On The Wing Podcast

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Dr. Kate Kaufman, veterinarian with Blue Pearl Pet Hospital; Jeff Zajac, regional wildlife manager for the Minnesota DNR; and Jared Wiklund, PF & QF public relations manager for a conversation about native grasses featuring large awns. The group discusses both the biological side of grass awns and the potential health ramifications for bird dogs. Show highlights include: -Zajac talks about the species of grasses featuring large awns, their ecological role, and their historic use in CRP mixes. -Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever eliminated species of grass featuring large awns from the organization’s seed mixes, where applicable, to help mitigate risk to bird dogs. -Most of these grass species, particularly Canada wild rye, occurs naturally on the landscape, so Dr. Kaufman provides important tailgate tips for preventing awn problems in your bird dog. -Dr. Kaufman also talks about other important field injuries and diseases, and best practices for keeping your pup safe and healthy all year.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever chapter volunteers Scott Rall, Scott Roemhildt, and Kenny Reed for a conversation about how their volunteer efforts brought them together as close friends and traveling hunting buddies. Show highlights include: · Scott Rall was a Field & Stream Hero of Conservation finalist, known as “The Protector of the Prairie.” · Rall was also part of Pheasants Forever’s very first land acquisition, Pheasant Run One in Minnesota’s Noble’s County, now a public Wildlife Management Area. · The group talks about their motivations for volunteering, interests in wildlife habitat, and passion for permanent land acquisitions to create new public lands for hunters. · There’s also an interesting debate between the group, who all own land they manage as pheasant habitat for hunting, about what’s more of a trophy: a public lands rooster or a rooster they “created” on habitat they nurtured

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Andrew Vavra, PF’s director of marketing; Logan Hinners, PF’s graphic design manager and trip photographer; and Jake Schiller, PF’s video production specialist for a recap of the final day of this year’s Late Season Longtails themed online event. Show highlights include: · Pheasants Forever’s distinction as a Public Land Creator accounting for more than 200,000 acres of new permanent public lands. · Tips and tricks for filming an upland bird hunt. · Commemorating a bird dog’s 100th rooster retrieve. · Waterfowl Production Areas are great for pheasants and quail too! · Highlights of the 2019 Rooster Road Trip.

We start this episode with major news for the uplands – the USDA will hold a Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) General Signup beginning on December 9th for the first time since 2016. This news brings more than 8 million acres of habitat opportunity! Following the CRP update, host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Andrew Vavra, PF’s director of marketing; Laura McIver, Quail Forever’s regional representative for Oklahoma, and Chad Love, editor of the Quail Forever Journal for a spirited conversation about our Rooster Road Trip turned Quail Quest. Recapping the day’s hunt leads to a wide-ranging conversation comparing pheasants to quail. We cover habitat, hunting, bird dogs, cooking, and every other debate between the two birds.

Nebraska never disappoints! Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Andrew Vavra, PF’s director of marketing; Marissa Jensen, PF’s education & outreach program manager; and Jerrod Burke, a member of the Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever National Board of Directors, a native Nebraskan, and a three-time Rooster Road Trip participant to recap the crew’s first day in Nebraska. The conversation starts with a focus on Marissa’s role as the organization’s quarterback for the new Women on the Wing initiative and the overwhelming social media feedback to her Rooster Road Trip blog about her vision for the position. We then turned to Jerrod as he explains his opinion about the importance of Rooster Road Trip from one National Board member’s point of view. And once again, Andrew closed the episode out with a fun round of questions from our Instagram followers.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Andrew Vavra, PF’s director of marketing; Laura McIver, Quail Forever’s regional representative for Oklahoma; and Logan Hinners, PF & QF’s graphic design manager & photographer to recap the second day of the 2019 Rooster Road Trip. In addition to a play-by-play from the crew’s second day in Kansas, Laura tells her story about becoming a bird hunter as an adult, and Logan delivers tips for making every uplander’s birds, dogs, and landscape photography more dramatic and tasteful. We wrap the show with a lightning round of fun questions from Pheasants Forever’s Instagram audience.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Andrew Vavra, PF’s director of marketing; Marissa Jensen, PF’s education & outreach program manager; and Chad Love, editor of Quail Forever Journal to recap the first day of the 2019 Rooster Road Trip. Since Chad Love frequently hunts the Cimarron National Grassland for scaled and bobwhite quail, he was our de facto guide for the first day of this year’s Rooster Road Trip . . . and he felt the pressure. With some good-natured ribbing at Chad’s expense, the crew recounts the morning search for quail and the afternoon pheasant bonanza that included Marissa Jensen’s first Kansas rooster. And did you know a group of porcupines is called a “prickle?” We’ll explain how that fits in too.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Andrew Vavra, PF’s director of marketing; Marissa Jensen, PF’s education & outreach manager; and Chad Love, editor of Quail Forever Journal on the eve of the organization’s 10th annual Rooster Road Trip. Although the hunters, bird dogs, and states hunted have changed over the years, the mission of this road trip remains the same. Our goal is to show the connection between Pheasants Forever membership, quality habitat and public land birds. This year’s trip will start on Monday, December 2nd in the Cimarron National Grasslands of southwest Kansas, one of twenty National Grasslands in the country and the largest tract of public land in the state of Kansas.

There are 8.3 million acres of saline soils in South Dakota which aren’t productive for agriculture but provide a massive habitat opportunity for the Pheasant Capital. Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Matt Morlock, Pheasants Forever’s South Dakota State Coordinator, Ben Lardy, Pheasants Forever’s Soil Health Specialist, and Jim Ristau, South Dakota Corn’s Director of Sustainability for a conversation about how planting grass on these salty soils can create habitat for wildlife and improve a farmer’s financial operation.

Host Bob St. Pierre is in St. Louis at Purina’s national headquarters to talk with Jack Scott, Purina's VP of Sustainability and Responsible Sourcing, and Karl Gunzer, Purina's Director of Sporting Dog Groups, about the company's $1 million-dollar contribution to Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s conservation mission. While Purina has been the Official Dog Food partner of “The Habitat Organization” since the late 1980’s, this new commitment takes the relationship directly into the organization's habitat mission with two specific focal points targeting environmental sustainability. The first is a new Soil Health and Habitat program that Jack explains is focused in the Prairie Pothole region and the heart of Pheasant Country. The second focal point described by Gunzer, is the successful Build a Wildlife Area campaign, where quality habitat and public lands are critical to Purina's vision for a healthy environment. The episode concludes with a discussion about Purina’s new Calming Care probiotic supplement for dogs with anxiety issues.

Based on Editor Tom Carpenter’s excellent article in the Fall edition of the Pheasants Forever Journal, host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Carpenter and Jared Wiklund, Pheasants Forever’s PR manager, to count down the top eleven public land pheasant hunting tips. This fun episode also includes discussions about the effectiveness of pheasant calls for locating roosters, using waders in the uplands, and the magic of pheasant hunting on the season’s first snow day.

Recording from The Terry Redlin Art Center in Watertown, South Dakota, Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by the Redlin Art Center’s Executive Director Julie Ranum for a conversation about Redlin’s legacy as a wildlife artist and his substantial impact on wildlife habitat. They also discuss the unveiling of “Country Road,” a recently acquired Redlin original that will be the featured exhibit during the state’s 2019 pheasant hunting season. Pheasants Forever biologists Matt Morlock and Erica Yost also join the conversation to forecast the pheasant hunting season and provide a few tips for non-resident hunters traveling to “The Pheasant Capital.” To round out the episode, PF volunteer Jake Hanson talks about the motivations for helping Pheasants Forever start a brand-new Watertown chapter.

Ron Boehme, host of The Hunting Dog Podcast, stops by the Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever headquarters to chat with Bob St.Pierre, host of On the Wing, and Jared Wiklund, the organization’s manager of public relations, about bird dogs and getting more bird hunters involved in conservation organizations. In classic form, Ron cracks a beer within the first minute of the episode and the laughter is followed by terrific hunting and dog stories.

Following a couple of days bird hunting the 116,000 acres of the Fort Pierre National Grasslands, host Bob St.Pierre is joined by three of his prairie grouse hunting partners for a conversation about the beauty of the public grasslands and being able to watch your bird dog work big ground. The group includes Matt Kucharski, vice chair of Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever’s National Board of Directors along with Marilyn Vetter, chair of the National Board’s Strategic Planning Committee and her husband Clyde Vetter, a professional bird dog trainer. There’s also a little Lab vs. shorthair bird dog rivalry banter to go with glowing reviews for the hunter-friendly community of Pierre, South Dakota.

Host Bob St. Pierre is joined by Marissa Jensen, Julia Schrenkler, and Eric Sterner, who all fell in love with bird hunting as adults. The group talks about how dogs, wild food, and outdoor adventure pulled them into hunting. They also dive into how they overcame the struggles of taking an animal’s life for the first time, learning gun safety, and understanding hunting regulation laws as adult-onset hunters. The conversation runs a diverse gauntlet of topics from a hunter’s role in habitat funding, to finding the right upland gear, to the introspective nature of hunting alone. The group also finds common ground in saving feathers to tie trout flies.