News
South Metro Denver Chapter of Pheasants Forever and Occidental announce a project partnership!
The purpose of this partnership is to support, with both financial and volunteer resources, South Metro’s habitat and pollinator projects at Barr Lake State Park. Oxy is committed to community projects that help wildlife habitat and education of their communities regarding the importance of wildlife in our ecosystems. Barr Lake, another of SMPF’s partners, excels in wildlife husbandry and community outreach/education on the importance of protecting wildlife.
This is a great alliance for wildlife, SMPF, Barr Lake and Occidental. Welcome to the team!!
Leave No Trace Gold Standard
South Metro Pheasants is honored to help support Barr Lake State Park in obtaining their Leave No Trace Gold Standard site designation. This gold standard designation was achieved by implementing and enhancing education outreach, signage and messaging for encouraging people to care for their public lands.
Watch Park Manager and SMPF Member Michelle Seubert tell this story!
Click here to download the Seven Principles Poster
Pollinator Project at Barr Lake State Park May 22 2021
On Saturday, May 22, a consortium of Barr Lake State Park, Pheasants Forever, Occidental Petroleum and Wildland Restoration Volunteers hosted the Black to Nature Book Club at Barr Lake for a three-hour event.
The focus of this event was twofold: First, the group, guided by PF and Wildland volunteers, and taught by Michelle Seubert, the head park ranger, learned the importance of and the technique of planting pollinator plants. The second focus was getting the job done! Serviceberries, goldenrod, and sunflowers—LOTS of sunflowers. The planting was fun and exciting. The pictures are worth a thousand words! Those displayed here show the group learning the importance of the pollinators and their habitat, getting hands-on training in planting, and gathering to celebrate their success.
A special thanks to the team of planters, the training and guidance of Wildland Restoration volunteers, the expertise of Michelle and the Barr Lake staff, and the financial support of Occidental Petroleum!! What a great day.
May 1, 2021 – Ladies Event
Our chapter hosted 28 women at the May 1st Ladies Shotgun Clinic at Valhalla Hunt Club in Bennett, Colo. Women from all over the state joined us to learn about upland hunting, firearm safety, and wingshooting basics. After classroom instruction on safety, all of the ladies participated in shooting clays and honing their shotgun skills.
It was an energetic and fun day for all — we are looking forward to hosting more ladies events and hunting with these women in the Fall! Special thanks to Valhalla for hosting all of us!
2021 Officer Elections
Officer Elections were held at the April 6, 2021, chapter meeting and the following were voted in as the new chapter officers:
- Shane Rugg –Vice President
- Scott Shepherd – Secretary
- Kylie Alstrup – Games Manager
- Mark Scharfenaker – Communications Director
They join the current Board of Officers:
- David King – President
- Stephen Altizer – Treasurer
- Mel Wernimont – Habitat Chair
- Dean Titterington – Outreach and Education/Youth chair
- Michelle Seubert –Assistant Outreach and Education/Youth Chair
- David Oine – Banquet Chair
- Jodi Sutherland – Co-Banquet Chair
2020 SMPF Banquet Status
Dear Members and valued supporters of South Metro Pheasants Forever:
We wanted to update everyone on our Banquet Status and Education & Outreach plans.
Banquet Status:
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we have been forced to postpone our 2020 banquet until March 13, 2021. It simply is not practical for us to try to commit to a venue and rescheduled date for 2020. Your health and wellbeing, as well as ours is our biggest concern. As you know, we are a non-profit organization and we depend upon donations from you, our Pheasants Forever family, to fund our habitat and outreach projects every year. Our annual banquet is our primary source of funding for the entire year.
Sponsors – We appreciate your support! While there is no banquet this year, sponsoring the Chapter will help fund our habitat and outreach efforts. If you would be willing to leave your sponsorship money as a donation this year, we will put you into our sponsor drawings, as we do at our banquet. If you are a sponsor that automatically receives a gun, you will get that and still be in the other drawings. We will also have three other door prizes and guns that you will be in a drawing for, if you have bought a table, your guests will be in this drawing. If you do not want to be a sponsor for the 2020 year we will send you a refund.
Non-sponsor Members – We appreciate your support! If you are willing to make your banquet money a donation this year we will put you into a special drawing for three guns. That is 3 chances to win a gun. If you would rather receive a refund for the 2020 year we will send you one.
Our deadline for this is August 16th and we will be doing the drawing August 23rd. If we do not hear from you, we will assume that you want to go ahead and leave your money as a donation and participate in the drawing. We appreciate all you do to help with our passion for conservation and outreach projects. We could not do any of this without you.
Please don’t hesitate to email or call with any questions or if you would like a refund. We are very saddened at the turn of events this year and look forward to hopefully seeing you all next year! Our 2021 Banquet is scheduled for March 13, 2021 at the Denver Marriott South at Park Meadows.
If you have not yet sent money in and would like to be in the drawings and support the Chapter, please do this by August 16th. Please note, these charitable donation WILL NOT carry over to the 2021 banquet. We will be providing our normal registration process starting January 2021.
All the memberships purchased as part of your 2020 banquet package have been processed to continue your membership benefits.
The Banquet Committee is looking into conducting an online auction to help supplant our funding shortfall this year. More to come… Please contact Dean Titterington at 303-981-4642 or DLT2727@aol.com if you have any questions or concerns.
Education & Outreach Events:
Many of our outreach events are conducted in partnership with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) at Barr Lake State Park. The August events were mutually agreed to cancel per CPW and the Chapter.
LAugust 8th – Mentor Day at Barr Lake – CANCELLED
August 23rd – Shotgun Clinic at Barr Lake – CANCELLED
September 19th – Shotgun Clinic at Barr Lake – Still Scheduled
October 4th – Shotgun Clinic at Barr Lake – Still Scheduled
October 18th – Novice Hunt at Valhalla – Still Scheduled
In addition to the obvious health considerations, one critical determining factor for conducting the scheduled hunts is the number of PF Volunteers we have available to facilitate the event. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN AND COMFORTABLE VOLUNTEERING please contact Dean Titterington at 303-981-4642 or DLT2727@aol.com.
Chapter Meetings
For now our in-person Chapter meetings at Cabela’s are on hold.
We are continuing to adhere to all local and statewide health requirements as we consider all event and meeting planning. Please be safe out there and we all look forward to someday returning to “normal”.
Thank you,
David King, President
South Metro Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever
Pollinators at Barr Lake State Park
In the fall of 2019, Pheasants Forever, Colorado Division of Wildlife and Barr Lake State Park, using a grant funded by Colorado Partners in the Outdoors, planted several plots of pollinators at Barr Lake State Park. These pictures are of some of the plants have gently cared for through the winter and are doing great! Note that there are butterflies in one of the pictures. In addition to the butterflies, honey bees, bumble bees, and other visitors have enjoyed the project. This is a great example of how partnerships create habitat for all of us!!
Please drop by Barr Lake visitors center and see the pollinators!!
Oil & Gas Hunt on February 28, 2020
On February 28, 2020, our chapter hosted a hunt for women in the Oil and Gas Industry in Colorado. We are committed to creating a community of women dedicated to carrying on our upland traditions and the Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever mission.
Follow this link to learn more about the Women on the Wing initiative.
Creating New Pheasant Habitat in the Wake of CRP Losses
By Christina Schmidt
Just two years into the Corners for Conservation (C4C) program in northeast Colorado, Jerry Miller, a Pheasants Forever Farm Bill biologist, is hearing good things. He’s hearing from landowners pleased with the ease of sign up and the reliability of annual payments for their conservation efforts. He hears from hunters, excited about new hunting opportunities in previously inaccessible areas. But perhaps the most important feedback he receives is when he walks the enrolled fields and hears the calls of pheasants, bobwhites, meadowlarks, lark bunting and the busy hum of bees and pollinators.
“These acres are truly alive with all kinds of insects, birds, small animals and large animals like mule deer,” he said.
Corners for Conservation aka C4C
C4C began in 2016 when a team of representatives from Pheasants Forever and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), alarmed by the loss of almost 50,000 acres of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) fields in four of Colorado’s top five pheasant counties, developed a partnership to address the habitat loss and increase hunter access.
The program works because of the geometric realities of farming on the high-desert plains. Land here is divided into 640-acre sections, and then further into 160-acre quarter sections that create a checkerboard pattern of corn, wheat, sugar beet and sunflower fields. While most crops are grown with natural precipitation, called dryland farming, some are watered by center-pivot irrigation systems which miss the outlying 7 to 8 acres in each corner of the square.