"Certainly the public hunting areas get pounded and used, and there is a high level of use on the WMAs during pheasant season," Holland said. "The good news is that the past few years if a hunter found some decent habitat, they were going to find some birds, and it looks like that's the case this year as well."

Kruse said many of Minnesota's pheasant hunters tend to favor the south-central region, but the bird numbers have come back strong in the western and southwestern sections of our state, and there is plenty of public hunting available in that region.

"Where I hunt, the bird numbers were down and hunters quit coming out to hunt," Kruse said. "Some might see that as a good thing, but I don't. You need hunters working both private and public spots so they keep the birds moving back and forth between the cover. That way everyone gets some shooting."

Holland commented on the ability of hunters to find productive locations and the ability of pheasants to come back from the brink when the numbers bottom out.

"There's a direct correlation in the amount of pheasants to pheasant hunters," Holland explained. "Folks pay attention to what regions have good populations of birds, and they go there. The number of hunters follows the DNR's roadside index pretty well.

"And the birds are flourishing where their numbers were way down a few years ago," he continued. "It speaks to the reproductive potential of the pheasant. Given the right conditions and the habitat, the pheasant population can skyrocket. Just like given the wrong conditions and loss of habitat, they can go in the tank very quickly. Those fluctuations are a part of life when you're looking at pheasants, but when you do have good conditions and the necessary habitat, we can really grow them in this state."

Holland said it's all about habitat.

"When you lose habitat, you lose carrying capacity for pheasants," he said. "When you lose habitat, you're going to lose birds, particularly with nesting cover, which is probably the most limiting factor for pheasants in Minnesota. We need undisturbed grasslands out there. There's a lot of pressure on our habitat, whether you're talking about urban development, agriculture or houses going up in the fields where there used to be good cover. We have a lot of pressure on our shallow lakes, our grasslands, our prairies, but what we've tried to do and what we need to continue to do is work with the farmers to try and provide good commonsense conservation programs that work, and that work on farms.

"We need to make sure we continue to communicate the benefits of habitat, water quality, soil quality and how that affects our quality of life in Minnesota," continued Holland. "Hunting and fishing is one of the main reasons we live in this state, and I think most people -- whether you're a developer or a farmer or a hunter -- agree with that. It's very important to our quality of life, so we need to continue to work hard to keep an open dialogue and find ways to put wetlands and grass back to give wildlife a chance."