On The Wing Podcast

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever’s Director of Marketing Andrew Vavra and conservation legend Joe Duggan to recap the first day of this year’s Rooster Road Trip spent hunting the Minnesota public wildlife area named in honor of Duggan. Episode Highlights: • A Sunday night thunderstorm added much-needed moisture to Monday morning’s landscape, which helped the team’s dogs get this year’s Rooster Road Trip off to a birdy start. • Duggan reminisces about his career in conservation and explains how someone garners the recognition of having both a state Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and a federal Waterfowl Production Area (WPA) named in his honor. • In what has become a Rooster Road Trip tradition, the crew answers questions from Pheasants Forever’s Instagram audience to round out the episode. Follow along all this week at www.RoosterRoadTrip.org

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by fellow Pheasants Forever co-workers, Andrew Vavra and Logan Hinners, as the trio previews this year’s Rooster Road Trip. The year 2020 has brought change throughout our entire country, and the Rooster Road Trip is not immune to these adjustments. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the crew discusses staying close to home and focusing on the state where the organization was founded in 1982: Minnesota. Episode Highlights: • The Road Trippers start the conversation with a recap of their early season prairie grouse, ruffed grouse, woodcock, and whitetail bow hunting adventures with reports from public lands trips to North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. • Andrew explains this year’s #ResponsibleRecreation theme, then shares his excitement for the forecasted mild weather and bumper crop of pheasants. • Logan reasserts the “F-8 and Be There” motto of the digital event, while Bob talks about his hopes for a young bird dog set to experience her first pheasant hunt. Follow along all this week at www.RoosterRoadTrip.org

Host Bob St. Pierre and Quail Forever Journal Editor Chad Love head west to chat with Ruben Mata, vice president of the Ventura California Chapter of Quail Forever. Mata and his son are featured in the new Project Upland film “This Exists” about valley quail hunting and passing on hunting traditions. Episode Highlights: • Ruben’s connection to Quail Forever began with a completely random 5a.m. meeting with QF chapter volunteers and an impromptu valley quail hunt together. After that serendipitous day and the conversations had along the way, Ruben researched Quail Forever and quickly became a chapter volunteer. • Ruben talks about the popularity of hunting within southern California’s Latino community and provides advice for how Quail Forever “can make more Ruben’s.” • The trio also talk about the mythical 100-bird valley quail covey flush. Ruben says you can feel the “rumble” of that flush! Check out Ruben in Project Upland’s film “This Exists – A California Quail Hunting Video”

In this episode, host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Logan Hinners, PF & QF’s graphic design manager, and professional photographer Erik Petersen. The trio begin the discussion focused on taking better bird hunting photos. The conversation transitions to Erik’s very personal journey of raising two boys – one biological son and one adopted son from Ethiopia – as bird hunters in Montana. Episode Highlights: • Erik shares tips on how to improve bird hunter’s Instagram feeds and maybe even take a photo worthy of framing. The trio discuss the importance of moving past the tailgate shot and the grip & grin pose. • The group unveil the backstory of a photo Erik sent to Logan and how it launched Erik’s effort to improve inclusivity through his work photographing and filming the uplands. • Erik also provides a teaser for the film he’s partnering with Pheasants Forever on this hunting season called “A Long Way Home” which will premiere at the 2021 National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic. Read Erik Petersen’s story from the Fall issue of the Pheasants Forever Journal titled “To Make a Pheasant Hunter.” www.pheasantsforever.org/tomakeahunter

Host Bob St.Pierre takes the co-pilot seat as the organization’s Education & Outreach Program Manager Marissa Jensen takes the lead on a conversation with Carla Gibson and Jenny O’Brien on fly fishing, bird dogs, and chukar hunting in the West. Episode Highlights: • Jenny and Carla share their personal stories about how fly fishing and bird hunting strengthened their friendship. • Marissa and Carla discuss their experiences as volunteers with The Mayfly Project, whose mission is to connect with foster children through fishing. • Jenny talks about tying flies during the COVID-19 pandemic using the birds bagged by the duo while upland hunting. • Marissa discusses her love for the names of flies. She also references Nick Simonson’s Pheasants Forever blog 12 Flies you can Tie from Rooster Feathers. • Carla explains her love for “devil birds” and how hunting chukars is more difficult than training for Ironman Triathlons. • Jenny and Carla jointly paint the picture of just how beautiful the Western landscape is where chukars and trout live, and how these beautiful places inspire conservation. • The group discuss the benefits of social media as an outdoors recruitment tool and as a way to convert folks into hunters and anglers. Follow Carla on Instagram at @OregonOutdoorGirl and Jenny on Instagram at @Sea2Sage to check out photos of their fly fishing and bird hunting adventures. • Marissa talks about the habitat connection between healthy upland birds, abundant trout populations, and clean cold water. • As the episode closes, Jenny and Carla share their tips for the guys out there listening who want the women in their lives to come along into their outdoors adventures . . . to coach or not to coach?

In conjunction with Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever’s celebration of National Hunting & Fishing week, host Bob St. Pierre and the organization’s Hunting Heritage Program Manger Colby Kerber take a deep dive into the hunting community’s R3 initiative with Matt Dunfee. Dunfee is the Wildlife Management Institute’s Director of Special Programs and one of the principle architects behind the R3 movement to address America’s precipitous decline in hunters. Colby also announces the organization’s launch of the Mentor Pledge being sponsored by ALPS OutdoorZ. Episode highlights: • Colby shares his experience as a first-generation hunter and the memorable duck hunt in college that hooked him. • Matt explains the Wildlife Management Institute’s role as a “think tank” for natural resources. He also discusses how that work led to a deep dive into the loss of hunters and potential ramifications for the rapid decline in license sales. • Matt also details the struggles of the hunting community as its efforts successfully cloned middle aged white males but didn’t adapt to reflect America’s changing demographics. • Bob and Matt also debate the comparison of hunting as a sport or a lifestyle and the ways to change the conversation to make it more inclusive. • The group also discusses the importance of mentorship. As Matt says, “become a mentor, and your circle of friends will grow exponentially”. • In the end, they review tips for mentors and how Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever can help hunters be mentors. Take Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever’s Hunter Mentor Challenge this hunting season!

Host Bob St. Pierre heads across the airways to Iowa to hear all about the first ever drive-thru banquet hosted by the DubuqueLand chapter of Pheasants Forever. He’s joined by Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever Field Services Director Tom Fuller and DubuqueLand chapter President Tim Fiedler. Listen and learn about the innovative solution these chapter volunteers put together to make sure they continued to deliver the organization’s habitat mission in their local area during a worldwide pandemic. Episode Highlights: • Tim Fiedler explains how he got involved with Pheasants Forever and how he came to be president of the DubuqueLand chapter for the last 16 years. • Tim talks about the chapter’s habitat work, veteran and youth hunts, and their unique partnerships with other outdoor volunteer groups. A passionate man, Tim vividly describes the pride he feels in creating permanent public lands for hunters. With the real “Field of Dreams” only 12 miles from his house, Tim references the famous line from the movie “if you build it, they will come,” but references it to future generations of hunters. • Tom and Bob dig into the details of the first ever drive-thru banquet and Tim shares how the chapter came together to put the event on at their local fair grounds while abiding by COVID-19 safety guidelines. In the end, Tim called the event “easy” to put together and reports the chapter raised more than $35,000 for habitat projects during the evening. • The trio goes on to discuss the positive pheasant forecast recently released by the Iowa DNR, where there’s over a 100% increase in pheasant counts in three parts of the state. As Tim said, we’ve hit a home run for habitat; Iowa is seeing the results of habitat work. • The conversation ends with a big thank you to the sea of blaze orange Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever volunteers doing the work across the country. It is the chapter volunteers who make the locally-driven mission of “The Habitat Organization” possible. If you’re a chapter officer interested in learning more about hosting a drive-thru, contact your Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever Regional Representative. If you’d like to get involved with your local Pheasants Forever & Quail Chapter banquet, check out our chapter map.

Quail Forever Journal Editor Chad Love joins host Bob St.Pierre for a quail-centric conversation with Oklahoma State University Professor Dwayne Elmore. The trio talk about quail from coast-to-coast with Oklahoma serving as the geographic center of the conversation. Listen to learn about the importance of shrubby cover in the quail habitat mix, and how Elmore’s quail research influences how he hunts the birds in the autumn and winter months. Episode highlights: • Dwayne tells the story of the Tennessee quail covey that hooked him at age 14. He fondly remembers the distinct habitat, the miles of walking to find the birds, and the flush off the nose of his pointing dog. • The conversation continues as Chad and Dwayne educate Bob on why Oklahoma is such a cool state boasting diverse wildlife species from alligators to big horn sheep. • Dwayne explains the critical importance of shrub habitat to quail across their range and explains that not all shrub habitats are created equal. He describes the importance of being able to shuffle your feet freely but be attacked by briars at your thighs as an illustration of quality quail habitat. • Dwayne also discusses the factors affecting quail nesting success from extreme weather patterns of heat and rain to predation and solar radiation. • In the end, Dwayne provides quail hunting tips from the perspective as a quail biologist, and you’d be surprised to learn, he trusts his bird dog above all else.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Marissa Jensen, Tom Carpenter and Chad Love, authors of Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever’s annual Prairie Grouse Primer, for a state-by-state forecast of the 2020 prairie grouse hunting season. The group breaks down prospects and hunting tips for Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Idaho. Episode highlights: • The crew shares their enthusiasm for the first upland opener of the year on September 1st with prairie grouse hunting seasons getting started in Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming. • Carpenter, editor of the Pheasants Forever Journal, talks about how prairie grouse hunting provides the first barometer for the health of the landscape during the autumn bird seasons. He also shares his love for the freedom prairie grouse hunting provides. • Love, editor of Quail Forever Journal, describes how prairie grouse are potent symbols of the places where they live. • Jensen teases a fantastic peach whiskey cream sauce recipe for prairie grouse on the plate. • Each participant highlights how Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever’s habitat mission benefits all the prairie grouse species.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Matt Kucharski, Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever’s newly elected Chairman of the National Board of Directors for a conversation that starts with bird dogs and closes with Kucharski’s vision for the organization’s future. In between the duo talk about Kucharski’s role in Quail Forever’s formation, his personal habitat projects, and the bird hunt he is most excited for in the season ahead. Episode highlights: • The guys talk about the four generations of bird dogs they’ve owned, trained, and hunted together. They chat about the quirks, hilarious stories, and the heartbreak that accompany every bird dog and hunter relationship. • Kucharski talks about LeRoy Neiman’s famous black Lab painting and how much it reminds him of his Labrador “Lucy.” He also explains how he comes up with symbols representing each of his bird dogs that end up as tattoos on the back of his right calf. • Bob and Matt discuss hunting flushing and pointing breeds together and how silent GPS collars saved their hunting friendship. • Kucharski describes the National Board’s role to manage risk and plan for opportunity, while explaining the makeup of the Board of Directors and the group’s desire to add gender and racial diversity to the group. • The pair also talk about how diversity and inclusion is critical to the future of hunting and wildlife habitat. • The conversation closes with an update on the organization’s financial health as the COVID-19 pandemic persists and what’s on the horizon for the organization’s future.

Marilyn Vetter and Nancy Anisfield, members of Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever’s National Board of Directors and longtime hunters, talk about their first-hand experiences during the growth of women in bird hunting over the last thirty years. Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Marissa Jensen, the organization’s leader of the Women on the Wing initiative, as the group explore a wide-range of topics stretching from gender-biases to hunting pheasants in Hawaii and women’s field pants to beloved bird dogs. Episode highlights: • Bob starts off the episode explaining how important his mom was in passing on the St.Pierre family’s hunting heritage. • Marilyn and Nancy, both devoted members of the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association, talk about the role bird dogs play in their love of hunting. • Nancy talks about the importance of choosing the right words to give an authentic voice to women, while Marilyn explains how important the illustration of female role models is to the future of hunting and conservation. • Marilyn hilariously details how she finds her favorite bird hunting gear in the women’s golf and hiking clothing aisles. • Nancy takes us on a dream upland hunting trip to the big island of Hawaii and follows up that story with an adventure to Alaska’s tundra in search of ptarmigan. • In the most memorable sequence of the episode, Marilyn explains how she wishes her dad – who died when Marilyn was a teenager – would have seen her grow up to become a bird hunter.

In this episode, host Bob St. Pierre takes a back seat as co-host Marissa Jensen drives the conversation with Danielle Prewett. The podcast centers around the upcoming Women on the Wing virtual event coming up on August 20th. You’ll want to listen to hear Danielle’s tips for easily preparing pheasant meat, but you’ll also want to listen to the stories of her first hunts, first birds, beloved bird dogs, and wine pairings for other wild upland game meats. Episode highlights: • The conversation starts where all good hunting conversations should begin, talking about how Danielle got her start hunting and the memories along the way from pheasant hunting on the family farm in South Dakota, doves in Texas, and really getting in to the swing of it while living in North Dakota. • Like Marissa, Danielle shares that it was the wild and tasty meat that first drew her into the uplands with a shotgun in her hands. Danielle adds, “Once you get into wild game, grocery store meat is just so boring.” • The trio then discusses how social media can tell the story of hunting and introduce the lifestyle to new people from locavores to women wanting to get into the field. • Of course, no podcast episode could pass for Bob without a good bird dog conversation and the group doesn’t miss the chance to talk about the lessons learned in the field behind a dog. • The conversation ends with tips and tricks for preparing pheasant meat and gives a strong preview to the virtual cooking event on August 20th (everyone is invited to attend this virtual event!).

Our host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever Education & Outreach Program Manager Marissa Jensen for a conversation with Jorge Ramirez about quail hunting in California and Arizona. Jorge is a passionate quail hunter who operates the website www.UplandJitsu.com which is focused on hunting Western quail on public land without a bird dog. Episode Highlights Include: • Jorge talks about becoming an upland bird hunter as an adult and his passion for California valley quail, Gambel’s quail, Mearns’ quail, and mountain quail. • Part of Jorge’s story is that he’s never owned a bird dog. As a result, he uses some different strategies to set himself up for hunting success without a canine to find, flush, or retrieve birds. To that end, Jorge explains how he tracks quail, utilizes a quail call, and employs binoculars to hunt Western quail. • A Quail Forever member since 2010, Jorge talks about why he got involved in conservation and later became a hunting mentor. • The trio also talk about the organization’s efforts to be more inclusive to diverse ethnicities and Jorge offers his thoughts on how to recruit more people of Hispanic heritage to bird hunting. • Marissa also previews the upcoming virtual Women, Wine, and Wild Game event featuring MeatEater’s Danielle Prewett that is coming up on August 20th.

In this episode host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever public relations manager Jared Wiklund to chat with Travis Frank, host of The Flush on Outdoor Channel. The trio discuss highlights from past seasons of The Flush, the anticipation of the 2020 season, and the adventures afield telling stories about the people who cherish the uplands. Episode Highlights Include: • Travis tells the guys about the adventure of flying through hurricane-strength winds to hunt ruffed grouse on islands in Lake Michigan and boating in below zero weather to hunt in North Dakota. • Jared and Travis talk about the hunt of a lifetime in Iowa last year which will be featured this season on The Flush. The pair talk about the importance of the Iowa’s Habitat and Access Program (IHAP) and the tremendous pheasant rebound it has produced over the last couple of years. • Travis speaks to the balance needed in each episode about getting a bird in the hand while also telling a compelling human-interest story. To that end, Travis talks about the season premier featuring his wife’s first bird hunting adventure . . . “The best date of my life was a day in the field with my wife.” • A true highlight of the episode could also be a highlight of your own life in the uplands with a television show to prove it. To that end, the trio discuss the unique opportunity to bid on the hunt of a lifetime to be part of a future episode of The Flush that’s featured in the organization’s first ever online upland auction right now. You and a friend could hunt alongside four Pheasants Forever biologists and Travis in South Dakota this December that will be aired as part of the 2021 season of The Flush. Visit www.PheasantsForever.org for details and to make your bid. Auction ends July 28 at 7 p.m. CST. • The podcast ends with thoughts on the future of hunting and importance to show patience afield as new hunters join us outdoors. This trio is also extremely optimistic about the 2020 season and excited to tell the stories that unfold within it.

In this episode, host Bob St. Pierre sits down with Dave Nomsen, retiring vice president of government affairs for Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever. The pair goes over a lifetime of conservation work, from growing up the son of the Iowa state pheasant biologist to watching the sunrise over the National Mall in Washington D.C. with the organization’s National Youth Leadership Council. Dave’s career covers federal Farm Bill conservation policy dating back to the early 1990’s and his name has been synonymous with the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) over the last three decades. You’ll want to tune in for these stories and the lessons learned for bird hunters and habitat stewards along the way.

Episode Highlights Include: • “Davey the Crane Man” talks about the connection to Pheasants Forever created in a hunting blind in a North Dakota field and why he only lasted a few weeks in his first role with Pheasants Forever as a regional representative. • The pair discuss why the pen is mightier than the shovel for habitat conservation. Dave also explains the promise he made to his dad to not let CRP go the way of the Soil Bank program. • The duo wade through the alphabet soup of conservation acronyms that put habitat on the ground and the important role Farm Bill conservation policy continues to have for America’s wildlife legacy. • Bob also quizzes Nomsen on the variety of people he’s worked with in D.C. under four U.S. president’s and his science-based approach to politics. • Nomsen also talks about how he likes working with elected officials, but more importantly, how he loves working with the organization’s chapter leaders and members. • In the end, Dave leaves Bob with a few final thoughts about conservation opportunities in the next Farm Bill, the Transportation Bill, and climate policy. • And there is a final call to action: get engaged and it will make a difference for hunting opportunities and quality habitat.