Mother Nature still holds the trump card, and she played it in Iowa this year.

A harsh winter, a cold, wet spring and floods brought the pheasant population down by 32 percent, said wildlife biologist Todd Bogenschutz of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

On average, 18 birds were seen per 30-mile route during August roadside counts, compared to the average of 27 birds in 2007, he said. There were 202 routes included in the survey. The count provides the base for a hunting forecast for the season, which runs from Oct. 20-Jan. 10.

"The counts are not down quite as bad as I thought they would be," Bogenschutz said. "I was expecting it to be down 60 percent."

Snow and ice from December to mid-March killed many hens. Heavy rains and cool weather in the spring and floods in June killed pheasant chicks and washed away nests.

More favorable weather conditions in the northwest and west regions of Iowa, such as Palo Alto, Clay and Dickinson counties, helped keep the population from plummeting even lower. Those areas had counts as high as 52 birds per route, representing a 27 percent population increase.

That area, which had less snowfall, rain and flooding, contrasts sharply with eastern Iowa, where there were 50 percent-74 percent pheasant population reductions.

Those numbers represent new all-time one-year population drops.

Low bird counts were noted around Iowa City in Johnson County and Cedar Rapids in Black Hawk County, which experienced heavy flooding. The Dubuque area, which had 85 inches of snow, had low counts. Normal winter snowfall is 25 inches, Bogenschutz said.

He expects a decline in hunters from the estimated 110,000 last year to about 100,000. That could translate into $30 million not spent from those lost hunters.

Last year pheasant hunters generated an estimated $170 million in direct and indirect revenue to the state, Bogenschutz said.

Pheasant populations have fluctuated the last few years, but there has been an overall decline in the last decade, leading to a decline in hunters.

In 1996, more than 209,000 hunters took to the fields.

Bogenschutz expects the pheasant population to rebound next year if Iowa experiences a normal to mild winter and spring. The recovery will be hampered, however, by the loss of conservation acres of grasses and vegetation where pheasants can nest, raise their young and find cover from predators and the weather, he said.

Dave Van Waus, regional biologist with Pheasants Forever, said more than 300,000 acres of conservation reserve has been plowed under for row crops in the last year or so, driven by higher prices for corn and soybeans.