Secure Winter Cover
As temperatures plummet and snows blanket grassland habitat, pheasants and other wildlife scramble to find cover from the bitter winds and blanketing snow. Winter survival can limit the number of hen pheasants that survive to the nesting season and weakens the condition of surviving hens leading to reduced reproduction in the following spring. Quality winter cover located near a high-energy food source can provide the elements needed by pheasants and other wildlife to survive harsh winter conditions and enter the nesting season in good health.
Depending on the severity of the winter, pheasants will use a variety of habitat types as winter cover. In mild winters with little snowfall, pheasants can find shelter in stands of native grass (i.e. switchgrass). As snows pile deeper, pheasants move to the more secure winter cover of willow thickets and cattail sloughs. Once every 10 years, Minnesota suffers a devastating winter when snows come early and stay late, covering all but the most robust habitats while temperatures drop to record lows. In those years, the only shelter that remains are carefully constructed woody cover plantings.
Robust herbaceous cover
Many efforts to create secure winter habitat have revolved around providing woody cover plantings. However, woody cover plantings take many years to reach their potential and in all but the worst Minnesota winters, large (at least 10 acres) stands of cattails or other robust herbaceous cover provide excellent winter cover and many already exist or can be enhanced / restored over a couple of years.
To provide winter shelter in most Minnesota winters, heavy herbaceous cover should consist of a 10 or more acre block (at least 600 feet wide) cattails, but Phragmites, sanbar willows and solid switch grass stand may also provide good winter shelter.
Woody cover plantings
Woody cover plantings should provide secure shelter from harsh Minnesota weather and protection from predators. Avoid tall deciduous trees in your wildlife cover planting as they provide perch sites for avian predators such as hawks and owls and den sites and loafing habitat for raccoons. Winter wildlife plantings should include conifers and shrubs, but may also include short deciduous trees such as crab apples to attractive to other wildlife (deer). Plantings should include 2 rows of shrubs on the windward sides to catch drifting snow, an open snow catch area, 4 or more rows of closely spaced conifers (cedar, spruce, etc.) and 2 rows of shrubs on the leeward side (see diagram).
A woody cover planting must be at least 200 feet wide and 600 feet in length (about 3 acres) and be situated as to provide protection from prevailing NW winds. They may be L-shaped, arc-shaped or rectangular. If possible situate the planting to protect a food plot and robust nesting cover.
The Great TREE Debate
Click here to open the FWS Fact Sheet on the Effects of Woody Cover on Grassland Birds
There continues to be a debate among wildlife professionals on the benefits and detrimental effects of woody cover on wildlife. Some have taken the stand that every tree is a "bad" tree, while others want a tree planting on every piece of wildlife habitat.
There is research to support both arguments, depending on the species of concern. Pheasants Forever biologists agree that a quality winter cover planting can be an important component of wildlife habitat, but if they are not carefully designed or placed without consideration of the need in the landscape they may do more harm than good for pheasants and other ground nesting birds.