Lakin ? Snow was forecast for western Kansas this weekend — great weather for upland bird hunters, not so good for the game they’ll be pursuing as pheasant season opens today.

But whatever the weather brings, Jeff Clouser knows it’s high season for him and his fellow conservation officers with the state Department of Wildlife and Parks. Upland bird season runs 11 weeks, ending Jan. 31, punctuated by deer firearms season Dec. 1-12.

“Between the opening of pheasant season and the whole deer firearms season, we are just going, going, going,” Clouser said Friday from his Kearny County home, which doubles as the office from which he enforces game laws in a four-county region of western Kansas.

Tens of thousands of hunters head each fall to Kansas, regarded nationwide as both prime pheasant territory and trophy deer country.

As many as 100,000 were expected to be out today in pursuit of what state officials say is a rebounding pheasant population. Today also marks the start of eastern Kansas quail season, which opens Nov. 20 in western Kansas.

Drought and loss of habitat reduced the birds’ numbers in recent years, but they’re in a comeback that began last year and continued this summer with mild temperatures and plentiful rain.

“It was ideal,” Clouser said. “The wet summer basically brought all the vegetation up for good habitat, good cover.” The weather was good as well for insects, which are the chief food source for baby pheasants and quail.

Cold weather ideal

As if cued, colder weather was moving into Kansas for the weekend. Partly cloudy skies and highs generally in the 50s were forecast for eastern Kansas, but the west — from Elkhart to St. Francis — was expected to get at least some snow beginning today.

“If it actually snows, that would be ideal conditions,” Clouser said. “When it’s warm out, pheasants have a real tendency to run. They’ll run ahead of you or right by you before they fly.

“When it’s cold they tend to bunch up and hold tight. You almost step on them before they burst up,” he said.

Clouser himself could get a bit exhausted over the next several weeks, responding to calls at any hour of the day or night and patrolling his territory.

Hunting is governed both by regulations on such matters as seasons and bag limits and by state laws on firearms and trespassing. Wildlife officers watch for violations of laws and regulations alike.

New law

Clouser noted a couple of developments that hunters should know.

One is a new state law against “intentional criminal hunting” — a tougher version of the criminal hunting law, which prohibits hunting on private property without the owner’s permission. A hunter who sees but ignores a post sign barring hunters and trespassers could be charged with intentional criminal hunting.

Hunters should also be aware of which zone they’re in, he said. Prairie chicken season began last weekend in eastern and northwestern Kansas but won’t start until Dec. 1 in the southwestern zone, which is bound by U.S. 281 on the east and Kansas 96 on the north.

He also hopes that hunters who see others violating the rules will call the local conservation officer with plenty of detail — the make and color of a vehicle, number of people in the party, and other identifying information.

Is that really sporting?

“The laws are set up for people’s safety and to make sure the wildlife is proportionally available for everyone,” he said. “If people are not following the laws, they’re cheating everyone else — and the wildlife.”