Montana wants to release 50,000 ‘pen pheasants’ per year
Jordan Hansen
(Daily Montanan) A controversial program that sees farm-raised pheasants released by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks for youth to hunt could expand by as much as 40,000 birds annually if a proposal by the agency is approved by the Fish and Wildlife Commission next month.
The birds rarely live long, a draft environmental assessment for the project states, and less than 10% of the released pheasants survive a winter, according to advocacy organizations.
Legislators are also pointing to the financing structure of the program, which includes work by Montana Department of Corrections inmates and workplace oversight by the Department of Livestock.
Few American game birds are more famous, or prized by hunters than the ring-necked pheasant. But as pheasant populations have waned, there’s been efforts to intermix the wild population with a version of the bird raised in captivity.
Called “pen pheasants,” these birds have been released into the wild in Montana for nearly 40 years and it’s a program (called “Roosters for Recruitment”) that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is looking to massively expand.
Slightly over 40,000 pheasants have been released in the last four years, the FWP said in an information sheet regarding the proposal.
Pen-raised pheasants are far closer to being domesticated than they are to having their lives narrated by David Attenborough in a wildlife show. Having been raised by humans, they do not always perceive them as a threat. They’re not always running or flying in fear from dogs either, who pluck the pen-raised pheasants off the ground and kill them with ease.
Many of those pen-raised birds can barely fly, game bird advocates have said.
About 40% of pen-raised pheasants die within one week of being released, according to Pheasants Forever, a hunting and wildlife habitat nonprofit. The organization goes on to say the bird’s chance to survive the winter is usually about 5%.
“A wild, healthy pheasant is one of the greatest upland bird trophies in Montana,” said Ben Deeble, president of the Big Sky Upland Bird Association. “They’re elusive. They’re fast. They’re unpredictable. They’re strong flyers when they want to be. They’re very strong runners all the time. They can evade hunters and dogs once they have a little bit of experience surviving in the wild. None of that is true for pen pheasants.”
The program is part an effort to draw in young hunters, state officials have said, and the birds have generally been released before youth hunting season. It’s also been met with criticism from the Legislature and advocacy organizations across the state, as the agency has looked for ways to bolster interest in hunting.
“FWP has not convinced any of Montana’s hunting organizations that this is a good and worthwhile program,” said Rep. Tom France, a Missoula County Democrat.
The program is funded primarily by Pittman-Robertson funding, which is a federal tax on ammunition. Since 2021, FWP has also been given $1 million per year by the Legislature to raise the birds. That’s translated to about $2.5 million going into the program since 2021.
“I think a lot of us have had concerns about this program since it was initiated a few years ago, and now that they’re basically proposing to expand it. I think it kind of re-raised those same concerns we have,” said Minority Leader Sen. Pat Flowers, a Belgrade Democrat.
Last year, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks released 9,853 pheasants and if the Fish and Wildlife Commission approves the proposal on Aug. 19, that could expand to 50,000 birds annually.
It would also increase the scope of the program from 1.4 million acres to around 14 million, including private and federal land.
The number of birds FWP releases each year varies, with one factor being “availability of release spots,” agency spokesperson Greg Lemon said. He added no private tracts are currently under consideration for bird releases.
“We believe this added authority to release birds on private and federal lands would expand our release sites and get more birds on the ground,” Lemon wrote in response to a question asking about the demand to release more pheasants. “I’m not sure how to measure the demand. I will say we frequently have hunters chasing released birds the same day we release them.”
Research says the birds’ chance of survival is very low.
“While most pen-raised pheasants succumb to hunter harvest, predation or exposure soon after release, some may survive to mix with local wild populations,” a June 30 draft environmental assessment for the project states.
‘Highly inefficient’
Three legislators — Rep. Josh Seckinger, Rep. Tom France, and Sen. Pat Flowers, all Democrats — signed a letter on Monday to FWP Director Christy Clark outlining some “significant concerns” regarding the proposal.
Seckinger and Flowers are both Gallatin County legislators. It is a long simmering frustration, they wrote.
“Central to the current controversy was FWP’s 1982 decision to terminate annual pheasant releases and close the Warm Springs pheasant farm because the program was highly inefficient and the cost of raising and releasing pen-reared birds represented a poor use of license revenue,” the letter reads. “In closing the facility, FWP recognized that investing in high-quality pheasant habitat and abundant wild pheasant populations offered a far superior conservation and recreational strategy than put-and-take hunting.”
Five years later, FWP established the Upland Game Bird Enhancement Program, which the letter calls one of the agency’s “most successful programs.”
“I think FWP would say it’s one of their best programs because it builds habitat, it creates and enhances habitat, and it provides public access,” France said. “Everywhere that FWP does a contract with a private landowner, that part of the agreement is to provide public access for upland bird hunting.”
Work on the program includes at least three different state agencies, with the Department of Livestock charged with inspecting the birds and Department of Corrections raising them.
Corrections involvement dates back to the loss of an inmate work program and a push to find something to fill the gap, according to the legislators’ letter.
“The (Environmental Assessment) also ignores the central fact that the decision to raise pheasants at Montana State Prison was made primarily to backfill the Department of Corrections’ budget after Darigold terminated its 30-year contract with the prison-work program,” the letter reads.
The program, the lawmakers said, seems to be less about the birds and more about the inmates – using the revenue from hunting licenses to backfill the Department of Corrections budget.
“When the Gianforte Administration proposed using FWP license revenue to close the Department of Corrections’ ‘Darigold gap,’ legislators understood the proposal to be geographically limited to releases on state lands,” the letter reads. “Although the appropriation became part of FWP’s ongoing base budget, it did so with the expectation that these limitations would remain.”
Montana Correctional Enterprises, the state’s inmate training program, runs the hatchery. It’s been a positive program for them, with the state even highlighting an expansion of the program to Pine Hills Correctional Facility in a May 5 press release.
Inmates learn “valuable soft skills,” including communication, DOC spokesperson Alex Klapmeier said in an email Monday.
She went on to say that FWP provides cost reimbursement each year to maintain the program.
“It is net zero cost to us,” Klapmeier said.
Meanwhile, the legislators’ letter adds that FWP has previously admitted in its own assessments that other programs have been more successful at helping the sagging pheasant population than the “pen pheasants.”
The letter ends with a request to bring the Legislature into the discussion, saying FWP should seek “clear authorization” of the plan.
“In seeking this legislative approval, FWP must answer several important questions, including how many youth hunters have actually been recruited or inactive hunters reactivated after nearly $2.5 million in expenditures, whether competitive bids were solicited for pheasant production, and whether the program has demonstrated measurable success,” the letter reads.
‘A real risk’
Beyond the ethical aspects of releasing farm-raised pheasants into a habit which they may not be suited for, the prospect of disease has also been raised by hunters and lawmakers.
Deeble called it “a real risk” to the health of upland birds. He toured the pheasant hatchery at Montana State Prison last year, he said and worries about their association with wild birds.
The pheasants start off in a hatchery building, before being transferred to an indoor facility with heat lamps and lots of food.
Once they’re old enough, they’re moved to large pens that Deeble described as mesh.
Blackbirds, sparrows, starlings, pigeons and ravens can either get into the pens or their droppings could, he said, which is a worry.
“Ravens are well known to carry avian influenza, as well as every other species I’ve mentioned of wild bird, and that’s a disease that’s been devastating for a couple of years now, in wild bird populations,” Deeble said.
Duck hunters are now being urged to wear gloves while they handle the animals, and Deeble added human health is a very real concern. It’s not just him, either, as the state’s environmental assessment considered the health and safety question.
The document says “concerns may be warranted as pen-raised pheasants have been shown to carry pathogens that may be less prevalent or non-existent in wild pheasant populations,” adding it “may serve as a reservoir.”
However, the document goes on to say the state is not aware of any disease transmitted by pen pheasants to wild birds in Montana. It says the short life-span of the pen-raised pheasants “may reduce the degree” of crossover between the wild and farm-raised populations of the bird.
The document goes on to say the Department of Livestock oversees the hatchery, which the state says is up to the standards of USDA’s National Poultry Improvement Plan.
“This certification indicates that the hatchery and its flocks meet strict federal and state biosecurity, sanitation, and health standards,” said Riley Meredith, a Department of Livestock spokesperson. “Poultry at NPIP hatcheries are routinely tested for serious infectious diseases, particularly Pullorum-Typhoid and Avian Influenza.”
The birds are not vaccinated, FWP staff said.
“Biosecurity protocols are in place at all MCE facilities,” said Lemon, the FWP spokesperson. “These go above and beyond what is required to keep the flock healthy.”
Even if they appear healthy, though, Deeble still has questions about the plan, which he also added he did not feel like there has been adequate time to provide public comment on. That public comment period started on July 1, FWP documents say, and an agency recommendation is expected to be made by Aug. 7, ahead of the Aug. 19 Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting.
“We’re dumping these birds out potentially into all kinds of locations that either already have wild pheasants or don’t for some other reason, and so putting half-breed birds into poor habitat,” Deeble said. “They’re going to fail very quickly and putting them into our last, best upland bird habitat highly jeopardizes it.”