History

Pheasants Forever, Inc. is a non-profit tax exempt organization incorporated in Minnesota August 5th, 1982. The purpose of the organization is to protect and enhance pheasant and other wildlife populations throughout North America through public awareness and education, habitat restoration, development and maintenance, and improvements in land and water management policies.

Pheasants don't need much to survive. Give them shelter from the cold winds of winter, a sufficient food supply and plentiful nesting cover, and North America's most beautiful and exciting game bird can flourish. Unfortunately, even these basic requirements have been lacking in recent decades, due largely to dramatically changing land-use practices. Many fencerows, grasslands and wetlands that once dotted the rural landscape have gone the way of the family farm, replaced by millions of acres of tilled soil. With the cover has gone much of the nation's pheasant population.

The situation is not without hope. Pheasants Forever, with its 90,000 members nationwide, is raising money at banquets and turning that money into winter cover, nesting cover, food plots, wetlands and other habitat ring-necked pheasants need to survive. The future of pheasants and pheasant hunting has never looked brighter.

Pheasants Forever is fortified by a unique system of county chapters that provides an incentive for sportsmen and women to raise money: 100% of net funds raised by chapters remains at the chapter level for local habitat projects.

Each Pheasants Forever chapter maintains local control of its habitat funds. Chapter leaders, with help from resource professionals, establish habitat restoration programs customized to meet the needs of wildlife in their area. This enables people who belong to and support Pheasants Forever to see the direct results of their contributions.

A typical habitat restoration program includes elements of the following: nesting cover renovations, winter cover plantings of windbreaks and hedgerows, food plot establishments, wetland restorations and land acquisitions. In 16 years, Pheasants Forever has spent more than $70 million on habitat projects alone, encompassing more than 2 million acres in North America.

The importance of educating the public about the needs of pheasants and other wildlife cannot be overstated. Pheasants Forever remains committed to informing members and non-members alike of this need, and places a special emphasis on the conservation education of children.

In addition to various Pheasants Forever publications and other public awareness programs, the organization developed an innovative youth education program, Ringnecks. Complete with its own publication, Ringnecks, and an educational curriculum, the youth program is helping ensure the continuation of our nation's hunting and outdoor legacy.

Pheasants Forever supports conservation legislation benefiting the ringneck and other wildlife in federal and state legislative arenas. Pheasants Forever has been instrumental in developing and implementing state pheasant habitat improvement programs. In addition, the organization led the fight to save the Conservation Reserve Program and strengthen other conservation provisions in the 1996 Fair Act.

Pheasants Forever's streamlined method of converting dollars into habitat is the underlying reason for the rapid growth and success of the organization. Since 1982, Pheasants Forever has grown to include 90,000 members in more than 550 chapters and has raised and spent more than $70 million on habitat restoration projects, public awareness and education programs, and land management policy improvements.

Pheasants Forever has achieved great success on behalf of the nation's pheasant hunters and enthusiasts over the past several years, and the prospects for the future are excellent.