Decades of August roadside surveys in Iowa show wildlife and habitat changes
Every August, for over half a century, Iowa Department of Natural Resource staff have set out along gravel roads at dawn, armed with a set of binoculars and, now, an interactive logging application, to survey the landscape for pheasants and other wildlife. Todd Bogenschutz, an upland wildlife biologist with DNR, has driven the same 30-mile stretch of farm roads in Boone County for the past 30 years. On a cloudy, early August morning, he jumped out of his truck, clapping his hands loudly, in an attempt to “flush” a family of pheasants out of the brush they ducked into as the ...
