ctive habitat management is a necessary tool to restore and maintain habitats for upland game                                         

               birds and numerous other species. When we maintain habitats for upland  birds we provide for

               their future and our enjoyment of these resources for years to come. Reversing the decline of a habitat and its rehabilitation won’t happen overnight. The regrowth of farmland to a forest takes time and changes the species that inhabit the area often with severe consequences.

In many areas of New York State the wild pheasant population has declined over 90 percent since the heyday of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The loss of fields, fallow grasslands and the removal of shrubby hedgerows alongside these fields, which provided safe areas for nesting and brood-rearing were the main causes contributing to the decline. Farmlands that were incorporated into wildlife management areas, abandoned and allowed to revert to overgrown fields suffered severe losses of both upland and songbirds. This put birds such as the grasshopper sparrow on endangered lists which was not the case been before these fields were incorporated into larger and unmanageable areas. With no safe places for nesting and brood-rearing, all birds populations have declined. We must look to the future and while it may be too late for some species, proper field review and management can boost the numbers of remaining native and introduced populations.

Several states are now taking an active role to establish and recreate suitable habitats for these birds, Conservation groups and other organizations are also helping to restore both farmland and land that has been dedicated to wildlife conservation area. If we wish to preserve these lands for upland birds then we must rebuild the habitat for pheasants, quail and grouse. Just letting a field revert back to the forest changes the environment to a woodland unsuitable for pheasants, quail and grouse and trying to restock the woodland is a futile venture. Birds reared in a classroom and loosed in a non-grassland habitat do not survive when there is no cover to hide nor protected areas to nest.

Since we cannot convert commercial and residential development areas back to their previous uses, we only have the fallow fields and abandoned farm lands to preserve the habitat for upland birds. A restored habitat is well worth our efforts.