While the pheasant hunting season in Iowa won’t begin until late October, hunters across the state are sure to find more opportunity than they did last year. According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ 2018 August Roadside Survey, the total number of pheasants recorded in the survey increased by 39%.

In Guthrie County, the numbers are the highest in the last decade. Guthrie County’s DNR Enforcement Officer Jeremy King is pleased with the results. “I grew up in Guthrie Center and (have) been the game warden for Guthrie County now going on eleven years. This is the highest bird count I’ve ever had. Not just by a little bit or one or two birds, but substantially. I saw a lot of birds and a lot of young ones.”

King says part of that increase can be attributed to the increase in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands a couple years ago. King says quail and rabbit numbers also increased from 2017. Guthrie County is part of the Westcentral region in the survey. That region saw a 75% increase, while rabbits increased by 43%. Quail saw the largest increase of any region in the state, with a surplus of over four times the amount in 2017.