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Pheasant hunt gets temporary pardon
Banner Daily Update posted Tues. Oct. 16
By Kaimi Rose Lum
Banner Staff
The importing of exotic pheasants to the National Seashore for sport hunting will resume temporarily while efforts are made to increase hunting opportunities for native gamebirds like turkeys and bobwhites, the Seashore announced Friday in its final decision on hunting in the park.
The stocking and hunting of pheasants in the park will cease once native gamebird populations have rebounded, the Seashore says.
The Oct. 12 decision issued by the Seashore makes official what was proposed in an Environmental Impact Statement two months ago. The culmination of a five-year-long review of the Seashore’s hunting policies, the decision outlines a plan to “phase out” the pheasant hunt over a period of 14 to 17 years, during which time it says the park will improve the habitat for birds like northern bobwhite quail and eastern turkey and thus provide hunters with alternative targets. Under no circumstance will pheasant hunting be allowed to continue after 17 years.
The new hunting policy will take effect in the fall of 2008. Existing rules will remain in effect throughout the current hunting season.
Though local hunters, at first mention of the plan in August, said they were not thrilled about losing the pheasant hunt, they were pleased at the prospect of other desirable gamebirds increasing in population here. Members of the Highland Fish and Game Club called it “the best alternative” for now.
For more on this story see the Oct. 18 Provincetown Banner.
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Oct 11th, 2007