Tag: Greater Denver Pheasants Forever

Feathers, Fields & Updates – December News

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Upcoming Meetings Locations and Dates

January 6, 2026 – 6:30 p.m.
Chapter Meeting at Cabelas, Lone Tree

January 13 – 6:30 p.m.
SPECIAL THORNTON MEETING PARTICULARLY FOR OUR MEMBERS IN THE NORTH PART OF THE METRO AREA, AT CABELAS THORNTON
We will have some door prizes to kick off this first Cabelas Thornton chapter meeting. This meeting is an experiment of sorts to provide more opportunities for our north metro Denver members to learn and/or to get involved. If you can’t make it but still want to be counted as being interested, or if you have questions, please give me a cal. Dean at 303 981 4642 email dlt2737@aol.com.

FIELD REPORT

Positive reports from members indicate a great season is underway. Since our last bulletin, we also now have field reports of limits being taken on the Burlington area walk-in properties. The wild bird season is more than half over but January still looks to be very promising. Crops are mostly harvested and birds are being concentrated and easier to reach.

Our members who travel to neighboring states are, likewise, having great success. On one account, a group of 18 friends harvested over 100 birds in South Dakota over a week end. Now such large parties are not everyone’s “cup of tea”. In South Dakota the non-resident licenses are for 10 days and have an option to do two five day trips. Some members of this group have already done their second trip because you can’t have too much fun! Member reports in Kansas have also been good.

SIDEBAR NOTE

Two Pheasants Forever programs that are fundamental to the mission to recruit new hunters are the Learn to Shoot and Learn to Hunt programs. Our chapter has focused on Learn to Hunt activities for many years now.

I was recently reviewing the training template PF provides chapters for the Learn to Hunt activity to see if there were any changes for 2026. It is a 9 step program. Their instructions for the program included 15 photos of chapters doing the various steps. I was surprised to see two photos on two of the nine steps were from a Learn to Hunt event our chapter did.

This event was a pilot project that PF National provided grants to our chapter to do. So, we had to provide records and photos of our events to earn the grants. Nonetheless, out of 700 plus chapters it was a pleasant surprise to have a couple of our photos selected for PF chapter training materials. Also, Learn to Hunt volunteer and our current banquet chair, Kylie, is very photogenic! Me, not so much!

DATES TO REMEMBER

  • February 3 – Chapter Meeting, 6:30 p.m., Cabelas, Lone Tree
  • February 4 – Habitat and Hunting Presentation to a gathering of area 4-H Clubs, 6:30 PM, Wheat Ridge Grange, 3850 North High Court, Wheat Ridge, 80033. 4-H Clubs have robust programs in shooting and hunting. They request we address habitat conservation as well. Presenters are Steve O. and Dean T. Let either Steve or Dean know if you want to attend to listen or to help. Dean 303 981 4642. (Steve is temporariily unavailable.)
  • February 20-21 – Pheasant Fest, Minneapolis, Check the National PF website for details.
  • March 14 – Greater Denver PF Banquet, Arapahoe County Fairgounds. Ticket sales to commence soon and will end March 7.
  • April 4 – Habitat and Wingshooting Adventure for University of Colorado students at Valhalla Hunt Club. We need approximately 12 to 14 volunteers. If you have not volunteered for an Adventure and would like to know more or volunteer, call Dean T. 303 981 4642 or email dlt2737@aol.com or Steve Osa (temporarily not available)
  • April 11 – Tentative live bird hunts for Colorado State U. and Front Range Community College students at Valhalla Hunt Club. Details will be forthcoming when final student numbers are known.
  • April 18 – Second Annual Habitat and Wingshooting Adventure for CSU students. 30 students expected plus additional college administrators.
  • July, date TBD – Annual Occidental Petroleum and PF Habitat Project at Barr Lake State Park
  • September 12 – Second Annual Habitat and Wingshooting Adventure for Front Range Community College students.
  • Late September – We anticipate additional live bird hunts for CSS, CU, Red Rocks Community College, Regis U., Denver University and Co. Christian University students.

For the Adventures and Hunts, we will need volunteers including dog handler/guides and Field Safety Officers. We can train volunteers. Dogs need to be competent pointers accustomed to quartering a line of hunters. Please send Dean an email at dlt2737@aol.coom with questions or whichever dates you can be available. Please include what your interests are: habitat, field safety, dog handling demonstrations, guide/with pointing dog, hunts.

BANQUET

We will be focused on our banquet for the next couple of months. Our banquet is our primary fundraiser. It is an “all hands on deck” event and we can use all the volunteer help we can get.

If you have ideas for silent auction items, live auction items, sponsorships that you or your company can offer or you can help us to set up before the banquet please reach out to Dean at 303 981 4642 or email at dlt2737@aol.com I can refer you to whichever banquet committee person you need to coordinate with.

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

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
Please be safe on the roads and in the fields.

Feathers, Fields & Updates – November News

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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.

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

Feathers, Fields & Updates – October News

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Upcoming Meetings – Location Change

Our November and December meetings locations have changed. Both meetings will be at Heroes Pizzeria and Tavern, 16070 E. Dartmouth Ave., Aurora at 6:30 p.m.

Update on October Events:

October 20, 2025 – Field First Aid/Care for Gun Dogs

PF members gathered at the Boathouse at Cherry Creek State Park to learn Dog First Aid from our guest RuthAnn Lobos, DVM, CCRT, CVAT and Senior Veterinarian for Nestle Purina Pet Care.

Besides all the basics, here are some tips about first aid and nutrition that captured some extra interest:

  • Puppy food can be fed for one year as a rule of thumb except for the all life stages dog foods.
  • Purina Sport is an all life stages food.
  • If you can’t easily feel your dog’s ribs, you are probably feeding too much.
  • Lean dogs on average live 2 years longer and have less arthritis.
  • Recommended to feed once a day in the evening during hunting season or just feed VERY little in the morning if you have to but don’t hunt the dog for a couple of hours at least. This avoids torsion. Feeding anything in the morning also takes energy for digestion which would otherwise be available to the dog to hunt harder/longer.
  • Put kibble in water to help hydrate dogs which don’t drink much during the hunt.
  • Natures Miracle skunk wash is NOT safe for dogs.  Use the SKUNK OFF brand instead.
  • Benadryl is good only for stings. It is not a remedy for snake bites but it can keep a dog calmer before it gets to the vet.
  • Vets now recognize a common practice by hunting dog owners that results in injury and/or greater arthritis risk for the dogs. That is allowing your dogs to jump in or especially out of a pickup or SUV to the ground. The dogs are not built for the those impacts without experiencing negative consequences.
  • Everyone got to practice with staplers on bananas. So when needed, we can know what we are doing with a stapler.

Banquet Planning Beginning

We had our first banquet planning committee meeting this week. Kylie is the Chair and can be reached at kyliemalstrup19@gmail.com, Jane and Shane Rugg are Co-Chairs, janerugg@gmail.com. Timetables were established. 

Next up, asking for volunteers to help in the following areas: Live Auction, Silent Auction and Games. Please consider where you can help the best and contact Kylie or Jane. Our Banquets are an all hands on deck events. So please consider helping out.  

SAVE THE DATE! Our banquet is March 14 and our success ensures our habitat and outreach programs can be maintained and expanded.

In Other News!

Member reports indicate that there will be good bird populations in Colorado this season. Yay for that!

Field First Aid/Care for Gun Dogs

October 20, 2025 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Check-in at 6pm (food and drink provided)

Seminar begins at 6:30

This seminar will discuss dog field first aid including common issues like heat exhaustion, minor wounds and their care to when stitches would be needed and when you might need to use a staple gun in the field.

It will also briefly discuss nutrition, supplements and recovery treats/drinks. 

You will get hands on use of a staple gun and options to purchase one for your dog first aid kit. 

There will be drawings for five Wire-Ups barbed wire assist tools and a raffle for a field first aid kit.

Click here to register

Feathers, Fields & Updates – September News

Posted on | by vP0ut-70

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

Feathers, Fields & Updates – August News

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South Metro PF Changing Name to Greater Denver PF, and Other Changes

We are excited to make some changes in our name to reflect an effort to allow more members in the north part of the metro area to become more easily involved with the chapter. The chapter used to be called Metro Denver PF and we met at the Bass Pro in Northfield shopping area. Sometime before the pandemic, a decision was made to have two chapters in the metro area. One in the north and one in the south. Traffic congestion in Denver made it hard for everyone to get to Bass Pro on a Tuesday night. So two chapters, one at each end of the metro area made sense. Metro changed it’s name to South Metro and moved meetings to the Cabellas in Lone Tree. Then the pandemic hit and stalled the plan. Also playing a role, I believe, is that we had a 5-year period when there was severe drought for 4 of the 5 years. This decimated habitat and pheasant populations in Colorado. It also had to discourage pheasant hunters in general.

So, South Metro will become Greater Denver. We plan on having some of our monthly meetings at Cabellas in Thornton. Also, we are going to set up to allow anyone to ZOOM into a meeting from anywhere. We currently have active members from Parker, Colorado Springs and Bailey for example. So whether you prefer to meet and make friends in person or find a computer connection better, you will have an option.

This change is going to take some time to accomplish. It involves changes at banks, at National, acquiring new computer equipment, changing the website, etc. 

HERE IS AN ASK FROM YOU: It would be helpful to hear from members in the north part of the metro if you think this is good idea or not. Maybe you have some other suggestions i.e., location, times, etc. We would appreciate getting some FEEDBACK to let us know we are on the right track. Please email Dean at dlt2737@aol.com or phone me at 303-981-4642. 

Barr Lake Mentor Day a Success!

CPW at Barr Lake State hosted an annual MENTORS DAY at the park on Aug. 23. We have set up a Barr Lake shooting activity for the public for many years. It involves a brief class on the PF organization and what we do in habitat. We also cover gun safety. Finally, we instruct them on how to shoot a pellet rifle to hit the bullseye. That focus is on sight picture, breath control and trigger squeeze. Some years we do dog demonstrations as well. We have kids and adults alike really get into it. Some even came back later in the day to do it again! They get to keep their targets, and kids got a pheasant tail feather.

All in all, as a public outreach this does a good job creating positive perspectives about PF members as conservationists, guns aren’t scary and hunting is an important heritage that belongs to everyone.

Thanks to Steve, Jeff, John and Paul (and myself) for the expert instruction and laughs. Below are some photos from the event.

COMING UP

WINGSHOOTING ADVENTURE…….. Volunteer Opportunity:

Saturday, September 13, 2025 – 8 am – 12:00 pm

The chapter is hosting Front Range Community College wildlife biology students at Valhalla Hunt Club in Bennett, Co. This involves a classroom period where we present on topics including, upland conservation, gun safety, wildlife biology, gun safety, field safety, gun safety, hunting tactics and gun safety. That is followed by breakout sessions for hands on in the field instruction on a Safety Trail, Field Hunting Simulation with dogs and live birds and, finally, individual shooting instruction on a clay target course.  Many, even most, of the students have never handled or fired any gun before. They are clean slates and soak up all the information we share. We give them all an orange PF hat to remind them of how much fun they had.

We, very recently, also have a second group from CSU wanting to come out for another Wingshooting Adventure. We did one for their wildlife biology students last April. If this new group can get themselves organized quick enough, we offered to do another session with them on Saturday afternoon.  

At this point we don’t know if this is just a half day event with FRCC or will be an all day event with CSU students in the afternoon. We will provide lunch for volunteers if it is an all day affair.

If you have not helped with one of the Wingshooting Adventures before, it would be great to start now. Let me know if you can be available for the Saturday morning event and, perhaps also Saturday afternoon. If you can only do Saturday morning that is OK.  

To volunteer, ask questions or volunteer contact Dean at dlt2737@aol.com 303 981 4642 or Steve OSA at steve.osa12@gmail.com 720 301 6985

MORE COMING UP –

September 4, 2025 – NORTHEAST HABITAT TOUR ,Yuma Co. 11 a.m.

This is put on by our biologists and eastern chapters. There is an opportunity for a dove hunt after the tour. Contact Dean T. if you have an interest and for details. Dean at 303 981 4642 dlt2737@aol.com

CANCELLED – September 14, 2025 – Clays Tournament/Fundraiser

Our key organizer experienced a “training accident” when his shorthair ran into him. His knee has had surgeries (yes, plural) and, he is still an invalid (I did not know how to spell convalescing?).

If you have any questions on anything or can volunteer, please let me know at dlt2737@aol.com or, better yet, give me a call at 303 981 4642.