Grant aims to develop habitat for hunters, fishers

Pheasant hunting in Whitman County stands to see a significant boost in the next two years if all goes as planned under a new federal grant recently awarded to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

A $993,231 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to WDFW has a three-pronged goal of opening up more private land to hunting and fishing in 11 counties on the east side of the state.

Those three goals include financial incentives for farmers in certain counties to allow hunting on their land, working with farmers with land in CRP to improve that land’s habitat for game animals and to kick off a fishing program that pays private landowners for access to their shoreline property.

“We think southeast Washington has a lot of potential for pheasant hunting. But there needs to be more land to hunt on to track those numbers,” said Don Larsen, private lands coordinator with WDFW.

Larsen said the portion of the grant most likely to impact Whitman County would be the Partnerships for Pheasants program, which provides funding for enhancing CRP lands for hunting.

For example, a farmer with a CRP field with only one type of grass could instead seed with multiple species that cater to the diet needs of pheasants and deer. The property owner would also see payment from WDFW for allowing access for hunting.

“These kinds of habitat projects we are talking about will benefit pheasant and deer. Pheasant is the primary species that is driving this,” Larsen said.

He pointed out that growing a heartier, more diverse food source for pheasants will boost bird numbers on the land of agreeable farmers. Hunters can then see a more accessible, more plentiful population of pheasants.

Also included in the program would be incentives for farmers to enroll other land, not just CRP, into the Partnerships for Pheasants program. This too will create more hunting ground, Larsen said.

Larsen said he is meeting next week with multiple conservation districts of eastern Washington to discuss the best ways to reach farmers and landowners. Conservation districts will be the local entities most involved in coordinating the different programs at the local level.

The grant funds, which will be distributed under the Farm Bill from the USDA, will become available Oct. 1, 2011 and last until Sept. 31, 2012. The grant follows another $1.5 million grant awarded to WDFW last year to help create more hunting access around the state.

Other counties impacted by the new funding are Kittitas, Klickitat, Pend Oreille, Spokane, Stevens, Yakima, Columbia, Garfield, Lincoln, and Walla Walla.