New $10 eastside pheasant stamp will put birds afield

A new $10 pheasant enhancement stamp, required this fall of all eastern Washington pheasant hunters and now available at license vendors, will provide 13,000 pheasants for release on eastside public access lands during the pheasant hunting season, Oct. 11-Dec. 31.

Created by the 1997 Washington Legislature, the stamp could raise up to $300,000, based on the state's approximately 30,000 eastside pheasant hunters. Most of the money will be used to purchase cock pheasants from private game farms for release on Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) eastside wildlife areas and other public access lands.

Up to $100,000 will be used over the next two years for habitat enhancements on eastern Washington farmlands. Plans call for these funds to be used in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program.

The new stamp is required in addition to a Washington hunting license ($15) and the eastern Washington upland bird permit ($10). The upland bird permit funds go into eastern Washington habitat restoration work for quail, chukar, Hungarian partridge, and pheasant.

Some of the purchased pheasants will be released on designated sites for a special hunt Sept. 27 and 28, open only to juveniles (15 years of age and under). For additional information about pheasant releases during both the juvenile and the regular bird hunting season contact WDFW offices in Spokane (509-456-4082), Ephrata (509- 754-4624) or Yakima (509-575-2740).