Pheasants Forever Journal
Pheasants Forever's Journal newsletter features cutting edge habitat improvement advice, exciting hunting features and coverage of conservation issues on a state and national level. The following are snippets from the most recent edition of the newsletter. To see the rest of the story, join PF for only $30/year receive five issues of the best upland conservation and hunting magazine in the country. --Mark Herwig, PFJ Editor.
Featured PF Journal Articles
Pheasants Forever 2006 Annual Report
Chapters Lead the Way for a Banner Year in 2006
By: Howard K. Vincent, PF President & CEO
» PF spends $33.8 million for habitat and education, impacting over 420,000 acres
» 2006 program dollar increase sets record
» In 2007, a new Farm Bill will be a big priority
Habitat is PF\'s bottom line, and the bottom line for 2006 is this: The PF family laid out $33.8 million in program dollars to impact over 420,000 acres of habitat, for public education and other habitat programs.
We\'re proud that PF\'s 2006 program dollars spent were up $6.8 million from 2005. Habitat spending for 2006 was $23.4 million, public education and awareness $3.7 million and other programs such as our successful Habitat Teams $6.7 million (see breakdown chart in this story for all programs).
We\'re proud to announce that PF\'s spending efficiency increased (what we spend on programs compared to administration and fundraising expenses - please see pie chart)! In 2005 our efficiency was 90.4 percent. Our efficiency rose to 90.9 percent in 2006! PF is tops among national conservation groups for putting more dollars into habitat compared to what is spent on staff, paper, pencils, etc. thanks in large part to our chapters.
Message sent and received at PF Farm Bill roundtable
CRP needed now more than ever to balance our need for quality, reasonably priced food/fiber, conservation and recreation
By: Dave Nomsen, PF VP of Governmental Affairs
For a brief but glorious moment this January, Pheasant Fest 2007 in Des Moines, Iowa, was at the center of the 2007 Farm Bill discussion. It was spectacular. Over 350 crowded into a meeting room at the Iowa Events Center, with dozens turned away at the door. Inside, TV cameras rolled as Senator Tom Harkin (Iowa-D) and Representative Collin Peterson (Minnesota-D), Chairmen of the Senate and House Agriculture Committees respectively, and Representative Leonard Boswell (Iowa- D), also a member of the House Agriculture Committee, discussed the future of federal farmland conservation programs.
After opening statements, all three were questioned by Jerry Perkins, Des Moines Register newspaper; Dan Looker, Successful Farming magazine; and myself about the proposed 2007 Farm Bill.
Out Wyoming Way
The Sheridan/Johnson & Bighorn Basin Chapters are making big strides for conservation in a state where wildlife and hunting are a way of life
By: Mark Herwig, editor of Pheasants Forever Journal
A flock of black dappled sage grouse purred softly and slowly walked away beneath an endless expanse of green sage and yellow-topped rabbit brush.
They were trying to avoid us. They knew something was up, and they were right. Not long after spotting the flock, Tom Maechtle, chairman of the Northeast Wyoming Sage Grouse Working Group (NWSGWG), drove 100 yards away and released his 15-year-old gyrfalcon. When the falcon passed overhead, the sharp-eyed grouse quickly hunkered down.
The birds held so tight that not even our shuffling around just feet away could dislodge them from their hideaway beneath the tough, thick boughs of their namesake plant, the sagebrush.
