Another direct benefit of CRP, in addition to the fact that some of these areas are leased for public hunting, is that the program provides habitat that might not otherwise be available to pheasants. More habitat typically means more pheasants.

"It may not be true everywhere for every tract," Taylor said, "but by and large it's safe to say we have more pheasants with CRP than we had without it -- at least in this current form."

Nebraska hunters have done well with harvesting pheasants in past seasons. Figures from 2004 show them killing just over 400,000 pheasants. "In general, the last few years we've had some pretty decent hunting," said Taylor. "Not fantastic -- we're still below our long-term average. By and large we've had some good habitat conditions, and had opportunities for some good hunting."

Not all CRP land is open to public hunting, obviously. The acres that landowners have enrolled are marked with signs indicating that they're open to public hunting. And the tracts enrolled follow the densities of CRP in the state, too.

"They are statewide," Taylor said of the tracts. "There's quite a bit of CRP in the northeast and quite a bit in the southeast and southwest, and that's where we tend to find most of the tracts."

The NGPC publishes a county-by-county atlas of tracts of CRP enrolled in the program. These are available through various commission offices as well as via the Internet on the state's Web site, www.ngpc.state. ne.us. Taylor cautions that the tracts may change from year to year, so hunters are advised to check current listings each fall before making a trip or hunting on particular tracts that might have been hunted in seasons past.

Those availing themselves of the CRP-MAP tracts must have a valid Nebraska hunting license, if required by law. There's no additional fee required to hunt these areas.

KANSAS
The Kansas program is called the Walk-In Hunting Area program. Much as was done in Nebraska, a pilot program was launched in south-central Kansas with 10,000 acres signed up in 1995, the first year of WIHA.

"Last year we had a little over 1 million acres," said Brad Simpson, private lands coordinator for the KDWP. "It's been extremely popular."

According to Simpson, landowner willingness to lease out land is what underpins the program's success. He adds that many landowners who take part in the program have done so on a regular basis over the years. "I don't have the exact percentage of repeat sign-ups," he said, "but I know from talking to our biologists that we've got quite a few landowners who have been involved since the program's inception."

The Kansas program has gone really well overall, and, Simpson reported, relatively few problems have cropped up with regard to any aspect of WIHA. "Obviously, there are going to be some people that aren't satisfied," he remarked, "but for the most part the landowners have been extremely satisfied, and that's what our surveys have shown."

The average lease price per acre for the fall program is $1.25. The interest to add more land is there, and up until last year the state could fund the program, with most of the money coming from a federal grant.

"Last year was the first year that we had more land offered than we had money," Simpson said. "We actually had to turn people away last year. But this year we got a $300,000 budget enhancement, so we should be able to pick up more acres."