Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever are proud to announce a new Habitat Share partnership with the Ohio Department of Natural Resource’s (ODNR) Division of Wildlife.
The five-year agreement was created to enhance upland bird habitat on public lands across the Buckeye State. The work will be funded with Pittman-Robertson Act dollars contributed by the Ohio Division of Wildlife in conjunction with matching funds provided by Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever.
“This is an exciting program that all Ohio bird hunters should be paying attention to,” said James Harris, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s regional representative in Ohio and West Virginia. “Via our partnership with the Division of Wildlife, we’ll be able to further expand our habitat work in Ohio and create lasting impacts for not only pheasants and quail, but pollinators, grassland birds and all the other wildlife we care deeply about.”
The program will target public lands across the state that have existing wild pheasant and/or quail populations on the property or nearby. Habitat restoration efforts will focus on using prescribed burns, aerial herbicide application and other habitat tools to restore grassland habitat impacted due to encroachment of invasive species or woody succession. The partnership is on track to improve up to 3,000 acres in its first year.
“Partnerships are essential for the Division of Wildlife to accomplish our mission and create more habitat,” said Division of Wildlife Chief Kendra Wecker. “Grassland birds are declining more than any other group of birds and we welcome the assistance of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever to help reverse these trends.”
Several properties have been identified as ideal sites for the partnership, including Big Island Wildlife Area near Marion, Ohio, Deer Creek Wildlife Area southwest of Columbus and Crown City Wildlife Area along the state’s southern border.
“We’re focusing our efforts on areas where we can see the largest return on investment,” Harris said. “We’ll be putting more habitat on the ground that will be managed well into the future to help create more birds and increase upland hunting opportunity for wild pheasants and bobwhite quail.”
In addition to Pittman-Robertson Act funding, matching dollars for Habitat Share are allocated from Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s Ohio Grassroots Fund, a public lands finance mechanism made possible by contributions from every local chapter throughout the state of Ohio. The partnership is also looking for private donor support to help bolster further habitat work and expand our impact. For more information on how to support this program, contact Phil Bastron at (262) 945-8477 / [email protected], or James Harris at (301) 524-9201 / [email protected].
