This Controversial Hunter Recruitment Program Buys Pheasants from Prisons. Now Bird Planting Could Expand to Federal and Private Lands

This Controversial Hunter Recruitment Program Buys Pheasants from Prisons. Now Bird Planting Could Expand to Federal and Private Lands

A controversial program that pays the Montana state prison to raise pheasants that are then released for hunters could expand to private and federal lands, if the state’s game commission green-lights the program for another five years. Montana’s Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider a proposal on Aug. 19 that could double the number of release sites of these pen-raised pheasants that are intended as easy targets for beginning hunters. The p…