Latest news with #PheasantsForever
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
South Dakota records best pheasant season in 13 years, state parks department says
A male ring-necked pheasant. (Photo by Travel South Dakota) Hunters bagged more pheasants last fall in South Dakota than they have for 13 years, the state department of Game, Fish and Parks said Thursday. More than 1.3 million roosters were harvested during the 2024 pheasant hunting season, the department said, with another 380,000 harvested within defined shooting preserves. 'The 2024 South Dakota pheasant season was absolutely spectacular,' South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden said in a press release. South Dakota, the governor said, is 'truly the greatest state to pheasant hunt.' The state saw more roosters harvested in two weeks of October 2024 than any other state during their entire season, the release says. South Dakota's postseason pheasant harvest figures come from 15,000 random surveys of resident hunters and 13,000 nonresident hunters, the Mitchell Daily Republic reported Tuesday. Questions include the number of days hunted, areas hunted and how many birds were harvested are all part of the survey. Pheasants Forever launches new initiative to expand outdoor access in South Dakota More than a million birds have been harvested in each of the past five years in South Dakota, but Upland Game Biologist Alex Solem of the parks department told the Republic that 2024 stood out. 'Our over-winter survival was absolutely phenomenal,' Solem told the Mitchell publication. 'It was certainly evident just driving around this spring, tons of roosters crowing everywhere, lots of hens selecting those roosters for mating purposes. Pheasant hunting is an economic engine for South Dakota. Pheasants Forever, a private conservation organization, put the financial impact of the 2023 pheasant season on the state's economy at $281 million. The release from Game, Fish and Parks on Tuesday did not include a financial impact estimate of the 2024 pheasant season, instead focusing on bird harvest numbers. Hunters averaged approximately nine birds per hunter, said Kevin Robling, secretary for the parks department. 'Habitat and access have been a top priority for the department, and that has played a key role in both abundant bird numbers and ample locations for hunters to target them,' Robling said in the press release. Landowners and farmers partner through habitat programs to open conservation land, using programs offered by the State of South Dakota, the federal government, and multiple conservation groups. Pheasants Forever partnered with the state in 2023 to pay landowners additional stipends for enrolling land in conservation programs, with the goal of adding 10,000 acres a year. In the press release on the 2024 pheasant harvest, Robling pointed specifically to the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) on the James River and Big Sioux River valleys, which provides the benefits of the long-standing Conservation Reserve Program, but also ensures access for hunters. 'These CREP lands are directly in the primary pheasant range and provide high quality grassland habitat and access as well,' added Robling. The 2025 pheasant season in South Dakota will take place Oct. 18 to Jan. 31, 2026. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever president and CEO to speak at UND event
Apr. 18—When scientists communicate their work to a lay audience, they often load up with facts and figures that might not resonate with people outside their profession. It's no different with the biologists who work for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, says Marilyn Vetter of New Richmond, Wisconsin, president and CEO of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever. "If you talk to the wildlife biologists on the team, they're going to be the first ones to admit that, just like anybody that majors in biology or engineering, they love the facts behind things," Vetter said in an interview. "The science is inherently what drives them. "Sometimes, when you have that mindset, it's hard to understand why others don't get inspired by hearing just the facts. For most people that are not in the career, it's hard to get attached emotionally to the facts." Therein lies the dilemma when communicating science. Vetter, who grew up near Anamoose, North Dakota, and graduated from UND in 1988 with a major in communications and a minor in political science, will highlight the challenge — and how to overcome it — at noon Friday, April 25, as keynote speaker for the 2025 Glenn Allen Paur Lecture Series. Vetter's topic for this year's Paur Lecture is "Science and Storytelling: How Leaders Can (and should) Create Excitement for Wildlife Conservation." The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Chester Fritz Library Room 406. "It's super important for those that are doing research or deploying research to figure out, 'How do they use what inspires them to inspire others through means that make it more approachable, that are more in layman's terms,' " Vetter said. "If they come out and do a lecture on the science behind bird nesting behavior or habitat, that's probably going to be difficult for most people to embrace unless they're already interested in the actual facts behind it. "What I'm suggesting is, if we want good science to win, we have to find a way for people to hear (the facts) so they get to experience two things: They get to experience that emotional connection to the story, and it's based on fact." The UND Chapter of The Wildlife Society hosts the annual lecture series in honor of Glenn Allen Paur, a UND biology graduate from Pisek, North Dakota, who drowned in a May 1978 boating accident while assisting a UND professor with a research project on Leech Lake. The Paur family established the Lecture Series and the Glenn Allen Paur Memorial Scholarship in 1979 in his honor and memory. The series has featured a variety of notable speakers, including Steve Williams, a 1981 UND master's degree graduate and former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in 2022; David Bjerklie, a 1976 UND graduate and renowned science communicator, in 2023; and, in 2024, Chuck Black, a 2010 UND graduate and wildlife artist now living in Belgrade, Montana, who won the 2023 Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest. That puts Vetter in some lofty company. "Believe me, I went back and looked, and I'm like, 'Wow, those are some big shoes to fill,' " she said. "The folks that have preceded me, it's a small group and some really important people that have made a huge difference in conservation. "I'm certainly more than humbled and honored to be part of that." Vetter, who became president and CEO of PF and QF in February 2023, says communicating about conservation can be especially challenging on social media, where "the sexy story is what sells in headlines." "It is very hard for people that have the science behind them to break through on those platforms if they can't find a way to either tell (the story) through a shorter version of the words that create a more emotional connection or through video, to break through all of that clutter," she said. "And if we don't find a way to break through, then the facts will get left behind, and the facts are really what creates urgency and a compelling story around conservation and everything else." Video has proven to be the most effective way for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever to tell their stories, Vetter says. "Even if it's just the person (telling) the story in the video, because that is how people digest news anymore on social media," she said. "It's fascinating to watch how our corporate sponsors or how agency partners and others come to us and say, 'Well, we'd love to support this initiative, but we'd sure love to have a video to tell the story afterwards.' "They know that's how people are digesting and internalizing the news." A perfect example of social media success is "Pheasant Fact Friday," Vetter says. The weekly educational series, which includes snippets of info about pheasants and quail, posts Friday afternoons on the PF and QF Facebook and Instagram pages. People have embraced the pheasant and quail nuggets, she said. "I can tell you, I have learned a lot about pheasants and quail in the last however many months we've been promoting Pheasant Fact Friday and its sister in the quail space," Vetter said. "It has made (the information) digestible enough that people are learning in bite-sized snacks. And over a year, they're learning a ton of information in a way that they can remember it." Before taking the helm of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, Vetter says she hadn't been back on the UND campus in several years. In April 2023, Vetter was the keynote speaker at UND's Women for Philanthropy Luncheon and says she's looking forward to returning to campus for the Paur Lecture. "It's so powerful to come back and see that campus and how it has flourished," Vetter said. "It was a remarkable place for me to go to school, and it changed my world. I grew up on a cattle ranch, and my bubble was the size of a postage stamp, and I remember coming to campus and thinking, 'Wow, this place is huge.' "I love that I get to come back to campus in a way that's more aligned with my new role and that I get to spend time with students in the wildlife biology arena and watch, just how they're thinking about the future in this space. It's pretty remarkable, and I'm really excited."
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Yahoo
Outdoors Notebook: Dedication to commemorate Lake of the Woods County land acquisition
Apr. 12—LAKE OF THE WOODS COUNTY, Minn. — A dedication is planned for 2 p.m. Saturday, May 3, to commemorate the addition of 1,300 acres to the Carp Swamp Wildlife Management Area in Lake of the Woods County. The dedication will be held 10 miles south of Baudette, Minnesota, on state Highway 72. Pheasants Forever acquired the property in partnership with the Minnesota Sharp-Tailed Grouse Society, according to an article in the winter edition of the Minnesota Sharptailer, the Minnesota Sharp-Tailed Grouse Society newsletter. The Carp Swamp WMA is part of an existing 14,000-acre complex, and the additional 1,300 acres expands on a "unique mosaic of public lands in a traditional Minnesota Northwoods forested area," Pheasants Forever said. The complex consists of large swaths of lowland brush that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will manage for sharp-tailed grouse, according to the Sharptailer newsletter. Other partners listed on an invitation to the dedication, in addition to the DNR, are Minnesota Safari Club International and the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment approved by Minnesota voters in 2008. For more information, contact Sabin Adams at (320) 250-6317 or check out the website at ST. PAUL — Minnesota's spring turkey season begins this month, with opportunities available from Wednesday, April 16, through Saturday, May 31, the Department of Natural Resources said. The season is divided into six hunt periods, A-F. Wild turkey hunting is popular in Minnesota, and turkey hunting — including setting decoys, listening for gobbles and calling to birds — can make for an active and unforgettable experience, the DNR said. For anyone new to the experience, the DNR has how-to guides and videos on a learn-to-hunt webpage at . Minnesota's 2025 spring turkey season dates are as follows: * Youth season: April 16-May 31. * Archery season: April 16-May 31. * A season: April 16-22. * B: April 23-29. * C: April 30-May 6. * D: May 7-13. * E: May 14-20. * F: May 21-31. Hunters who harvest a bird in Permit Area 507 can help check the health of wild turkeys — and enter for the chance to win a shotgun donated by and and given away in a raffle run by the Minnesota Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation — by submitting samples to DNR wildlife research. More information about how to submit samples, and important season and regulation details about turkey hunting in Minnesota, can be found on the Minnesota DNR website at . BISMARCK — Outdoor enthusiasts need to be aware of potential wildfire conditions while enjoying time outside this spring, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department said. More people spending time outside, combined with dead ground vegetation and high winds, make this time of year highly susceptible to wildfires, the department said. Because of highly variable weather patterns, North Dakota experiences a distinct spring fire season every year. With that in mind, it's important to pay attention to the fire danger index, and to follow the appropriate measures. Hunters and anglers are urged to keep up with the daily rural fire danger index, issued by the National Weather Service, to alert the public to conditions that may be conducive to the accidental starting or spread of fires. In addition, county governments have the authority to adopt penalties for violations of county restrictions related to burning bans. These restrictions apply regardless of the daily fire danger index and remain in place until each county's commission rescinds the ban. Information, including restrictions, on current fire danger indexes is available at ST. PAUL — Minnesota's popular stream trout season opens Saturday, April 12, with quality fishing opportunities in every region of the state, the DNR said. Brook trout and splake fishing also open April 12 on Lake Superior and its tributary streams. Trout anglers can find information on Minnesota's trout streams on the DNR website at . Anglers will find helpful learning guides and fishing tips tailored to each of Minnesota's six trout fishing regions. Anglers can also access StreamFinder feature at , which provides anglers with a description, species list, regulations and access information for trout streams throughout Minnesota. Minnesota has roughly 3,800 miles of designated trout streams. Anglers 18 to 64 years old fishing on designated trout waters must have a trout stamp validation in addition to an angling license, and a trout stamp validation is required for anglers 18 to 64 years old to possess trout or salmon they catch on any Minnesota water. Complete trout season details are available at the Minnesota DNR's fishing page at . BISMARCK — The North Dakota Game and Fish Department is sponsoring Pollinators in the Classroom, a professional development workshop for educators. Pollinators in the Classroom will be held June 10-11 at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck. The workshop will explore pollinators, what they are, where they live, life cycles, importance and how people can make a difference. In a news release, Game and Fish said the workshop will be fun and fast paced, with many hands-on activities educators can use in their classrooms, and incorporate discussion of classroom and curriculum integration. Students will receive a copy of the Urban Pollinator Program Curriculum, and should be prepared for walking field trips in the area. All materials are included. The course is suitable for k-12 educators. For more information contact curriculum specialist Sherry Niesar at (701) 527-3714 or sniesar@ Register by clicking on the link at BISMARCK — The North Dakota Game and Fish Department has announced the winners of the 2025 Earth Day Patch Contest. Over 1,600 students from 100 schools entered this year's contest. Winners in four age categories are Tryg Klindworth, Beulah (grades K-3); Mariah Achtenberg, White Shield (4-6); Jazmin Vasquez, Minot Bishop Ryan (7-9); and Brielle Volk, Mohall (10-12). Achtenberg's design was chosen as the overall winner and will be made into the 2025 Earth Day patch. Youth and adults who participate in cleaning up public lands receive the 2025 patch to celebrate Earth Day and their service. Projects that qualify for the Earth Day patch include refuse pick-up on local, state or federal properties and landscaping on public property including planting trees, bushes and pollinator plants. Groups participating in the service projects are encouraged to take the following precautions to ensure their safety: keep young people away from highways, lakes and rivers and only allow older participants to pick up broken glass or sharp objects. Participants are asked to contact Sherry Niesar at (701) 527-3714 or sniesar@ to receive a patch.
