Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever recently named Jason Jenkins as the organization’s new monarch & pollinator coordinator in the state of Missouri. Collaborating with a statewide coalition of public and private interests, Jenkins will work to increase and sustain habitat for monarch butterflies and other pollinators, which will also benefit pheasants and quail, through citizen involvement and seek ways for partners, communities and agencies to coordinate similar efforts.
“We’re excited to join together with more than 30 partners in the Missourians for Monarchs Collaborative to make this position a reality and develop new opportunities for increasing overall pollinator habitat in the state,” said Elsa Gallagher, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s statewide quail coordinator in Missouri. “This position is the first of its kind in the nation created to directly address the issue of pollinator conservation. Jason’s extensive communications experience and diverse skillset, combined with his enthusiasm for conservation and love of the outdoors, make him the ideal person to lead and implement our statewide monarch and pollinator conservation plan.”
During the past two decades, monarch butterfly populations have declined by an estimated 90 percent due to factors including habitat loss and a lack of milkweed plants, the sole host plant used by the monarch during its egg and larval stages. Missourians for Monarchs formed in 2015 as a statewide initiative to address monarch and pollinato Of particular note, h
abitat necessary for rapidly declining populations of monarch butterflies is also the very same diverse grassland and prairie flower habitat necessary for pheasants, quail, and a host of other wildlife species. conservation in the state. In August 2016, Collaborative partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding committed to creating and maintaining 19,000 acres of pollinator habitat annually for the next 20 years.
The Collaborative includes conservation and agricultural organizations, state and federal
agencies as well as utilities, agribusinesses and cooperatives. Funding partners for the
Coordinator include the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, Missouri Department of Conservation, MFA
Incorporated, Monsanto and Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever.
"For conservationists, few issues are of as great a concern as that of declining pollinator
populations,” said Jason Jenkins, monarch and pollinator coordinator for the Missourians for
Monarchs Collaborative. “These insects serve a vital role in our food production systems and
sustain our native plant communities. The consequences of losing these species are disastrous.
I’m looking forward to becoming an ambassador and advocate for the monarch while we
increase and sustain habitat for all pollinators in Missouri."
An award-winning writer, photographer and videographer, Jenkins brings more than 15
years of communications experience to this new position. He earned a bachelor’s degree in
agricultural journalism from the University of Missouri, focusing on fisheries and wildlife
management. He previously worked for both University of Missouri Extension and the
Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, where he served as managing editor for
Rural
Missouri magazine. Jenkins is an avid hunter, angler and outdoorsman who relishes sharing his
passion for the natural world with his three children. For more information about Missourians for
Monarchs, contact Jason Jenkins at 573-301-4187 or
jjenkins@quailforever.org.
About Pheasants Forever
Pheasants Forever, including its quail conservation division,
Quail Forever, is the nation's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to upland habitat conservation. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have more than 149,000 members and 700 local chapters across the United States and Canada. Chapters are empowered to determine how 100 percent of their locally raised conservation funds are spent; the only national conservation organization that operates through this truly grassroots structure. Since creation in 1982, Pheasants Forever has spent $634 million on 502,000 habitat projects benefiting 14.1 million acres nationwide.
Media Contact
Jared Wiklund
(651) 209-4953
jwiklund@pheasantsforever.org