Outdoorsmen Adventures.com

Hunting-access program provides $50 million in federal funds to expand recreation opportunities on private lands

Saint Paul, Minn. – July 8, 2010 – Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever today praised a decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to release $50 million in funding for the “Open Fields” Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program, a new effort to encourage owners and operators of privately held farm, ranch and forest lands to provide public access to their lands for wildlife-dependent activities such as hunting and fishing.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack made the announcement this afternoon at a national press conference, at which other speakers included Howard Vincent, Pheasants Forever National President and CEO, and representatives from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

Open Fields was authorized by Congress for the first time in the 2008 Farm Bill following support from a TRCP-sponsored coalition that included Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever. Open Fields provides states $50 million in federal monies to create or enhance voluntary hunter-access programs on private lands and encourages landowners who enroll their properties to employ best-management practices for wildlife. Landowners can receive a financial incentive in exchange for opening lands to the public for hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreation. The Open Fields funding can now be used to enhance the 26 existing state public access programs, and establish programs in states where such programs are currently absent. There will be an application process for states to apply for funding.

“American sportsmen are deeply invested in the Open Fields program,” said Vincent, who praised the program on both its wildlife habitat and hunter access merits. “We appreciate the federal government’s willingness to expand public access to hunting and other recreational activities by assuring its implementation. Sportsmen now speak together in urging our nation’s decision makers to continue this record of support by retaining and funding Farm Bill conservation programs in 2012.”… Continue reading

McDonald brings experience, passion for wildlife

Lincoln, Neb. – April 27, 2010 – Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever announce Jerry McDonald of Lincoln, Nebraska, as the organization’s new Regional

Representative for eastern Nebraska. McDonald’s 25-plus years of marketing experience will help strengthen “The Habitat Organization’s” Cornhusker conservation mission.

McDonald will work to start new Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever chapters in eastern Nebraska and assist existing chapters with raising and expending funds on wildlife habitat and conservation education.
He will also work with local, state, and federal natural resource agencies on wildlife habitat initiatives. In addition to serving as a point person for local… Continue reading

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

It was a quiet, late November afternoon when Ron Peterson, publisher of the Journal walked into my office in the newsroom.

He sat in the chair across from my desk where, as editor of the newspaper, I was scanning our news budget before heading up the meeting with the floor editors to decide what the next day’s paper would look like.

“What would you think of producing an outdoor tabloid which we distribute free throughout our area?” he asked.

As the paper’s outdoor writer since 1973, it didn’t take long for me to answer.

“I think it would be a great idea,” I said.

And so it started, a free tabloid devoted to teaching Siouxlanders more about hunting and fishing in our area and throughout the upper Midwest.

The first issue, one of six to be published each year, hit the streets in late January of 2004.

The cover photo was of Dave Genz, known as the father of modern day ice fishing. He was on the ice holding a walleye. I had taken that photo a year earlier on Devil’s Lake in North Dakota.

The whole issue was devoted to ice fishing .… Continue reading

As I sat on the porch at Big Blue Lodge, a full moon appeared on the horizon adding it’s  illumination to the light being dispersed by the millions of stars in the sky that night.

It was a stargazers dream, one that’s quite common in Nebraska and one that few people living in the large cities on either coast had ever had the opportunity to gaze upon.

As daybreak finally arrived and the sun popped up over the horizon, we were greeted by 50-degree temperatures with an afternoon forecast predicted to reach up into the 70’s.

And what’s so great about that? Well, we were about to head into the field to hunt pheasants at the Nebraska Governor’s Hunt in November, the time of the year when folks up north are usually wearing stocking caps, gloves and long johns were in order, not the short sleeve shirts and tee shirts that we were wearing.

It was a beautiful day to be outdoors, and the hunting only made it better. It was one of those perfect days in the outdoors, one of those days you’ve always dreamed about.

The Governor’s Pheasant Hunt is a team event with five members on a team.  It’s a one-box hunt, which means that each team receives 25 shells in order to bag their 15-bird limit.

Shells can be divided up amongst the team members any way that they wish and the team that checks in with the most birds shot using the least shells is declared the winner.

Teams are assigned a guide, scorer and are allowed to have two dogs on the ground at one time.… Continue reading

Looking out of the window at the buttes above the ranch, I found it hard to believe that we were in the heart of pheasant country in south central South Dakota.

The scenery was breathtaking as were the facilities and the pheasant hunting that we were about to experience.

Diamond A Ranch is located just down the road from Gregory and the habitat on the ranch is ideal not only pheasants, but also deer and turkey.

On this hunt Gary Kubicek and Bill McPherson from Consumer Supply, Sioux City, IA, joined us.

Consumer Supply is the manufacturers of the Country Vet Dog food a balanced nutritional dog food that we’ve been using for years.

Also joining us on this hunt would be my brother-in-law Tom Janssen and Dr. Ken Bird from Omaha.

Our first walk would be a milo field just down the road from the ranch and any one who’s ever hunted knows: milo is an excellent food source for pheasants.

Since it’s a short crop it’s easy to hunt, work dogs and since it produces such thick heavy over head cover it’s a great place for birds to feed and loaf while and not have to be concerned with the eagles and hawks flying over head searching for an easy meal.… Continue reading

GREGORY, S.D. – Rows of milo and corn seem somehow out of place in the foothills below the Butte Mountains.

But try to tell that to the thousands of ring-necked pheasants that call this mixture of native grasslands and farm crops home.

Several were taking to the air right now and, with camera in one hand and gun in the other, I was at a loss for what to do.

As usual, I didn’t get the best effort from either.

“Who cares,” I thought. I’m just going to soak up the beauty of this land on an October afternoon on the Diamond A Ranch 14 miles north of Gregory.

A 2,000-acre hunting preserve owned by Jim and Andrea Olson, the Diamond A is not a diamond in the rough. It is a splendid, well-appointed preserve awash in wild pheasants, turkeys and deer.

Gary Howey, Hartington, Neb., and I met Gary Kubicek and Bill McPherson, both with Country Vet pet foods out of Sioux City, Gary’s brother-in-law Tom Jansen and his friend Kenneth Bird, both of Omaha, for a couple days of bird shooting.

We never did get more than a half mile from the lodge. We walked milo strips mostly and the birds were there.

It was the second visit to the Diamond A by Howey and me. We had hunted here last year, the first year of operation for Jim and Andrea, who farm near Homer, Neb.… Continue reading

For those of us that have been waiting all year for pheasant season, well, it’s here!

Reports indicate that the pheasant outlook is good with those states that have a lot of habitat really crowing about their pheasant numbers.

Over the years, I’ve hunted with hundreds of hunter and was surprised how some of them hunted and amazed by others at how well they would look over the situation, hash things over, approaching each field differently.

Here are a few tips that I’ve learned that have helped me to become a more consistent early season pheasant hunter.

• Once you arrive at the field that you plan on hunting, keep the noise down to a minimum as all wild game has a very acute sense of hearing.  This means, don’t slam your car door, keep the noise to a minimum.

• If you use a whistle to control your dog, don’t keep blowing the whistle, as this will surely put the birds on alert, the last of a loud whistle is a foreign sound. If you use a whistle, try using a hawk call as this is a familiar sound and many times when the birds hear it will cause them hunker down, allowing you to get closer before the bust from the cover.

• Let your dog do the hunting and follow him wherever he leads you, as his sense of smell is the key to locating the birds.