LcA. . 
MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
(Jrbana, Illinois 
July, 1973 
Vol . 16, No. 7 
Manipulation of pheasan t H ahi tat 
G. B. Joselyn 
Throughout the prime pheasant range of east-central Illinois, the 
timing and progress of annual farming activities can have a substantial 
impact on pheasant chick production in a given year, particularly in 
areas of intensive land use, where nearly 85 percent of farmland (or 
more) is in row crops. The remaining land--in oats, hay, pasture, and 
nonagricuItura1 use--produces the bulk of pheasant chicks. Data from 
the Sibley Study Area show that of these cover types, hay and roadsides now 
produce the great majority of a 11 successful nests (nearly 80 percent 
in 1972). Thus, any change in normal farming activities that delays hay 
harvest or roadside mowing can benefit incubating hens by allowing them 
sufficient time to complete the hatch. 
This year, wet weather has delayed planting and cultivation through¬ 
out east-central Illinois. Some soybean cultivation was still going on 
in the Sibley Area during the last week of July. These conditions have 
resulted in a noticeable delay in the harvest of hay and in the mowing of 
roadsides. Thus, a substantially greater proportion of available nest 
cover has remained standing throughout much of the Illinois pheasant 
range in 1973 than is normally the case. 
C. M. Nixon, 
S. P. Havera 
Ecology and Management of Squirrels 
Intermediate timber harvests, those made between the time the timber 
stand is reproduced and the next harvest cut, constitute the most common 
type of timber cutting used in Illinois. In this type of cutting, trees, 
either alone or in small groups, are cut to improve species composition 
and to control spacing of future crop trees. The immediate and long¬ 
term effects of these cuts, on squirrels and other forest wildlife, 
are at present undetermined. Studies that seek to determine how these 
intermediate timber cuts affect squirrels are now under way, using several 
study areas scattered throughout Illinois. 
The first area selected for study, known as the Massac Tower Area, 
is located in a 44-acre mixed hardwood stand in Pope County, Illinois. 
This area will be cut during the fall of 1973. Estimates of squirrel 
densities, counts of possible den sites, and estimates of food production 
in fall will be determined cn the area prior to timber cutting and for 2 
years postcutting. 
natural history survey 
