The annual Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever fundraising banquet was held Saturday night at the Elks Club in Perry, and some 150 members and guests attended for the prize raffles and a choice dinner of prime rib and chicken cordon bleu.
Steve and Janet Hick prepared the meal, which was universally praised.
Among the desirable raffle items were Henry repeating rifles, a Sig-Sauer handgun, a scoped rifle with camouflaged stock emblazoned with the Pheasants Forever insignia and a limited-edition commemorative shotgun.
Current officers of the Dallas County Pheasants Forever chapter are President Dan Brubaker, Vice President Sean Hick, Secretary Marty Bennett and Treasurer Cindy Kisting.
Pheasants Forever and its sister organization, Quail Forever, are nationwide organizations dedicated to the conservation of pheasants, quail and other wildlife through habitat improvements, public awareness, education and land management policies and programs.
The Dallas County chapter’s “mission is to improve our habitat and educate our youth in proven scientific conservation ethics and facts,” according to the group’s website.
The Dallas County Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever chapters offer several free services to local landowners, such as seed to establish food plots, professional consultations and assistance in establishing CRP ground. The groups also rent equipment such as seed drills and tree planters for use in establishing habitat, and they arrange cost sharing with landowners to establish nesting cover and shelter belts.
Their youth programs include the annual sponsorship of hunter education classes and sponsorship of Outdoor Journey For Girls and Hunting and Conservation Camp for boys. Both camps are geared to young people 12 to 16 years old and are held at the Springbrook Conservation Education Center.
Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever also sponsor educational outreach activities, such as annual field trips for every school district in Dallas County and sponsorship of Dallas County teachers in the Leopold Education Project, where they learn to better teach conservation ethics.
The Dallas County Pheasants Forever is meant “for those who want to make a difference for wildlife by creating habitat, restoring wetlands and protecting prairies. It is for those who wish to educate our youth and to help preserve our pheasants, quail and other wildlife for future generations.”
Pheasants Forever has converted past membership dollars into more than 5 million acres of wildlife habitat.
Between Palmer Amaranth’s invasion of Iowa and our current farming practices, there will be fields that were beans but soon will be full of big, bushy weeds to provide habitat.