Pheasants Forever: 25 Years of Leadership and Achievement

Remarks prepared for delivery by Arlen L. Lancaster, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service, at the Pheasants Forever National Pheasant Fest 2008 Banquet at the Saint Paul RiverCentre.

St. Paul, Minnesota
January 19, 2008

Hear Chief Lancaster's address to the Pheasants Forever National Pheasants Fest (2.8M WMA file)
 

Thank you, Howard [Vincent], and good evening. It is impressive to see so many conservationists gathered together tonight.

Before I begin my remarks, I have a message of congratulations to deliver from a fellow outdoorsman and conservationist—the President of the United States of America:

“I send greetings to those celebrating the 25th anniversary of Pheasants Forever. Congratulations on reaching this important milestone.

For a quarter century, Pheasants Forever has played a vital role in the conservation of this bird and other wildlife that have brought fascination and joy to millions of our citizens. Your organization has worked successfully to protect and improve habitat through education and responsible land management programs, and this anniversary is a chance to celebrate your accomplishments and continue your good work.

My Administration is committed to ensuring that our citizens can enjoy the many benefits of nature. I appreciate the staff, volunteers and landowners who have contributed to the success of Pheasants Forever. Your efforts help protect our wildlife, and your commitment reflects the spirit of our country.

Laura and I send our best wishes.  George Bush”

That’s hard to top, but it truly is an honor for USDA, and me particularly, to be part of tonight’s festivities celebrating 25 years of pioneering conservation work.

It was on another winter’s night a quarter century ago that concerned friends of pheasants first banqueted together here in Minnesota, laying the foundation for an organization today considered a model non-profit and leader in conservation policy. With 115,000 members supporting 700 chapters across the U.S. and Canada, Pheasants Forever has become far more than even the most optimistic attendee could have anticipated that hope-filled evening in 1983.

As Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the primary federal agency concerned with conservation on private lands, as a congressional staff member before that, and as a pheasant hunter I have had the opportunity to watch Pheasants Forever in action for some time now.

Over the years, I have come to attribute your astonishing success to what I can best describe as “sophisticated simplicity.” Let me give you a few examples.

First, your name: Pheasants Forever. It’s easy to remember and captures your mission in just two words. One would be hard pressed to get simpler than that!

Yet your engagement of wide-ranging stakeholders, from Main Street to K Street and from State capitals to our Nation’s Capitol, is genuinely sophisticated. Whether in developing future conservationists through the Leopold Education Project, or convincing today’s power brokers to take immediate action on key legislation, your strategies are efficient and effective.

As your website notes, the success of your field operations aids in educating and winning support from policymakers back in D.C., which benefits all of us for whom helping the land is both our purpose and our passion.

And that brings me to your business model: Locally led conservation. Interestingly, locally led conservation is also our business model at NRCS, instituted in the 1930s by our founding Chief, Hugh Hammond Bennett.

Bennett advocated land management from the ground up: “planned and carried out by farmers themselves with the help of public agencies, especially equipped and authorized to assist them.”

Today, a complex network of public and private partnerships, including more than 3,000 Soil and Water Conservation Districts at the county level and myriad non-governmental groups like Pheasants Forever, enables us to deliver to landowners comprehensive technical assistance and other services Bennett envisioned.

Hugh Hammond Bennett’s commitment to helping agricultural producers help the land was a conviction shared by his contemporary, Aldo Leopold. Together, according to Paul W. Johnson, the two men “inspired a stewardship ethic that put its roots deep into the American landscape.”

Perhaps surprisingly, I meet many people who do not realize that “the American landscape” Johnson refers to is largely composed of private lands in private hands; in fact, two thirds of land in the lower 48 states is privately held.
 
Bennett and Leopold understood that if we want to make a real difference for the environment, we must start by convincing landowners of the merits of implementing conservation practices on their working lands.

I am convinced that if you give farmers and ranchers information that is timely, site-specific, and based on sound science, they will do the right thing for the land.

I also believe that we must continually find ways to make conservation easier with tools and programs that are user-friendly.

This is another instance where Pheasants Forever, and the Farm Bill biologists in particular, have made an important contribution. First, as leaders and members of the Agriculture and Wildlife Working Group you have created awareness of, and recommended improvements to, the Conservation Title of farm bill legislation.

Whatever the final bill looks like later this year—and I do still think there is time to get the President a bill he can sign—it will be better as a result of your insights.

Second, your feedback and ideas help us ensure farm bill programs themselves make sense and work for landowners. The Landowner Habitat Help Room, here at Pheasant Fest, is one example of this that comes immediately to mind.

We at NRCS are proud to partner with Pheasants Forever, the Minnesota and Iowa Departments of Natural Resources, the Farm Service Agency, the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, and local Soil and Water Conservation Districts in this effort.

To bring conservation to landowners in this very accessible way, including offering free, one-on-one consultations with area experts, is truly unique and highlights our joint focus to get more habitat on the land.

Speaking of which, there was a ceremony at USDA this past Thursday at which acting Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Conner announced that the Department has enrolled the one millionth acre in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.

Coincidentally, or perhaps not so coincidentally, that millionth CREP acre is here in Minnesota on the farm of Steve and Margaret Lange in Pipestone County.

CREP is an essential tool for enhancing wildlife habitat, including for upland birds, and it is no stretch to say that local Pheasants Forever chapters and Farm Bill biologists helped the Farm Service Agency, USDA, and working landowners attain this exciting milestone.

As trusted advisors and through initiatives such as the Landowner Habitat Help Room, the farm bill biologists and Pheasant Forever’s members and supporters, perpetuate Leopold’s legacy and his advice to “provide information and build incentives” for conservation actions to restore the “state of harmony between men and land.”

In closing, please indulge me in one final observation: Over $200 million later, and with more than 300,000 projects benefiting four million acres and countless numbers of wildlife to your credit, it is probably difficult to imagine that your success was not “a given,” or somehow pre-ordained.

Although it is sobering to consider, it was entirely possible— some might even say likely—that Dennis Anderson’s 1982 Saint Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch entreaty to save the pheasants could have fallen on deaf ears.

After all, many people have their hearts in the right place and untold miles of life’s highway are paved with good intentions, but they do not always translate into meaningful action. Even less frequently do they result in a model organization that actually makes the world a better place.

That is why tonight is so remarkable and why you have so very much to be proud of: instead of just nodding your heads in agreement at the kitchen table, you and your neighbors heeded the call and have remained steadfast for 25 years.

As I said at the beginning of my remarks, you have exceeded even the most optimistic supporter’s expectations, bringing new friends to the cause of conservation and helping to restore harmony between men and the land. We look forward to sharing in your next quarter century of superlative achievements.

Thank you for including me in this evening’s celebration. On behalf of your many friends within USDA and at the Natural Resources Conservation Service, please accept our heartiest congratulations and heartfelt best wishes for continued success.

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