News

Upcoming Meetings Locations and Dates, NOTE-THORNTON MEETING LOCATION ADDED

• December 2 – Chapter Meeting 6:30 p.m. Heroes Pizzeria and Tavern, 16070 E. Dartmouth Ave. Aurora
• January 6 – Chapter Meeting, Cabelas Lone Tree, 6:30 p.m.
• January 13 – SPECIAL THORNTON MEETING PARTICULARLY FOR OUR MEMBERS IN THE NORTH PART OF THE METRO AREA, 6:30 p.m. at Cabelas THORNTON

Our standard monthly meeting location is Cabela’s Lone Tree except for the months of November and December when the Cabela’s stores are needing their meeting spaces to process extra Christmas merchandise. (Then we meet at Heroes Pizzeria.) Starting in January, we are scheduling a SECOND monthly meeting at the Cabela’s THORNTON store. This is expressly for the convenience of our members in the north metro area. Everyone knows what Denver’s traffic is like. It is impractical to have members drive to chapter meetings that can take an hour (one way) or longer just to get to the meeting! So, the newly renamed Greater Denver Chapter is exploring ways to be available to the most PF members. We are starting with having a second chapter meeting in January in the Cabela’s THORNTON store. This is an experiment and we will also discuss at this meeting more ways to make PF accessible for all metro area members. So, please attend this meeting and share your input. If you have questions and or suggestions, feel free to call Dean at 303-981-4642 or email dlt2737@aol.com.

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COLORADO OPENING WEEKEND FIELD REPORT

Wanting to see firsthand what the pheasant season would be like I hunted south of Julesburg along the state line with Nebraska down to near Venango, NE (but on the Colorado side). I went on Sunday Nov. 2 since forecasts of very high winds on Sat. was discouraging. How windy was it before Sunday? The fellows at the Wagon Wheel gas station and gift shop told me quite a story. The Julesburg football team had a game and there were 50 mph gusts. A gust caught the ball on an attempted field goal kick and drove the ball back over the kicking team’s front line. The ball was caught by a quarterback who threw a forward pass which resulted in a touchdown! I would have paid to see that!

Nonetheless, on Sunday it was breezy but manageable. I had a commitment back in Denver so I only hunted 5 hours. I hunted a half section of CRP and a handful of smaller plots including corners. My shorthair found pheasants in half of the places that we stopped. We only stopped at places where there was no contiguous, still standing crops. I estimated that 60% of the crops remained unharvested. So, most of the birds still had fields to hide in. That said, 10 birds my GSP pointed were in range but all hens. Now, I stopped to talk to 3 other hunters that morning and 2 of them had a rooster in the bag. My observation is that there is plenty of great cover to hold birds once the crops all come down. It is only going to get better hunting in the near term.

DATES TO REMEMBER

• March 14 – Banquet at Arapahoe County Fairgrounds
• April 4 – Habitat and Wingshooting Adventure for University of Co. students.
• April 11 – Tentative, Live bird hunts at Valhalla for CSU and Front Range Community College students
• April 18 – Second Annual Habitat and Wingshooting Adventure for Colorado State University students
• September 12 – Second Annual Habitat and Wingshooting Adventure for Front Range CC students.

In late September there will be live bird hunts for CSU, CU, Red Rocks Community College, Regis U., Denver University and Colorado Christian University. All students will have previously attended one of our Habitat and Wingshooting Adventures and independently completed a CPW Hunter Safety Course.

We will need volunteer dog handlers with competent pointing dogs and volunteers to be Field Safety Officers. Adventures and hunts are planned for Valhalla Hunt Club near Bennett. A special thanks to the Valhalla Hunt Club for their support of these critical outreach programs. It is going to take all of us to insure our hunting heritage continues.

Want to help, call Dean at 303-981-4642 or email at dlt2737@aol.com

Let’s start with coming dates to remember:

Near Term . . . Our name change from South Metro Pheasants Forever is moving along. Our new web address will be greaterdenverpf.org and as soon as the web gods can make the change to the record that will be where you find chapter information.

October 7, 2025 – 6:30 p.m. Chapter Meeting at Cabellas Lone Tree

October 20, 2025 – 6:30 p.m. Cherry Creek State Park Marina/Boathouse, Seminar on Field First Aid for Dogs and Dog Nutrition, details below. ** UPDATE – this event has been CANCELLED **

March 14, 2026 – Annual Banquet, Arapahoe County Fairgrounds. Stay tuned for details as we get closer.

Update on September Events:

September 3, 2025

Governmental Affairs In-Person Presentation by Swanny Evans, PF Director of Governmental Affairs

Our chapter hosted other front range chapter leadership to hear what PF is doing at the National Level. I took some notes and below are some bullet points: 

A main priority is advocacy. This includes direct lobbying and PF will use paid contract lobbyists as necessary. There will be advocacy encouraged at the grassroots level as well. Communications regarding advocacy is a focus. PF did not have a policy in this area at the time of the mountain lion issue in Co., but there is now a policy outlining active advocacy going forward on issues like ballot box biology. Chapter donations to the Legislative Action Fund (LAF) provides the financial resources that supports advocacy. Our Chapter committed to donate $5000 to the LAF at this meeting. 

There is a new in-house PF Upland Caucus that is preparing a Policy Book to guide engagement in advocacy that does NOT require national board approval. The Upland Caucus will meet quarterly and at Pheasant Fest. 

A new Upland Action Center is established with new software (Quorem), customizable alerts, efficient and easy to use. In Beta testing are Action Alerts that can be sent to individual State Reps. They will also provide sample letters which are modifiable and sample email formats. 

We have chapters in 45 states and members in all 50 states. PF has already provided testimony on 150 bills at the individual State level. 

A goal is to build out REGIONAL TEAMS for advocacy. Building teams is currently underway. 

Presently, there are five folks on the PF Governmental Affairs team. 

The bottom line is that National has a lot of exciting and innovative things in the works that will greatly increase our voice on local, state and national issues. We can all cheer about that. 

September 13, 2025

Wingshooting Adventure Event for Front Range Community College and CSU Wildlife Biology Students at Valhalla Hunt Club, Bennett, CO 

Please click here to view our photos of our second and most recent Collegiate Wingshooting Adventure. Our first event was in April. Between both events we have hosted SO wildlife biology students and administrators. Thanks to all the volunteers who made these two events hugely successful. 

These were high quality and effective collegiate outreach events. How do we know this you may ask? 

1. Below is a copy of a thank you card from CSU. Note the effusive complements from the CSU administrators near the top of the page and from the student leader and other students below.
2. Note that the Faculty Advisor wants to continue the events “to benefit both our organizations & to give our students learning opportunities that we cannot provide in classes. SO FUN!”
3. CSU administration recently reached out to ask if they could schedule another Adventure this fall. However, we had already booked Front Range Community College so we offered to schedule them next spring. The expectation and goal is to provide CSU (and FRCC) an annual Adventure.
4. We had extra room in the Front Range College Sept. event and was able to invite additional CSU students who had missed out in April and were still anxious to participate.
5. I just learned this week that CSU students organized and contacted PF National to begin the process to start a Collegiate CSU PF Chapter!!!!! Our Regional PF Representative called me to congratulate our chapter for all the work that we have done that lead to this unexpected bonus. The students have a short window to complete University paperwork to get club status yet this year, but they are working on it. It is important to note that our chapter began to develop the collegiate outreach in 2024. We met with administrators first, then students. We presented a class at each campus which included lectures by a PF Private Lands Conservationist who was equally excited to talk about the nature of their work and career opportunities. We have lined students up for 2 years to participate in the PF annual Virtual Job Fair which begins registration on OCT 1,2025 for the Fair which is Dec.

Of course, there are several long term objectives that this program addresses:

• With hunter numbers falling 5% per year nationwide, we need to recruit new hunters.
• When we attract new hunters in this demographic, we will likely get their children eventually.
• Even the college students who don’t become hunters will be better informed about habitat, the role of hunters in conservation and how to be smart voters.
• There is tremendous personal benefit to volunteers in terms of developing friendships and comradery within the organization.
• Volunteers also feel as though their time is well spent and they add to their personal legacies.

I want to extend special recognition to our Habitat Chair, Steve Osa. From the start, he has worked with the wildlife biology departments with passion and effectiveness to make this program exemplary in every respect. Even as I write this Bulletin, he is reaching out to CU, Boulder to begin the process to add them to our Wingshooting Adventure outreach program this spring. Thank you Steve, you set a high bar for everyone else.

October 20, 2025 – ** UPDATE – THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED **

Dog First Aid and Nutrition Seminar

Presenting this Seminar is RuthAnn Lobos, DVM, CCRT, CVAT. Senior Veterinarian with Nestle Purina PetCare. Part of the seminar is learning how and when to use a staple gun to patch up your dog. We will be using bananas to practice. We will have pizza. The event will be priced with and without a staple gun.

If you bring your own staple gun to practice with, there is no extra charge. On the other hand, we can include a new staple gun which you can keep for a higher registration fee. Our registration platform will go live soon. Please register early so that we know how many staple guns and pizza to order..

LOOKING FOR WAYS TO GET MORE INVOLVED?

If you want to get plugged in as an active member who can help with any of these activities, please give me a call or email. We can always use some help. There are fringe benefits too! Contact Dean Titterington, 303-981-4642 dlt2737@aol.com