ON-FARM PHEASANT ENHANCEMENT POTENTIALS IN IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE

The transformation of irrigated agriculture into a capital intensive industry has eroded much of the incidental biological complementarities between wildlife and irrigation development. Wildlife management agencies need to assess the economic impact of enhancement programs upon commercial agriculture. In this paper, opportunity costs of on-farm pheasant enhancement practices are estimated for typical Columbia Basin irrigated farms. These estimates are then compared with two measures of net benefits to established the potential feasibility of on-farm pheasant enhancement programs.