|  12/14/2014

Upland Habitat Focus of Inaugural Minn. Governor’s Pheasant Summit


c711bcdf-ad43-447c-8137-5cf12a208bc5
Upland habitat conservation solutions were the focus of the more than 300 conservationists and pheasant hunters who assembled in Marshall, Minn., for the state’s first-ever Pheasant Summit, convened by Governor Mark Dayton.
 
The group collectively submitted more than two dozen ideas for consideration, including the following “top five” for inclusion in the development of a four-year action plan to accelerate the creation and restoration of pheasant habitat.
 
Recommended Action Items
 
1) Enforce existing laws – buffers, roadsides, easements
2) Increase bonding funds for Wildlife Management Area acquisition
3) Target funding to specific, high-quality habitat areas through state, local, Federal cost-share programs
4) Increase state and local funding
5) Create competitive compensation for long-term/perpetual conservation practices
 
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources commissioner Tom Landwehr said all ideas put on the table via the Minnesota Pheasant Summit event will be analyzed and captured in a report – compiled with help from Pheasants Forever and other conservation partners as part of a working group – to be presented at his agency’s upcoming Roundtable event on Friday, January 16, 2015.

Photo: Howard Vincent, Pheasants Forever's President and CEO, addresses Minnesota Pheasant Summit attendees as Ron Schara, the event emcee, looks on. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

-Anthony Hauck is Pheasants Forever’s online editor. Email Anthony at AHauck@pheasantsforever.org and follow him on Twitter @AnthonyHauckPF.