And non-residents who may not have a lot of private land connections benefit greatly from the program. Time that used to be spent tracking down landowners trying to get permission is now used to hunt these tracts, many of which offer outstanding hunting. But as with everything, Taylor admitted, hunting success depends on the situation.

"It's like any other public land," he said. "The hunting quality depends on the habitat that's there and the hunting pressure it receives. Those places that may be a little more out of the way or isolated -- that maybe don't get the hunting pressure that some of the others do -- can be excellent."

Taylor's experiences of hunting some of these tracts in the past have borne that out. "I've definitely had some excellent hunts on CRP-MAP," he said. "My experiences have been pretty good. Not always -- but generally."

Those who pursue upland bird species other than pheasants benefit from the program too, Taylor noted. "We have a permit-only hunting season in eastern Nebraska on prairie chickens," he said, "and I'd say the majority of hunters who hold those permits end up hunting on CRP-MAP tracts in the southeast, because that's where they find good numbers of birds."

Obviously, the hunting is good on these tracts of lands early in the upland bird season, but Taylor asserts that it can be just as good throughout the season. For many reasons, weather plays an important part in determining the success of hunts. Often it's just a matter of the timing of a trip coinciding helpfully -- or not -- with Mother Nature's schedule.

"They vary so widely in types of cover that are there," Taylor offered. "Some of them are just smooth brome, which I wouldn't hunt after a snowfall, generally. But some of the warm-season stands do offer better late-season cover.

"Some of the tracts are relatively young CRP tracts, so they still have that annual weed component that's fairly prevalent, and those may hold up better later in the season as well. It varies tract by tract as to what habitat is there and what's around it."

The pressure on these tracts follows the usual patterns, according to Taylor. "Those trends in pressure follow the general trends in the hunting season," he said. "It's heavy the first few weeks, and then it tapers off, picking up around the holidays and then right at the end of the season."

Hunters should if possible avoid the first few weeks of the season, Taylor suggested, and particularly the holidays and weekends. He added that the size of tracts varies, and that variation can dictate how they're hunted. "A lot of these areas are big enough to accommodate a bigger group of folks. But, certainly, one or two hunters can have a good hunt as well."

Preserving the hunting heritage might be one of the biggest advantages to a program like this. Many studies and surveys show that lack of access to hunting areas is a major reason cited by some individuals to explain why they don't hunt any more.

"That's one of the main goals," Taylor said of the program's initiatives. "To the extent that hunting access is keeping people from hunting, or discouraging people from hunting, I think they certainly help."