Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1952. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [345]-355).

Parsons (1953) found Utah's posted hunting unit system regulated hunting pressures over much of the state's pheasant range. He found inequalities of hunting, pressure among the posted hunting units because of their individualistic methods used to determine the number of hunting permits to be sold. Utah State Department of Fish and Game personnel recommend the number of permits to be sold by the hunting unit; but often, the hunting unit officers use the desired level of hunting pressure, size of cock harvest, and revenue from permit sales as decisive factors. By regulating hunting pressure on their own lands, the posted hunting units thereby regulate the hunting pressure on adjacent nonposted lands by excluding the supernumerary hunters from their units.

The study is dealing with appreciation of natural reproduction of ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) in a pheasantry owned by LČR,s.p. By one of the purpose was set the appreciation of the pheasantry and current natural conditions in accordance with public notice no.7/2003 in a full range. The background of the pheasantry is complied with requirements by the public notice. Another objective was monitoring running of Pheasant males. Next objective was to analysed and evaluated a natural reproduction ability of Pheasant females in the pheasantry. There was found very low ability of reproduction in the pheasantry. As the main reasons for low reproduction ability of Pheasant females were found mostly higher population pressure of predators and depressed ability of making nests by Pheasant females of intensive artificial breeding.

A conceptual model relating recreation resource values to the concept of economic rent was developed. The model argues that recreation sites possess both quality and location characteristics which serve as rent producing agents. Sites of better quality extract economic rents relative to those of lesser quality while those located most advantageously to user origins earn location rents relative to those more distantly located. The economic rent values are expressed by the differential use costs and recreationist activity associated with individual site usage. A methodological procedure was developed which generates estimates of total rent values for a given site. The procedure permits identification of rent values separately related to site location and quality. Application of the model was made by estimating recreation values for pheasant hunting in Utah using 1966 data. These data were collected by mail survey from hunters following the 1966 hunting season. Approximately 1,025 questionnaires were used in the analysis. The total rent value estimated from the model was approximately 5.8 million dollars. About 83 percent of the total was attributed to site quality and 17 percent to location. No attempt was made to analyze the variables related to quality. In only three counties, Juab, Millard, and Utah, were location values found to exceed those resulting from quality. Total rent values were highest for Weber, Cache, Box Elder and Davis counties.

Pheasant Eye (Adonis annua L.), a native of Europe, is commonly cultivated as an ornamental, but ocasionally escapes into fields and waste places. It is prevalent in certain area in the United States, especially southward, on heavy soils that are inadequately drained (20). This Plant is one of a number of early maturing winter annual weeds that infests dryland wheat in northern Utah, and it has become a problem in certain lowland areas.

For many years sportsmen have speculated that hunting limits pheasant populations. With the abolition of the Pheasant Game Farm program in Utah in 1953, this popular concept gained much impetus with the result that, because of public disfavor to a longer season, a 3 to 5 day season on pheasants is the maximum that bas been called in northern Utah and this only in areas classed as "better" pheasant habitat. In contrast to the short seasons in Utah, pheasant seasons in southern Idaho have been from 8½ to 15½ days long for the past 10 years, and will be even longer in 1956 (table 1). Since the topography and land-use patterns of southeast Idaho and northeast Utah are similar, the question has been asked by Cache County sportsmen, "how can Idaho maintain a 15½ day season in Franklin County, while just across the line here in Cache County, we have only a 3 to 5 day season?" Thus the purpose of this study was to investigate some of the factors affecting pheasant populations of northeast Utah and south-east Idaho under differing season lengths. Objectives of the study were to determine (1) the response of contiguous pheasant populations to long (15½ day) and short (5 day) seasons, (2) the hunting pressure under the 2 season lengths, (3) harvest of the pheasant crop under the 2 season lengths, and (4) reaction of hunters, farmers, and land-owners to long and short seasons.

Since 1900 the ringneck pheasant Phasianus colchicus torquatus Gmelin has assumed major importance in the United states as an upland game bird. This is particularly evident in utah where, in 1951, 76,000 hunters bagged an estimated one quarter million pheasants (8). It is axiomatic that pheasant habitat in Utah is largely confined to land under irrigation. In Utah, this comprises onlY 2.2 percent of the total land area. These areas, essentially bottomlands along stream courses, are intensively farmed and generally assessed a high valuation per acre. Associated with intensive farming are population centers and resultant concentrations of hunters. As hunter density increased in Utah, game management problems followed. Landowners were confronted by serious problems of trespass and damage to property. As in other states, landowners posted property with no Trespass signs. in doing so, they substantially reduced the pheasant habitat available to hunters.

The measurement of animal populations is a most important phase of wildlife management. The initiation of systematic management of any unit of specific game habitat usually involves the measurement of the stock on hand as a primary step. In practice game inventory performs a twofold function; namely, as a medium determining the efficacy of past managment practices as a basis for future manipulations and as an aid in the establishment of game protective or removal policies. A census, in the sense applied in this study, is best defined as the enumeration of a population on a given area at a given time. Varied methods and proceducres have been developed and applied in this and other countries as aids in the determination of actual and relative pheasant numbers. No one method yet devised may be considered of adequate flexibility to confrom to all variances in habitat inherent in the range of bionomical relationships tolerated by the ringnecked pheasant. Geographical location, meterological factors, agricultural practices, and topographical features are gross causations requiring institutive investigations of a basic character as a requisite to accurate determination of population numbers on any specific area. Investigators are cognizant of the necessity for adapting techniques to the variations in pheasant habitat appropriate for different locales: the roadside count as applied in Ohio was not considered to be the best method in Oregon and the quadrat census as applied in Oregon was not considered to be the best in Ohio. In addition to the limitations imposed by the major causation factors are other less general considerations; i.e., the specificity of data required and the economical expenditure of time and personnel. With but two exceptions-California valley quail, (Lephortyx californica), and Gambel's quail, (Lephortyx gambeli),-the ringnecked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus tercustus Onelin) is the sole upland game bird present in Utah in sufficient numbers to be legally hunted. The sporting qualities attributed to the pheasant and its adaptability to agrarian habitat have resulted in the expenditure of thousands of dollars by state authorities and private individuals to produce breeding and hunting stock. Management, however, has not kept pace with production. Laxity is notably evident in the development and application of sound inventory methods based on a program of fundamental, objective research. The determination of the effect of climatological factors on observed bird populations has too often been based upon casual and infrequent observations without support of quantitative evidence. A similar condition exists in other ecological relatinoships: i.e., interaction between agricultural practices, climatic conditions, and nesting period and the effect of minor climatic aberrations upon observed pheasant numbers tabulated during census counts. The wildlife technician recognizes the presence of such biotic influences but often because of duties of a broader nature the intesive investigation that is required in a basic research study is denied him. In order to formulate improved census techniques for the pheasants in Utah, the Utah Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit has felt the need for intesive study whereby graphical and statistical analysis of the concomitant variables inherent in present inventory techniques would provide basic information and a foundation for improvement of existing pheasant census methods.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Geography / Lisa M. Harrington / Land-change science has become a foundational element of global environmental change. Understanding how complex coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) affect land change is part of understanding our planet and also helps us determine how to mitigate current and future problems. Upland birds such as the Ring-Necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) have been widely studied. While myriad studies have been done that show relationships between land change driving forces and the pheasant, what are not found are long-term, comprehensive approaches that show the historical importance of how past land change drivers can be used to gain knowledge about what is happening today or what may happen in the future. This research set out to better understand how human and natural driving forces have affected land change, pheasants, and pheasant hunting in South Dakota from the early 1900s to the present. A qualitative historical geography approach was used to assemble information from historic literature and South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Department annual reports to show the linkages between human and natural systems and how they affect pheasant populations. A quantitative approach was used to gather information from hunters who participated in the 2006 pheasant hunting season. Two-thousand surveys were mailed that gathered socioeconomic data, information on types of land hunted, thoughts on land accessibility issues, as well as spatial information on where hunters hunted in South Dakota. Results from the hunter surveys provided some significant information. Non-resident and resident hunters tended to hunt in different parts of the state. Non-resident hunters were older, better educated, and had higher incomes than resident hunters. Resident hunters, when asked about issues such as crowded public hunting grounds and accessibility to private lands had more negative responses, whereas non-resident hunters, especially those who hunt on privately-held lands, were more satisfied with their hunting experiences. Linkages were also seen between changes in human and natural systems and pheasant populations. Some of the most important contributors to population changes were large-scale conservation policies (Conservation Reserve Program) and agricultural incentives, as well as broader economic issues such as global energy production and national demands for increases in biofuel production (ethanol and biodiesel). Many of the changes in pheasant populations caused by changes in human systems have been exacerbated by changes in natural systems, such as severe winter weather and less-than-optimal springtime breeding conditions.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1959 R68