With KJAN’s Jim Field.
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Iowa pheasant hunters should see more of what they came for, as they step into the field this fall. More pheasants. The Iowa DNR says a strong rebound in August roadside counts of Iowa’s most popular game bird has buoyed expectations, heading toward the October 25 opener.DNR pheasant biologist Todd Bogenschutz says “We have the best pheasant numbers since 2008. People are telling me that more birds are flushing; that they are hearing more crowing and cackling out there.”
Counts this summer averaged 17.4 pheasants per 30 mile survey route, up 151 percent from last year’s 6.9…an all-time low. Of the nine regions monitored, eight had increases ranging from 102-290 percent. Only northeast Iowa showed no change.
Bogenschutz says drought conditions across the past two summers probably kept pheasants in the fields on August mornings, rather than pushing up to road edges, to escape heavy dew. That may have kept many from being tallied on the 200 gravel road routes surveyed. Hunters harvested 10,000 more pheasants in 2013, despite the record low counts.
Bogenschutz predicts “The best habitat will hold birds; good winter cover, good nesting cover, too. Hunters should be happy hunting those areas, over just decent nesting cover.” He suggests hunters conduct their hunts around the best habitat, and urges hunters to “Talk to the farmers where you will be hunting. Ask what they have seen while harvesting the crops.”
With a better bird outlook, the numbers of hunters should climb, too. Last year, only 41,000 pheasant hunters were in the fields. Early in the season, standing crops are going to be a factor. Bogenschutz says “Harvest is running a little behind. The season is starting a couple days earlier, too. That could be a challenge for hunters, until the corn is out. Our counts were up; hens with broods were way up. There will be a lot of young roosters, who aren’t wise to the ways of the wild, yet.”
Hunting hours for Iowa’s pheasant seasons are 8 a.m. until 4:30 each day. The daily limit is three rooster pheasants. The season closes on January 10th.
Iowans have a way to look into Iowa’s past and view changes of their entire state, from decade to decade, thanks in part to REAP funding of the Iowa Historic Digital Aerial Photo Project. The public can now see where former buildings were located, what kinds of industries and operations were on a site 70 years ago, and how development and urbanization has changed Iowa’s city and agricultural landscapes by visiting http://programs.iowadnr.gov/maps/aerials/.
In 2009 and 2011, Historical Resource Development Program grants from REAP helped the DNR’s Geographic Information System Section procure photographs from various archives across the state and nation. Archives in Washington D.C., the University of Iowa Map Library, the Iowa Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Aerial Photography Field Office, county offices and private national archives all contained valuable pieces to Iowa’s geographic time puzzle.
Steve King, deputy state historic preservation officer, said “The Iowa Historic Digital Aerial Photo Project makes these images available to researchers, developers, landowners and others who need to understand the history of properties in Iowa. We appreciate preserving these important historical documents and making them available online to Iowans and others around the world.”
Developers, landowners and managers, and planners often need to understand how a property was previously used in order to evaluate history’s environmental and character impacts. Knowledge about a site’s resource use is also beneficial, and difficult to find elsewhere. Soil and streambank erosion patterns, conservation improvements and changes in natural vegetation and habitat can also be used to compare trends in land use and natural resource management.
Once the photos were scanned and made digital, GIS staff diligently matched them to their actual location. A processing algorithm then aligned the photos into blocks, which were mosaicked together to produce statewide coverage. Because of this approach, the photos can now be viewed with other mapped features such as roads and land boundaries.
The GIS Historic Aerial Photography Project took more than eight years to complete, from 2004-2012, because of its detail specific and comprehensive nature.
Griswold won the girls team title Saturday at the Missouri Valley Invitational Cross Country Meet. IKM-Manning was the runner-up. Rebekah Topham of Griswold won the raceWith Alexis Cook of Missouri Valley second and Alyx Flippin of Griswold third. On the boys side, Boyer Valley won the title with Tri-Center second. Tim Brink of Riverside won the race with Zach Ambrose of Boyer Valley second and Dion Coffey of Tri-Center third. Click this link for the complete results: 2014 Missouri Valley Inv. Cross Country Meet Results (1)
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa fugitive has been apprehended in northeast Nebraska’s Dakota County.
Iowa prisons spokesman Fred Scaletta said Monday that 42-year-old Cletus Armell already has been transferred to Woodbury County Jail in northwest Iowa. Armell was listed as escaped on July 14 after he didn’t return to the Sioux City work release facility from an appointment.
Records show Armell escaped from a residential work release center in Sioux City in 2012. He was captured a short time later and was returned to prison. In November 2013 he was again transferred to work release. His original sentence was 15 years for armed robbery.
Members of the Griswold School District’s Board of Education will meet this evening in the Central Office at the Middle School/High School building. Old business on their agenda includes an update on projects, and action on approving: Board goals; Board Polices; An agreement with the Glenwood School District for APEX digital learning services for the 2014-15 school year; and, a letter of understanding with the Cass County Educational Opportunity Center (CCEOC) for 2014-15.
The Griswold School Board meeting begins at 5:45-p.m.
The Freese-Notis weather forecast for Cass & area Counties and weather info. for Atlantic.
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A Des Moines police sergeant says a woman charged in a fatal hit-and-run panicked when she left the scene of the accident. Sgt. Jason Halifax tells the Des Moines Register that 20-year-old Ashley Brown is remorseful about the Saturday death of 55-year-old Kenneth Wallace. She has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and not having insurance.
Wallace had been walking and was found dead in the road. Halifax says Brown turned herself in after a witness identified her to police. Authorities are examining surveillance videos from businesses near the scene of the crash.
DES MOINES, Iowa – The latest analysis of state impacts of the federal budget by the National Priorities Project finds that Iowa receives about $27 billion from the federal budget over the course of a year.
Becky Sweger, director of data and technology for the advocacy group, says the figure in its State Smart project is calculated through direct federal assistance to individuals, federal grants and contracts to business and governments, and the salaries of the federal employees in the state.
And Sweger says it works out to about $8,700 per capita, which is a little bit lower than the U.S. per capita. On the other end, the study found that Iowa residents and businesses paid about $18 billion in federal taxes in 2013, most of that by or on behalf of individuals in the form of income taxes, self-employment taxes and payroll taxes.
While the inflow to Iowa is billions of dollars a year more than the total federal taxes paid, Sweger notes that the figures aren’t expected to be equal. “It’s just not how the federal budget works,” she says. “People shouldn’t expect to get sort of a one-for-one, I give you a dollar and I get a dollar back.”
(Iowa News Service)
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