Thanks to you it was another record year for upland conservation! The Habitat Organization delivered 2.4 million acres of habitat improvements across the pheasant, quail, and prairie grouse ranges. As the year comes to a close, now is the time to maximize your 2024 impact on the uplands with a year-end gift. If you have already made your year-end gift this giving season, thank you! See the full 2024 Impact Report and find ways to maximize your 2024 impact at the link below. Heritage stat: Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s conservation education team is dedicated to sharing outdoor lifestyles and an appreciation for wildlife, while inspiring audiences of all ages and skill levels. We work to inspire folks to become the next generation of hunter-conservationists. In 2024, those efforts resulted in 1,687 educational events, helping nearly 63,000 new and reactivated conservationists, hunters and adventurists experience the outdoor lifestyle. Advocacy stat: In 2024, The Habitat Organization made noteworthy investments in advocacy and built landmark successes like these: * Inclusion of PF & QF policy priorities in the U.S. House draft and U.S. Senate framework versions of the next 5-year Farm Bill, to improve upland wildlife habitat, CRP, working lands, and hunting access. *Securing more than $900 million for habitat conservation and conservation technical assistance for landowners in 2025. *Working with partners to pass the EXPLORE (Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences) Act through the U.S. House, and to pass the America’s Conservation Enhancement Reauthorization Act through the U.S. Senate. Efforts continue to get both bills across the finish line. pheasantsforever.org/impact24

Our 2024 Impact Report highlights the accomplishments that you made possible. We hope that you’ll see the difference your support makes firsthand, and you’ll consider maximizing your 2024 impact with a year-end gift. If you have already made your year-end gift this giving season, thank you! See the full 2024 Impact Report and the difference you made for the uplands this year the link below. Habitat: In 2024, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever – and you – delivered 2.42 million acres of habitat improvements across the pheasant, quail and prairie grouse ranges PF & QF were successful in our efforts to secure multiple Regional Conservation Partnership Program awards from the USDA this year totaling $75 million to improve 280,000 acres in support of wildlife habitat and other mission objectives in South Dakota, Arizona, and Montana. Chapters: This network of 754 chapters spread across North America determines how their locally raised funds are spent to support the organization’s top priorities. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever is the only national conservation organization that operates through this grassroots structure. This year, more than 1,000 Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever volunteers spearheaded 97 Hands-On Habitat projects during a dedicated month of on-the-ground volunteerism that improves our upland landscapes across the country. Chapters host these events each spring to get local communities involved in habitat improvement projects. pheasantsforever.org/impact24

Pheasant Fact Friday!💡 Food plot size. The placement will often dictate their size. In many instances, landowners can not allocate large tracts of land. If smaller plots are needed, the amount of snow drifting into them can be lessened somewhat by establishing snow traps. This is easily accomplished by harvesting 12 rows just inside the outer 6 rows on the windward side. This is a good management practice on larger food plots as well, especially if they are to be harvested next spring. Whenever possible, large food plots should be located next to winter cover on the windward side (generally the northwest). If this is not possible, effective food plots can be established nearby if they are linked via corridors or other escape cover to traditional winter covers. In the absence of any traditional winter cover, large 10-acre-plus blocks of corn may be planted to serve as both food and shelter for the birds. #pheasantsforever #pheasants #pheasantfactfriday

Carp and Lark back with another Pheasant Minute. This time letting everyone know the importance of keeping those dogs dry. Tom Carpenter is the editor of the Pheasants Forever Journal, to get your issues of the PF Journal, head to the link below and become a member today. Pheasantsforever.org/join. #pheasantsforever #pheasanthunting #pheasants

We wish you Merry Christmas from the uplands! As part of the upland conservation community, you have given many gifts to the “Habitat Organization,”, and the gift that matters to us most is you. From all of us at Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever, and on behalf of the uplands, a heartfelt Merry Christmas! Thank you for your commitment and your support. The uplands are a better place, and have a brighter future, because of you. We humbly ask you to consider a gift to the uplands during the year-end giving season.. Learn more below on our various ways to give. Merry Christmas! Pheasantsforever.org/waystogive

On The Wing Podcast Ep. 297: Late Season Hunting Tips for Pheasants and Bobwhite Quail, is live. Listen now at the link below or wherever you get your podcasts. https://bit.ly/3DsiWUq Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever Journal Editor Tom “Carp” Carpenter and Quail Forever Journal Editor Ryan Sparks for a back-and-forth conversation about late season bird hunting. Carp breaks down his six tips for late season roosters as they appear in his article “PhD Roosters” from the Winter edition of the PF Journal, while Sparks adds color to his six tips for late season bobwhite quail hunting from his article, “In the Thick of It.” Episode Highlights: - As listeners have come to expect, Carpenter drops classic “Carpisms,” like tootles and hellholes, while providing veteran hacks for finding skittish late season roosters when your hands are cold and the snow is blowing. - As a Nebraska native, Sparks focuses on late season bobwhites in the Great Plains by providing terrific tips for finding late season coveys, while also treating them with respect to survive harsh winter conditions. The On The Wing Podcast is proudly fueled by Purina Pro Plan

This week, Congress passed several wildlife habitat conservation and outdoor recreation bills important to upland birds and upland hunters. The America’s Conservation Enhancement (ACE) Reauthorization Act, Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experience (EXPLORE) Act and the Wildlife Innovation and Longevity Driver (WILD) Act have all been passed on to President Biden to be signed into law. Learn more about what these bills mean for conservation by reading the full blog "Congress Sends Home Holiday Gifts for Conservation" by PF & QF Vice President of Government Affairs Ariel Wiegard, at the link below. https://bit.ly/4iROwLO It takes good habitat to produce abundant wildlife and opportunities to hunt—but it also takes robust public funding and sound conservation policy. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s dedicated Government Affairs team works in Washington D.C. and state capitols across America to create and secure funding for programs that benefit the uplands, from the rugged backcountry to the neighboring farm’s “back 40.” Thank you to our chapters, volunteers and members for the generous grassroots and Legislative Action Fund (LAF) support that makes this work possible.

“You’ve been pheasant hunting all season long and you’ve collected a few stunning pheasant feathers, what do you do with them now? Instead of letting them sit off to the side somewhere, take advantage of the beautiful tail feathers and create a centerpiece yourself to celebrate the holiday season. Let me walk you through how I created a Christmas themed table centerpiece highlighting pheasant feathers for about $10. My favorite part of this idea, is I was able to forage for a lot of these materials outside right around me, and I can put them back outside when the holidays are over. This is an excellent way to show off your upland adventures from this season. I’ve never done something like this before, and it was very easy and fun to assemble – I highly encourage you to give it a try! If you’ve created something using pheasant feathers, tell us about it in the comments. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s!” Check out the full "How-To" by PF Media Relations Specialist Mikayla Peper, and create your own Upland Christmas Centerpiece, at the link below. https://bit.ly/3BUoHK9

Pheasant Fact Friday!💡 Food plots have always been considered only one of three parts necessary for good winter habitat... tree/shrub cover, idle grass cover, and food plots. Ideally these three should be adjacent to each other, not a mile or two apart. But often the landowner has trees here, a wetland over there, and some grass in the other section. So where should he put the food plot? Research has found that more pheasants will use a food plot when it is next to idle grass. Second choice was a plot next to a wetland, and third next to trees. Recall that pheasants like to spent these cold winter nights in grass or wetlands (as opposed to trees and shrubs), so having breakfast right next door to the bedroom is handy and saves energy (not having to fly a mile for breakfast). Also recall though that blowing snow can fill those grasslands and wetlands, forcing the birds into the trees and shrubs for cover...but now the food plot is way over by the snow filled grass. Instead of one 6 acre food plot next to your grass, how about 2 acres for the grass, 2 for the wetland, and 2 for the trees? #pheasantsforever #pheasants #pheasantfactfriday

Pheasants Forever (PF) and Quail Forever (QF) are proud to announce a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The MOU solidifies decades of partnership collaboration to mutually conserve quality wildlife habitat through 2034 via habitat management of grasslands and uplands, conservation promotion, workforce development, and education and outreach. As part of the MOU, a work plan will be developed between both organizations to promote fish and wildlife management practices on public, Tribal and private lands. These habitat improvements may be implemented on Waterfowl Production Areas and National Wildlife Refuges or on private lands through the Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program and Farm Bill conservation programs. Both PF & QF and USFWS will also collaborate to recruit, educate, train and retain wildlife professionals imperative to the successful conservation work being done across the country. Read the entire announcement on this partnership at the link below. https://bit.ly/3P49PMt U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

"Any ring-necked pheasant still running around in December and January has earned a graduate degree in eluding hunters and their dogs. Hardy and experienced winter roosters are scarce (hunted down), paranoid (hunted long) and elusive (hunted hard). October's easy pickings of young, innocent cocks are gone. Welcome to the cagiest, most nervous and neurotic game bird you will ever encounter. Get to work. Here's how to hunt late season’s PhD roosters." Read the full article "PhD ROOSTERS" by Pheasants Forever Journal editor Tom Carpenter, at the link below. https://pheasantsforever.org/PhD-Roosters

On The Wing Podcast Ep. 296: What the Proposed 'Threatened' Status Means for Monarch Butterflies and Upland Birds, is live. Listen now at the link below or wherever you get your podcasts. https://bit.ly/4iKqqSO Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s Chief Conservation Officer Ron Leathers for a conversation with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Sergio Pierluissi and AnnMarie Krmppotich about the Service’s announcement last week proposing the monarch butterfly be listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. The group talks about what this proposed listing means, what it doesn’t mean, and what role PF & QF can play in creating habitat for monarch butterflies and upland birds. Episode Highlights: - The group discusses public land and private land opportunities to improve grasslands habitat for monarchs, as well as for pheasants, quail, and prairie grouse. - Learn more about the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s announcement about the status of monarch butterflies at https://bit.ly/4iJN7XC The On The Wing Podcast is proudly fueled by Purina Pro Plan