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Pheasant numbers also have dropped in North Dakota and Minnesota and have hit an all-time low in Iowa, said Dave Nomsen, vice president of government affairs for the conservation group Pheasants Forever. He experienced the loss firsthand a few weeks ago while hunting near Aberdeen, S.D. The two most frequent comments he heard were "Where are the hens?" and "Wow, we're shooting a lot of old, adult birds." Both are signs of a hard winter, he said. Back-to-back-to-back tough winters have killed bucks and does and led to some of the lowest reproductive numbers North Dakota has ever seen. Mule deer typically produce from 0.8 to 1.2 fawns per doe, but last year that number dropped to 0.59 fawns, Kreil said. "They may be pregnant going into the winter, but they're just not able to bring the fawn to birth," he said. "And what deer will actually do is they will reabsorb the fetus and use the energy to stay alive. If you have that happen three years in a row, you really limit the amount of new animals coming into the population." The loss is so severe that North Dakota, which made 150,000 deer licenses available in 2007, will issue fewer than 100,000 in 2012
-- the lowest number in two decades. "It's going to be tough to even get a deer license in some areas next year in North Dakota," Kreil said. Spring flooding in the northern Plains boosted 2011's duck population, but waterfowl organizations say such conditions won't last forever, and hunters will eventually feel the loss of conservation acres. Nomsen said the warm fall provided a good start for pheasants, and a mild winter with no ice and a warmer, drier spring could kick off a recovery of a species with high reproductive potential. Previous springs have been too wet and cool for the birds. But even with ideal conditions, including gentle rains that produce insects for chicks to eat, the bird numbers won't be as high as those seen during the height of the CRP program, Nomsen said.
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