FEATURING VAST UPLAND HABITAT, A STUNNING SUNSET AND TWO GENERATIONS OF PHEASANT HUNTERS, COVER PICTURE WAS AN EASY CHOICE
By Tom Carpenter, Editor
If I’d have had my druthers, the ideal cover shot for the Fall 2019 edition of Pheasants Forever Journal would have featured a pheasant launching skyward in a flurry of color and wingbeats, a dog on point or making the flush, a hunter shouldering his or her shotgun, and a public lands sign supervising the scene.
Ya, good luck finding that “perfect” scenario!
But the job suddenly got easy when we ran across something even better from our friends at
Rockhouse Motion. Located by one of our great designers, Logan Hinners, the picture says it all: prime public-access upland habitat, a horizon to hunt to again tomorrow, and a parent and a kid (who is carrying a rooster by the way) taking it all in.
Here’s one little factoid you’ll discover in the magazine: Since its inception in 1982, Pheasants Forever has worked with a key partners to acquire and make public 201,139 acres – wild, quiet places that you and me and our families and dogs can have access to for hunting, hiking, dog-training, wildlife-watching, or just reconnecting with wide-open spaces and places … forever.
But exactly how much is 201,139 acres? Let’s put it into boots-in-the-ground perspective:
201,139 acres is 314.4 square miles. Walk the perimeter of each of those miles and you’d travel 1,257.6 miles, or the distance from the North Dakota / Canada border to Grandview, Texas, south of Dallas.
And you wouldn’t have even walked any of the ground
inside each of those square miles.
Imagine what your dog would run!
If all that’s not reason enough to
stay or become a Pheasants Forever member and be a part of building this public lands legacy for ourselves and more importantly for future generations, then I don’t know what is. Every member matters, every member counts as we, the Pheasants Forever Family – stands up and stands proud for public lands and public access.
I’m excited about some of the other features you’ll find in the issue too:
NO EXCUSES
An exhaustive and comprehensive rundown of all your public hunting options in 8 of the top pheasant states … you’ll have no excuse to stay home and every reason in the world to GO!
PUBLIC SECRETS
11 of my own strategies for outsmarting public land roosters
and other hunters ... an approach I started honing back in the 1970s believe it or not.
FOREVER PUBLIC
Shining-example stories behind 4 key Pheasants Forever acquisitions – the PF chapters, the people and personalities, the processes … it will inspire you to get active in the “creating public lands” arena in your area too.
Okay, enough revelations of what’s in there. I have to leave you something to discover on your own! Look for the issue soon, and let me know what you think.
And, as pheasant seasons approach – Good Luck in the field this fall, but I’m sure we’ll be talking more before then. It’s almost pheasant season, didn’t you know?
