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In 1982, Dennis Anderson wrote a series of columns in the St. Paul Pioneer and Dispatch on the sorry state of Minnesota pheasants. Anderson, who now works for the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune, wondered at the time if they'd have an impact, whether the topic would spark interest with his readers.
This was before the Conservation Reserve Program kicked in, and long after the U.S. Department of Agriculture's soil bank program expired in early 1960s. Intensive farming practices left little available cover to nurture Minnesota's dwindling pheasant population.
These were lean, troubled times for the gaudy Chinese import.
But Anderson's columns-some call it advocacy journalism-touched a chord with the pheasant-hunting public in Minnesota, and Anderson, with the help of several other link-minded individuals, founded Pheasants Forever.
The national conservation group, which has some 700 chapters (seventy-three in Minnesota, with more than 22,000 members) and 118,000 members in the U.S. and Canada, is now celebrating its silver anniversary. Call it 25 years of conservation work on behalf one of the upland hunting's most cunning wild birds.
Anderson's vision, leadership and top-shelf journalism illustrate the power of big ideas and what can be achieved when good people circle the wagons around a common goal.
But the idea of founding a single-species conservation organization was no canned hunt, Anderson says. The group's organizers were unsure whether Minnesota pheasant hunters, or hunters anywhere, would support the pheasant group idea.
But public bought into the big idea and movers and shakers behind it, and now the group is a mainstay in conservation circles and has many farmland conservation successes under its collective belt. We have Dennis Anderson and company to thank for that.
Consider a few of the group's achievements:
Since its inception, Pheasants Forever (including its Quail Forever division) has completed more than 370,000 habitat projects in North America, which have benefited more than 5 million acres of wildlife habitat. Those five million acres include 111,371 nesting projects (totaling more than 2 million nesting acres) and 2,865 wetland projects (totaling more than 59,000 acres). It also includes 127,220 acres of land acquired through 1,062 land acquisitions. In addition, all Pheasants Forever land acquisitions are done in partnership with state wildlife agencies and/or the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The good news is that all land purchases are open to the public for hunting and other outdoor recreational activities.
In 25 years, Pheasants Forever has spent more than $260,000 million wildlife conservation and education.
“Eclipsing the 5 million acre mark is a testament to the organization's unique local model and dedicated volunteers everywhere," said Howard Vincent, Pheasants Forever President and CEO.
What's unique about Pheasants Forever is its business model. From day one, the group has empowered county chapters to determine how 100 percent of their locally raised conservation funds will be spent. As a result, chapter volunteers get to see the fruits of their labor in the form of local habitat projects. They also get to belong to a large national conservation organization with a strong voice on federal and state conservation policy.
The upshot is that money raised at the local level is going back into the ground, improving the landscape for pheasants and myriad other wildlife species, including ducks, quail and deer. Habitat is habitat. It benefits not only wildlife and the environment as a whole, but also hunters-hunters who are constantly in search of quality places to hunt. Pheasants Forever business plan taps the vested interest of its volunteers, and in doing so has improved the landscape for wildlife and hunters-a noteworthy and laudable achievement.
Pheasants Forever also has an ace in the hole: Dave Nomsen, the group's vice president of government affairs. Indeed, Pheasants Forever has a large presence in Washington D.C., and Nomsen's work of selling the intrinsic value of conservation to federal lawmakers is big reason why we've had farm bill programs like CRP for 20 years and counting.
Still, in this new era of high commodity prices, a push for crop-based biofuels and becoming an energy independent nation, Nomsen and other conservation officials are facing a loaded deck from which to deal. Simply put, the challenges are immense.
While most of the mainstay farm bill conservation programs will likely stay intact (a new farm bill is still pending), most conservation officials agree that farmland conservation is going to take a hit-mostly likely a big hit-in the next five years as farm economics trump conservation interests.
Still, without Nomsen and Pheasants Forever and its sizeable membership, we'd be far worse off. In the end, all Pheasants Forever wants to do is help pheasants and pheasant habitat. After all, that's the organization's mission. Always has been, always will be.
As farmer Russ Anderson from Clinton, Minnesota was quoted as saying in Dennis Anderson's 1982 column announcing Pheasant Forever's founding board of directors, “Who could be against that?”
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