PF on the Landscape in Montana
Story by Al Eiden, Director of Field Operations / West RegionPhotos by Connor Welles
With chapter volunteers ready to get back in the field to get some mission done, our chapters got to work in 2021.
Leading the way for Women on the Wing (WotW) in the West, the Flathead Valley Pheasants Forever chapter in Kalispell, Montana, hosted their third WotW event in the past year-and-a-half. The field day event had 15 women participants of all different skill levels. Participants received professional shooting instruction and safety education, followed by a simulated duck hunt (with clays), simulated pheasant hunt (with clays), a live pheasant hunt, and bird cleaning and cooking tips.
Flathead Valley PF hosted 15 participants for a Women on the Wing field day event that included seminars on a variety of outdoors topics, and pheasant hunting.
Guest speakers included Deb O’Neill, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks special projects director, and a falconry demonstration from local falconer Jeff Sternad.
The event was held on October 3, 2021 at the Heine family farm near Kalispell. Tyler Heine is chapter president and his wife Jeanne is fundraising chair. The farm has been in Tyler’s family for several generations, is under conservation easement, and is the location the Flathead Valley Chapter uses for many of its youth and women’s events.
Jeanne Heine led the planning and coordinating for the event, with the whole chapter board kicking in and having a role. Glacier Gun Dog Club provided most of the dogs and handlers for the event.
The pheasant hunting portion of Flathead Valley PF’s Women on the Wing event produced big smiles, forever memories and some new hunter-conservationists.
This story originally appeared in the 2022 Spring Issue of the Pheasants Forever Journal
. If you enjoyed it and would like to be the first to read more great upland content like this, become a Pheasants Forever member today!