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Quail Forever’s Third Annual No Child Left Indoors National Awards
Awards honor chapter efforts in fostering youth involvement in the outdoors…

Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever

Saint Paul, Minn. - -(AmmoLand.com)- Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have honored three local chapters for their efforts to introduce youth to the outdoors and create the next generation of hunters and conservationists.

Recipients of the third annual No Child Left Indoors® National Awards include the Mahaska County (Iowa) Pheasants Forever chapter, the Illinois Pioneer Pheasants Forever chapter and the Great River Area (Illinois/Iowa) Quail Forever chapter.

Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s No Child Left Indoors initiative is the organization’s national effort to engage youngsters in outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing and camping. The No Child Left Indoors® National Awards recognize chapters for their youth habitat projects, youth and family community events and youth outdoor education programs.

“These chapters have shown the ultimate commitment to promoting youth activities and getting kids involved in the outdoors,” said Cheryl Riley, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s Vice President of Education and Outreach.

Great River Area Quail Forever Chapter
This chapter does youth work on both sides of the Mississippi River – in Illinois and Iowa. From presentations to high school kids, an FFA banquet, hunter safety programs and youth fishing tournaments, Great River Area Quail Forever chapter members engaged youth and talked about habitat and the needs of quail. The chapter also held its first mentored youth hunt last September.

Mahaska County Pheasants Forever Chapter
Each spring, the Mahaska County Pheasants Forever chapter sponsors an outdoor day that includes every 5th grade student in the county, 350-plus students. In the fall, the chapter hosts a field day which over 200 youth attend and everyone goes home with a Pheasants Forever Ringnecks (youth) membership. The chapter also sponsors an Iowa Youth Hunter Education Challenge Team as well as a scholastic shooting team that had 60 participants this past year. Last year, chapter expenditures on youth programs topped $16,000.

The Mahaska County Pheasants Forever chapter’s youth coordinator is Mahaska High School student Brooks VanDerBeek. Brooks’ dad, Jeff, is president of the chapter. Brooks serves on Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s National Youth Leadership Council and recently helped form the first-ever high school student Pheasants Forever chapter in the country, the Oskaloosa Pioneering Ringnecks. Brooks’ efforts have earned him the Izaak Walton Iowa Youth Conservationist of the Year award, and he was named a “Hero of Conservation” in the current issue of Field and Stream magazine.

Illinois Pioneer Pheasants Forever Chapter
The Illinois Pioneer Pheasants Forever chapter held 11 events in 2009 as part of its “Young Guns” program, involving members, women, FFA, scouts and families in trap and skeet shoots, a fishing derby, a hunter safety course, a rifle shoot and a youth mentor hunt. In 2009, the Illinois Pioneer chapter spent approximately $31,000 on youth programs. There are 290 youth members in “Young Guns” and this year they will be working on an 80-acre habitat restoration project. The chapter credits the “Young Guns” program in making its annual fundraising banquet last spring the largest in its 25-year history. Original “Young Guns” Ben Magers and Kirstin Blackford helped create and serve on the newly formed Illinois Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever State Youth Leadership Council, and each was recognized as a 2009 Environmental Hero by the Illinois Governor.

For more about Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s No Child Left Indoors® initiative, contact Cheryl Riley at criley@pheasantsforever.org and 651.209.4975.

Pheasants Forever and its quail division, Quail Forever, is a non-profit conservation organization is dedicated to the conservation of pheasants, quail and other wildlife through habitat improvements, public awareness, education and land management policies and programs. Pheasants Forever has more than 120,000 members in 700 local chapters across the United States and Canada.

For additional information please visit www.PheasantsForever.org and www.QuailForever.org

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Quail Forever Doubles Down in Tennessee with New Chapters
“The Volunteer State” Now Home to Seven Volunteer Chapters of Quail Forever

Quail Forever

Knoxville, Tenn. – Tennessee is home to a new pair of Quail Forever chapters. Quail enthusiasts in Knox County formed Smoky Mountain Quail Forever, while Maury County quail hunters and conservationists formed Duck River Quail Forever.

Both groups set out with the common goal of improving habitat for a Tennessee species in great need, the bobwhite quail.

As Quail Forever chapters, the Smoky Mountain and Duck River groups will utilize Quail Forever’s local approach to wildlife habitat conservation.

Unlike other national conservation organizations, Quail Forever gives local Quail Forever chapters the ability to decide how 100 percent of their fundraised dollars are spent. This local control gives chapters and members the ability to make things happen for wildlife in their communities, while belonging to a national organization that gives wildlife and conservation a voice in Washington, D.C.

“Bobwhite quail populations won’t rebound by themselves. It takes people who care about quail, care about rolling up their sleeves and doing the necessary habitat work, and care about showing younger generations there is excitement beyond a box and a plug-in,” said Tim Caughran, regional wildlife biologist for Quail Forever in Tennessee. “I’m proud to say such quail folk call Knox and Maury Counties home.”

Smoky Mountain Quail Forever
This Knox County group already calls some serious quail conservationists members, and according to the chapter’s president, Mike Cable of Knoxville, will be digging into its first wildlife habitat projects this March.

• Chapter leaders include Joseph Justice, treasurer, from Knoxville; Jim Horton, youth/education chair, from Maryville; and Greg McDaniel, habitat chair, also from Maryville.
• For more information or to become a member of the Smoky Mountain Quail Forever chapter, contact Mike Cable at 865-809-4588 or via email at 428scj@charter.net.

Duck River Quail Forever
Working alongside one of the most biologically diverse river systems in North America, the Duck River Quail Forever chapter is optimistic about increasing quail populations and augmenting the work of state and federal wildlife agencies.

“We would like to work with wildlife professionals in the areas surrounding Duck River to improve upland habitat for quail and other wildlife,” said Bob Tarter, treasurer of the Duck River chapter. “We are fortunate to be located in such a naturally diverse area, and we think this will bode well for quail in the years to come.”

• For more information or to become a member of the Duck River Quail Forever chapter, contact Bob Tarter at 901-212-1453 or via email at Bob@nhecm.com.

Quail Forever is the quail division of Pheasants Forever. Tennessee is home seven Quail Forever chapters. For more information about Quail Forever in Tennessee, contact Tim Caughran at 618-467-2586 and tcaughran@quailforever.org.

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