The mission is Forever

For almost five years now, the drumbeat at Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever has been: Answer the Call.
 

And that is just what the Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever Family — chapters, volunteers, members, employees, donors, sponsors and partners — has done. Thank you for being part of it.
 

And thank you in advance for your commitment to the future.
 

As our monumental Call of the Uplands® Campiagn enters its home stretch, and then its celebration at National Pheasant & Quail Classic 2023 in Minneapolis, the message is clear: The work is not done, and: The mission is FOREVER.
 

Who can foresee a day when upland habitat won’t need our undivided attention and commitment? When grasslands and wild places and public access to them won’t matter? When the idea of hunting heritage for people from all walks of life won’t be integral to the success of this upland conservation movement known as Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever? When wildlife that doesn’t have a voice won’t need one in Washington D.C. and in statehouses across the country?
 

Commit with us on saving our endangered grasslands and upland wildlife habitat. And let us remember that the mission does not end.
 

It is forever.

Habitat

By June 30, 2022, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever had already accomplished its 9-million-acre habitat goal for the Call of the Uplands campaign. Our aim is to stretch that figure to 10 million acres.
 

Places to recreate (yes, hunt) and enjoy the fruits of our habitat labors — forever — are key to what we do as The Habitat Organization. One might also call us The Access Organization.
 

Permanent protection is critical: land that will forever be protected as wildlife habitat and open to public hunting. In 2022 Pheasants Forever added 6,791 acres of such lands, bringing the organization’s total acres-to-date in this category to 225,382. Public, forever.
 

Access includes lands that may not be permanently public but are open to recreation. In 2022, PF helped create more than 389,000 acres of access for public hunting. Annual enrollments in walk-in programs are key here — acres which would not be available to wildlife if not for our Farm Bill biologists helping private landowners create wildlife habitat — that also improves soil, cleanses and retains water, and assists in climate resiliency — across pheasant country.
 

Restoring and enhancing habitat on both public land and private lands remains the heart of the PF & QF mission, and is in fact the core of what we do through our army of wildlife biologists and habitat specialists. PF & QF have Farm Bill and wildlife biologists in 37 states. In all, this impressive team totalled more than 1.78 million acres of habitat work in 2022. This only happens through the key partnerships we have with federal and state agencies.
 

Will you help us continue to make more and better places for pheasants, quail, butterflies, bees, grassland songbirds, white-tailed deer and myriad other wildlife in the uplands?

Heritage

Without new sportsmen and women — of any and every demographic — joining the outdoor lifestyle, conservation would surely wane and die. That’s why building our hunting heritage is so important and worthy of PF’s focus. It is one of the most important facets of forever.
 

Our PF team and innovative, hard-working chapters delivered. Momentum rolled in 2022!
 

The banquet trail revived after the challenges of Covid-19 finally waned this year. Chapters developed innovative new ways to get people involved —adults new to hunting, children who will be the future of hunting and conservation, and all the women finding their home in the outdoors. Chapters drive this initiative, alongside partnerships with state game and fish agencies, for adult Learn to Hunt events and mentoring.
 

Notable: Our Women on the Wing initiative gained real momentum in 2022, with over 90 events hosting more than 1,400 participants in 22 states.
 

We also expanded our pollinator program beyond youth, because people of all ages care deeply about butterflies and bees, and are starting to understand how that habitat, and prime pheasant nesting and brooding habitat, are one and the same.
 

Will you help us make more hunters and conservationists to love the uplands forever?

Advocacy

Being a voice for grassland and prairie habitat, and their impact on pheasants, quail and other upland wildlife, is critical to our mission.
 

With a panel of partners, we helped introduce a North American Grasslands Conservation Act. When enacted, this legislation would function like the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) by providing grants to voluntary landowners and tribal entities that will enhance and conserve habitat. Next to creating permanently public uplands, this may be the biggest single initiative of impact the organization ever does.
 

The PF & QF Government Affairs is preparing to work on Capitol Hill in 2023 on the conservation title of the new Farm Bill.
 

And though the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA) gained significant momentum in 2022, we may have to start over with this legislation in the new Congress. We are committed to it. If passed by the House and Senate, RAWA in its current form would dedicate $1.4 billion annually to help implement state wildlife action plans, and the associated habitat benefits will endure for pheasants and quail.
 

The uplands will forever need a loud and proud voice standing up for them. Will you help us continue to be that voice?

Chapters

Chapters are the lifeblood of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever. Our volunteers continue to Answer the Call of the Uplands by converting locally raised dollars into habitat, public access and new hunters.
 

Our volunteers are the most dedicated and giving individuals in the conservation world. Our grass-roots model, where locally generated dollars stay under local control, forever resonates in communities from coast to coast.
 

Chapters are also re-imagining how conservation gets delivered on a local scale. From winter survival food plots to native grass seedings, prairie burns, brush and tree control, and other management activities, PF chapters continue to fund, install and assist thousands of habitat projects every year. Dollars and person-power are the fuel.
 

Will we see you at your next local chapter meeting? It’s how forever begins. Open arms await.

Call of the Uplands

Thanks to the generosity of our donors and partners, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever are reaching and exceeding our aggressive Call of the Uplands mission delivery and fundraising goals.
 

Since launching the campaign, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s dedicated constituents have rallied around the campaign’s bold vision for the future by making gifts in support of habitat conservation, education & outreach, and advocacy.
 

Individuals, families, corporations, foundations and other partners from all 50 states and provinces across Canada are helping the organization deliver more of our mission than at any other time in our history. Whether the dollar amount is $50 or $5,000,000, the generous support of our passionate donors is Call of the Uplands donors is making a difference for upland birds.
 

We are using the financial support of passionate people like you to:
 

  *  Expand public access via the Build A Wildlife Area® program
  *  Protect vital habitat permanently, using conservation easements
  *  Enhance private lands by providing technical assistance to landowners across the country
  *  Educate the next generation of hunter-conservationists
  *  Advocate for a National Grasslands Conservation Act
 

  *  Expand public access via the Build A Wildlife Area® program

  *  Protect vital habitat permanently, using conservation easements

  *  Enhance private lands by providing technical assistance to landowners across the country

  *  Educate the next generation of hunter-conservationists

  *  Advocate for a National Grasslands Conservation Act
 

But there is no time to rest. We have miles to go. We are just getting a start on forever. Because forever continues even after the campaign is celebrated at National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic in Minneapolis February 17-19, 2023.
 

The uplands will always call.

The Mission is Forever

The word is in our name: Pheasants Forever. Quail Forever.
 

Forever means the work we do together.
 

Forever means the commitment you make with your time, your volunteer spirit, your voice, your dollars.
 

Forever means the cackle of a rooster and the whistle of a bobwhite on the shoulder of a fine spring morning. It is a bobolink calling from the tallgrass. It is the flutter of monarch butterflies and the buzz of bumblebees in summer wildflowers. It is the joyful shout of ROOSTER! piercing the autumn air. It is the heart-stopping buzz of a covey of quail erupting on a brisk winter morning.
 

Will you help us keep going toward forever with a Giving Tuesday gift this year?