Des Moines, Iowa ? Joe Gonsior says there’s nothing more satisfying than walking through the Minnesota countryside with his springer spaniel, Gracie, and spotting the small, colorful pheasants.

“When you get out in the field, all your work and everything else just gets left in the vehicle. It’s a great escape,” said Gonsior, a 42-year-old sales representative from Minneapolis who’s been hunting for nearly a quarter century.

But Gonsior said spotting pheasants was getting harder, in part due to loss of the birds’ natural habitat.

“It’s a tradition that we need to make sure that our kids and their kids still have the opportunity to get involved in,” he said.

Gonsior plans to travel to Des Moines for the National Pheasant Fest 2007 from Friday-

Sunday. That’s where an estimated 25,000 hunters will immerse themselves in their sport, including learning how to create bird habitats and discussing lobbying efforts to maintain federal conservation lands.

Game birds around the nation have struggled not only because of dwindling habitat but also due to stormy winters and drought-stricken summers, said Terry Hainfield, a wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

“We can’t do much about our weather, but we can make efforts to secure habitat for pheasants and other wildlife by planting or providing the necessary structure and habitats they need to survive,” he said.