On The Wing Podcast Ep. 287: The Quail Hunting Forecast, Hunting Tips, and a Game of Battleship, is live. Listen now at the link below, or wherever you get your podcasts. https://bit.ly/3U9VEbz Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Quail Forever Journal Editor Ryan Sparks, QF Program Manager Andy Edwards, and Gun Dog Editor and host of Wild Upland on Outdoor Channel Kali Parmley to preview the 2024 quail hunting season. Each participant also offers their top four quail hunting tips for hunting any of America’s six species of quail during the inaugural game of Quail Hunting Battleship. Episode Highlights: - Ryan Sparks kicks off the conversation with an overview of Quail Forever’s 2024 Quail Hunting Forecast based upon input from 28 different states. Edwards follows up with the anecdotal reports he’s heard during conversation with biologists and QF chapter members across the country. - Parmley talks about how she fell head over heels for bird hunting as an adult through the love of her first bird dog. She also discusses starting with a flushing breed and moving to pointers, and what she enjoys about both styles of bird dogs. - The group covers a wide array of quail hunting tips, but Sparks steals the episode with his “smoke a cigarette” suggestion. How do lung darts and quail hunting go together? You’re just going to have to listen to this one for it to all make sense.

Big game animals, upland birds, intact sagebrush and grasslands. Does it get more Montana than that? The key to maintaining the upland experience we all love for the long haul will require unique partnerships and projects that uphold all those connections. That was the thought process as Pheasants Forever worked collaboratively with over 16 different federal, state and local partners to pursue funding for a big game habitat improvement project. With a funding opportunity available through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Pheasants Forever successfully was awarded $6.4 million in funding with an additional $6.4 million in leveraged funding through partner efforts. The resulting Big Game Habitat Improvement Project (BIG HIP) Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) is available in eight counties in north-central Montana, and covers a land base of over 16 million acres. Intact grasslands and sagebrush support wildlife populations, Montana Communities, sportsman, agriculture and so much more. In Montana we are doubling down on grassland conservation through Pheasants Forever’s Montana Grassland Initiative. This initiative aligns our state efforts to make the largest grassland impact possible, leading to healthier landscapes and wildlife populations. The Regional Conservation Partnership Program is one of the great tools in our toolbox that makes the Montana Grassland Initiative possible. Learn more about the Montana Grasslands Initiative at the link below. https://pheasantsforever.org/BlogLanding/Blogs/Pheasants-Forever/Taking-Big-Game-Habitat-Under-Our-Wing-through-Grassland-Conservation.aspx

Pheasant Fact Friday!💡 You just shot your first fall rooster. How old is it? Determine if it is an adult or a young bird by examining the spur and bursa. During the first half of the hunting season, look at the spur. A young bird’s spur will be blunt, short, dull colored, and as soft as your thumb nail. The spur of a bird hatched a year from last spring will be sharply pointed, long, shiny black, and hard. Toward the end of the hunting season, you should use only the bursa, because at this time the spur may indicate an adult (greater then one year old) when actually it is a young bird. Gently insert a feather shaft into the bursa ... a pouch off the upper wall of the cloaca (rectum). If 1/3 inch or longer, the bird is young of the year. As the bird ages, the bursa shortens. So less then 1/3 inch indicates a bird hatched a year and a half ago. The bursa is good for determining young birds through February. #pheasantsforever #pheasants #pheasantfactfriday

Today, Pheasants Forever celebrates the 2024 Minnesota pheasant hunting opener by dedicating a brand-new piece of public property. The Roseneau-Lambrecht East Unit Wildlife Management Area addition in south-central Minnesota will help ring in pheasant hunting season across the state. The ceremony will be part of the Minnesota Governor’s pheasant hunting opener, which is taking place October 11-12 in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever president and CEO Marilyn Vetter will speak at the ceremony this afternoon, which will be followed by a community gathering in downtown Sleepy Eye. “Governors’ pheasant openers have been a tradition for Pheasants Forever for decades, as we help celebrate the arrival of autumn hunting seasons across the Midwest — from Kansas to Iowa to the Dakotas,” Vetter said. “It’s especially meaningful in Pheasants Forever’s home state of Minnesota, where this year we have an additional reason to celebrate, with the dedication of a brand-new piece of habitat we can all cherish for years to come.” Link below to learn more: https://bit.ly/3Yl56LO

Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, in partnership with Pepper Entertainment and Mammoth Live, are proud to announce its second annual Concert for Conservation, featuring Muscadine Bloodline LIVE at Uptown Theater on Thursday, March 6 at 7:30pm in Kansas City. Sponsored by Leinenkugel’s, onX Hunt, and Purina ProPlan, the concert kicks off weekend festivities ahead of National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic at the Kansas City Convention Center. All concert proceeds will benefit the upland conservation mission of The Habitat Organization. Tickets on sale October 18th at 10am with proceeds benefitting PF & QF’s habitat mission. Learn more at the link below: https://bit.ly/4gUYjzL Quail Forever, Pepper Entertainment, Mammoth, Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co., onX Hunt, Purina Pro Plan

WATCH NOW! “A P.A.T.H. Forward” link below. https://pheasantsforever.org/path Expanding public access to upland wildlife habitat is one of the four strategic priorities that guide the work of Pheasants Forever. In fact, we have a goal of increasing public access to privately owned upland wildlife habitat to more than one million acres by 2026. It’s an ambitious objective – but thanks in part to last year’s launch of our Public Access to Habitat (PATH) initiative in South Dakota, we’re well on our way. Currently, PATH has enrolled over 20,000 acres of habitat and access throughout South Dakota’s pheasant and prairie grouse range. We invite you to watch “A P.A.T.H. Forward” to see how creating public access, maintaining quality habitat, and bolstering rural economies can all be accomplished through the power of partnerships. The best part is you don’t have to take our word for it, opening day in South Dakota is fast approaching! So, get out there and follow a bird dog through currently enrolled PATH properties and see for yourself. “A P.A.T.H. Forward” is proudly presented by onX Hunt

Premiering tonight at 5PM CST, we invite you to watch “A P.A.T.H. Forward” to see how creating public access, maintaining quality habitat, and bolstering rural economies can all be accomplished through the power of partnerships. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be the first to watch. Link below. https://www.youtube.com/@PheasantsForever “A P.A.T.H. Forward” is presented by OnX Hunt

On The Wing Podcast Ep. 286: The Pheasant Hunting Forecast, Hunting Tips, and a Game of Battleship, is live. Listen now at the link below, or wherever you get your podcasts. https://pheasantsforever.org/BlogLanding/Blogs/Pheasants-Forever/Podcast-Ep-286-The-Pheasant-Hunting-Forecast,-Hunting-Tips,-and-a-Game-of-Battleship.aspx Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever Journal Editor Tom Carpenter, PF & QF Director of Communications Jared Wiklund, and Quail Forever Journal Editor Ryan Sparks to preview the 2024 pheasant hunting season. Each individual also offers their top four pheasant hunting tips during the inaugural game of Pheasant Hunting Battleship. Episode Highlights: - Tom Carpenter kicks off the conversation with an overview of Pheasants Forever’s 2024 Pheasant Hunting Forecast based upon biologist input from 22 different states. Wiklund follows up with the “word on the street” based upon anecdotal reports he’s heard in conversations with PF members, landowners, and partners across the country. - The group covers a wide array of pheasant hunting tips from using the wind and being stealthy quiet to the best days of the week and times of the day to chase roosters. - This also marks Purina Pro Plan’s inaugural episode as the presenting sponsor of On the Wing podcast. Thanks to Purina Pro Plan’s longtime commitment to PF & QF and our wildlife habitat conservation mission. The On The Wing Podcast is fueled by Purina Pro Plan

"Every day – or year – that goes by without a new Farm Bill, our nation’s ability to conserve habitat and increase sportsmen’s access through The Conservation Reserve Program and the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program will suffer," Andrew Schmidt, the director of government affairs for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, shared in a statement. Read the recent article by Food and Wine outlining some of the consequences of an expiring Farm Bill, at the link below

BREAKING NEWS! The U.S. House of Representatives Introduces North American Grasslands Act Today! Link to the full announcement below. More than 70% of America’s prairies, sagebrush sage-steppe, and grasslands ecosystems have disappeared since the 1960s. Those habitat losses have been followed by precipitous declines of grasslands wildlife, particularly bobwhite quail, prairie grouse, pheasants, honeybees, and monarch butterflies. The Grasslands Act would kickstart the voluntary protection and restoration of grasslands and sagebrush shrub-steppe ecosystems – and the livelihoods and wildlife dependent upon them. Functionally, the legislation is modeled upon the highly successful and beloved North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) and would create a landowner-driven, voluntary, incentive-based program to conserve America’s critically imperiled grasslands. Today, the U.S. House of Representatives introduced the North American Grasslands Conservation Act. The bill was authored by Representative Nancy Mace (R – SC), Representative Sharice Davids (D – KS), Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R – PA), and Representative Mike Thompson (D – CA). If passed, the legislations would widely be considered one of the most significant steps for grassland conservation efforts in the 21st century. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever are part of a coalition of nearly 50 conservation organizations working in support of this critically important grasslands legislation. https://bit.ly/48219Pb #ActForGrasslands

A P.A.T.H. Forward presented by onX Hunt, launches this Thursday. Head to our YouTube channel and subscribe to be the first to see it. Link below. The PATH Program has enrolled more than 20,000 acres for public hunting access in South Dakota, Watch the story unfold Thursday at 5PM CST. https://www.youtube.com/@PheasantsForever

PF and QF's Vest Review. We put 10 top upland hunting vests through the wringer last season, and here’s what our bird chasers have to say. Link below. Upland bird hunters hunger for the right hunting vest. Or a new hunting vest. Or a better hunting vest. But a real, serious upland hunting vest is a real, serious investment. It is a great investment, to be sure, but not one to take lightly. You want meaningful, independent reviews to kickstart your decision-making process. That’s why, all season long last year, from prairie and forest grouse time all the way through pheasant and quail seasons, we had 10 real, serious upland hunters each hunting in one vest with a goal of reporting back in detail for PF & QF’s Ultimate Upland Vest Review. One might ask, is this a review of the ultimate vests for upland bird hunting, or the ultimate review of upland hunting vests? The answer is both. https://www.pheasantsforever.org/Hunting/Vest-Story.aspx