Utah · UplandRing-necked pheasant

UDWR's own 2022 Upland Game Management Plan states pheasant now occupy suitable habitat in 27 of 29 counties, but immediately qualifies that as nominal breadth, not even distribution: habitat availability has declined in many counties, limiting population range and size, and pheasants are concentrated on the limited public land and private land associated with wetlands and agriculture. Two independently-sourced hunting-guide accounts (findahunt.com; thehuntingcompany.com) converge on the same real wild-population geography: the core is northern Utah, specifically private land in eastern Box Elder County and the Cache Valley (Bud Phelps WMA, Bear River Bottoms WMA) plus private land in western Weber County, with a second named wild-population pocket in the Uintah Basin (lower-elevation brush/riverine habitat supporting a mix of wild and cultivated-land pheasants). This wild-population geography is distinct from UDWR's statewide put-and-take stocking program, which releases pen-raised birds weekly in season on WMAs and Walk-in-Access areas across many counties purely to create hunting opportunity. The plan is explicit that stocking is not used to restore or maintain wild pheasant populations.