Pheasants Forever is taking the first steps in restarting the Mower County chapter of the conservation organization on Tuesday, Dec. 2.
The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the DoubleTree by Hilton’s Teddy Roosevelt Room and seeks to get a clearer picture of how the group may look as Pheasant’s Forever seeks to get things going again.
“Really, we just need 10-20 people to show up and say ‘yeah, I would like to spend an hour a month working on a cause,’” said Will Clayton, senior regional representative for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever.
Especially important is the election of a president and treasurer, which is required to legally sign a charter. Clayton said once that is completed, then work can progress to building the organization and then to the group’s first fundraising event.
“The previous version of the chapter, they would have tremendous fundraisers,” Clayton said, adding that each past event held by the local chapter could pull in anywhere from 250-300 people a month.
Clayton said the Mower chapter of Pheasants Forever was going strong for a number of years, however, as time progressed the group struggled to find people to fill leadership roles.
Rather than stop the group completely, it was instead put on a pause about a year and a half ago. The drive to start it back up again comes from the important conservation work the group does.
“Every single dollar they raise, they get to decide how to spend it on the mission of the organization,” Clayton said. “It is by nature a community organization.”
And that work goes toward a wide range of objectives including land conservation, sound conservation policy, getting more people out in nature and fostering and supporting a sustainable bird population.
Some of the things the chapter has worked on in the past included conservation work on tracts of land as well as sponsoring a yearly youth hunt.
Tuesday night’s meeting is open to anybody and is free to attend. Visit this link to RSVP.
