. CRP policy is an environmentally friendly one which helps protect this nation’s privately owned natural resources of soil and water. It adds to biodiversity and wildlife habitat. The program is especially appreciated by older farmers. On the down side, nearly half of CRP funds go to the top ten percent of recipients, according to the Environmental Working Group. And, some politicians argue that we shouldn’t pay farmers not to farm where they shouldn’t be farming in the first place.
Today, the economic incentive to grow corn, even on marginal lands, far exceeds the average amount of $57 paid per acre by the CRP program. Keep in mind that most of the acres enrolled in CRP have always been the marginal lands, those which are less productive, and are more vulnerable to erosion. In addition, budgetary pressures in writing a new farm bill make this program an easy target. At this year’s current enrollment the CRP costs the taxpayer around $1.6 billion, down from 2 billion a few years ago.
The map below shows us that 2.5 Million Acres of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land was lost in just one year in the con-tracts held in 2011 versus 2012. Much of the area exiting the program this past year was in the Plains states to grow more corn on marginal land. The two states converting the most CRP land to crops this year are North Dakota and Montana, in part due to in-roads of corn and soybean acres into this traditionally wheat growing region. After these two states, Minnesota, Missouri, and Kansas top the list of recent CRP lands lost for crop conversion.
Agribusinesses are reaping fat financial rewards from the price incentive to plant a record 97 million acres in corn, including on what was formerly CRP land. Further land use changes are also resulting from the ripple effect that high corn prices have on all of the commodities, not only in the U.S. but around the globe. High prices are appreciated by producers, but current Ag policy of intensive, industrial, all out agricultural production isn’t free and it isn’t sustainable. Unfortunately, environmental interests can’t compete politically with policies that promote the increased use of fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, commodity exchange, and equip-ment sales.
This next graph shows us the loss of CRP land since 2007 in the top four corn producing states.
Farmers, who are always at the mercy of policy which determines their economic survival, are being told today that they are being patriotic and helping with national security and energy independence by growing corn for ethanol. A truly patriotic policy would instead be the preservation of our nation’s soil and water for future generations.
This story wouldn’t be complete without pointing out the sharp contrast in priorities of land conservation between the top agricultural leaders of the E.U. and the U.S.
The European Union’s agricultural commissioner, Dacian Cioloş, saw the destruction that all out production did to the soils in his home country of Romania under the former communist regime, so he wants to see 7 percent of E.U. farmland turned into environ-mental priority areas which are off-limits to the use of chemicals and high-tech farming methods. He also knows that 90 percent of Europeans want to see policies which promote the public good in return for their taxpayer money spent on agriculture. He was trained as a horticultural engineer and spent thirteen months over a number of years doing organic farm internships in Brittany France. He was selected to lead the E.U. in agriculture because of his horticultural experience and education, and for his “modern vision” for agriculture. He wants an E.U. agricultural policy that discourages monocultures, encourages rotational farming methods, and decreases fertilizer use.
In contrast, our U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, is a lawyer and a politician, a former governor of Iowa.
If allowed a say on the issue, Americans, too, might strongly support CRP initiatives over today’s other farm programs which are far more expensive: direct payments, tax payer subsidized crop insurance, and biofuels incentives.
But, CRP support in Congress is fading. In the 2008 farm bill, it took a hit of 7 million fewer acres, and in the 2012 farm bill the plan is to cut another 7 million acres and to cap the program at a total of 25 million acres by 2017. That’s a far cry from the original 40 million acres planned in the 1985 legislation. A total of $6 billion in conservation cuts is expected in the next farm bill. In the congressional fiasco that occurred at 2012′s year-end, the old farm bill was extended through September 2013, when a new bill cover-ing the next five years should have been passed and would now be in place.
The story and statistics that I’ve presented above aren’t widely-known. Americans need to contact their policy-makers to let them know what is important to them. The Conservation Reserve Program and agricultural conservation support is in trouble and needs our help.

Another step forward??

Many of you have asked for it, and on occasion, we hear " I thought I paid with my credit card last year", or "I forgot a check blank".  From now on we won't run into that problem, since we recently installed a credit card machine.  We've been putting it off for a long time, but knew it was inevitable, that some day we would have to give away a small percentage of our earnings for the good of the business.  So starting immediately we can take deposits over the phone or charge for hunt balances when everyone makes the annual trip in the fall.  We think it's a good thing and hopefully you do too.   

Changes Abound

Here is a quick look at some of the changes we have just announced.  This is a copy of the letter that Cordie sent out to our group leaders this week.  We are looking forward to the challenges and excitement that 2013 will bring.

Like one old guy said to the other, "looks like we are going to make  green grass".   With that in mind we better start doing some of this, or it will be time to go to work and we will not have it done. 

      As most of you already  know,  the business of agriculture has been changing  faster in recent past, than ever before.    Land prices in Lyman Co.  have doubled in the last five years and tripled in the last twenty.   Cash rent has went from $30 per acre to $75 and every day we hear about a new high.    So what does this have to do with us, and why am I telling you about it.   The hunting business has to compete  with these prices in order to continue to have good hunting.    What I am trying to tell you is the price of hunting is going up.    I would like to think we have been very competitive in our prices for what we offered,  so hopefully we have a little room to move.    The new rates are posted on our web page but  when it is all said and done it will cost you another fifty bucks a day to hunt here.   We are changing the deposit from $75 per gun per day to $100, so you need to inform your group that the deposit for a three day hunt will now be $300 per gun and the total cost will go from $900 to $1050.

     So what else is new,  it is all good.     Everybody here seems to be in good health, knock on wood.   I am sure every one of you knows someone with an illness that has run up a million dollars worth of Doctor bills.  Our winter has been good, no really bad storms.   We are a couple of inches ahead of last year in the moisture department, hopefully that trend will continue through  the year.    I took out my first load of corn last Thurs.  They were  forecasting   a snow storm for the weekend and  we wanted the birds to have a little cushion.

      With Jimmy Stockton's story in mind about grandchildren, I will tell you briefly;   Kellen has been kicking butt in wrestling.     He seems to be extremely competitive and hates to lose.  I have no idea where he gets that from, I keep telling him it doesn't matter who wins,  "just have fun".  The other three seem to be out of the same mold and I can't wait to see them all "just have fun"

   One other happening  that will affect all of you.  We have leased another hunting operation:  2500 acres, two houses,  some farming equipment, and a lot of really good deer hunting.  The only way you might notice is hunting that property at some point or going to the preserve that we are going to have on that property.  Last year we had more interest in"two a days" and preserve hunts than we could handle on a dry year.    They killed more wild birds on this property last year per acre than we did on ours.   A lot of it is on the creek and they had water on most of it.    Your hunting will be better!!

      Casey is getting geared up to become a farmer,  he is going to farm all of our ground, lease a couple hundred acre's , and plant all of our food plots.  You have all heard the story about not being able to get the smile off the guys face, that is  Casey.   I  am not sure if it is because he gets to be a farmer or that he no longer has to pour concrete with his father-in-law.   Now we have another reason for it to rain.

A little catch-up

I know it's been a long time, and there is plenty to talk about, but before we get back in to the swing of things I'd like to reflect on the past year with a little help from some of our hunters.  I've included an email and a link to another blog to provide some insight from someone else who has hunted here many years, and one that has been only a few.  I hope you enjoy, and at some point we'll get caught up on what's been going on at the Snake Den, along with the things that may affect us and our industry in the future with all this talk about gun control and another large issue-conservation and the farm bill.

Below is an email that I received from Alan Harn, who has been coming to the Snake Den for years.  I've been guiding Harn and his partner, Stuart Struever for about five years, and they've been coming to South Dakota to hunt pheasants at the Snake Den "before I was born".  That's what they would say if you ask them, although they have been here since its inception in the early 1990's, and have been hunting together since the 1960's.  They're a great couple of guys to hunt with, and enjoy hunting until dark, even if I show them that I know what I'm doing and they shoot their limit of pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) before mid-afternoon.  There is always time for sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus) and greater prairie chickens (Tympanuchus phasianellus).

Dear Colleagues

I just received word from Jeff Lampe, former outdoor writer for the Peoria Journal Star who now publishes his own magazine, Heartland Outdoors.  Lampe went with us to South Dakota last week to conduct research for a series of articles on techniques involved in the collection of Phasianus colchicus and other wildlife specimens.

Examples of Phasianus spp. were relatively sparse due to the drought but, while decimating the alfalfa and similar crops, the drought probably increased the grasslands twenty fold.  This in turn provided optimum habitat for Tympanuchus cupido  and Tympanuchus phasianellus (previously: Tetrao phasianellus), and they were present in greater numbers than even the oldest "old timers" can remember.  In a normal year we might observe 0-10 of these two species; this year we recorded hundreds.  We did manage to collect a sizable number of Phasianus and obtained 11 Tympanuchus c. and Tympanuchus p. specimens as well. Daniel hadn't been involved in any type of programmed collecting for some eleven years, but he hasn't lost his touch.  He didn't miss many catching opportunities and caught many more than I did, even though he only took his great uncle's 1940s 16 gauge Browning collecting mechanism along.

The pursuit of true science is often complex and sometimes laced with hours of abject tedium, but the attached image of researchers examining the wealth of collected data succinctly demonstrates the satisfaction we ultimately attain at the culmination of the program through our steadfast dedication and commitment to the pursuit of scientific inquiry. Among the research team, you will find my middle son Daniel flanked on either side by aging data collectors Struever and Harn.

In addition to Harn's account of their trip, outdoor writer, Jeff Lampe puts another spin on it, along with some great photos, in a couple posts on his blog, Scattershooting.  I appreciate the nice comments that Jeff had about me and the Snake Den, and I enjoyed hunting with him and his dog, Hawk.  Harn and Struever are the mainstays, along with TG (on the left in the above picture).  Beyond that you never know who they will bring, but with six shooters this past year, that's probably as many as we will ever see with them.  It's a great group to spend some time with, and it allows me a change of pace after a busy first week in the regular pheasant season.  Enjoy.