A message from Quail Forever & Pheasant Forever's President & CEO
Think about the word diversity for a moment. What does it mean? How do you achieve it? Why is it important? And what does it have to do with Quail Forever?
As it turns out, everything.
This organization was formed to work toward a mosaic of diverse and productive upland habitat. Those who dedicate their lives to conservation know that monocultures do not thrive, and that diversity is a cornerstone to vibrant and sustainable habitat. They also know it doesn’t happen on its own. It requires shared vision, education, commitment, stewardship, and a lot of hard work.
And what’s good for quail is also good for us, not only on the environmental level, but on the human level. Diversity and inclusion add to the richness of our organization, our members, and the relevance of our mission.
Three years ago, at the Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever all-team meeting I challenged myself and our entire team to be part of organizational change. I stated that if in ten years we literally looked the same as we did that day, our organization would not stay relevant for very long. At that moment, we understood the need for change, the realization that in order to truly thrive, we had to apply the concepts of environmental diversity to improving our own organizational diversity.
Since then, we have made strides. We have improved in attracting and hiring high quality female employees. We have started hosting outreach events in urban areas hoping to engage a more diverse group of participants in our mission. We also launched our Women on the Wing initiative, which engages women conservationists, landowners, farmers and ranchers in our mission.
Most recently, our executive leadership formed a diversity, equity and inclusion project team which has been charged with developing recommendations that will help Quail Forever cultivate an inclusive and diverse organization for participants, resource professionals, supporters and advocates to work for, and engage in, our mission.
The publication you hold in your hands right now is another powerful tool for implementing change and increasing diversity and inclusion. We are committed to finding new voices, new perspectives, new images and art that better and more honestly portrays the true cultural diversity of the uplands. We are moving from hoping to action.
But just as the hard work of biodiversity never ends, neither does the hard work of fostering cultural and institutional diversity, and so my challenge to every member, volunteer, supporter, and partner is this: Help us create a more equitable and diverse upland conservation community in any way or by any means you can.
Become a conservation mentor. Seek out those who would not otherwise have the means or opportunity to experience the uplands and offer them a hand.
Make the effort to let someone different from you see the world through your eyes, and in doing so perhaps you can see the world through theirs.
Growth is only achieved by stepping outside our boundaries, and now more than ever, those boundaries need to expand.
We would never try to increase the number of coveys on a piece of ground by seeding only one plant to the exclusion of all others. We’d never expect our bird numbers to grow each year by simply doing nothing.
So why should we view our organization any differently? We are, after all, simply a covey, brought together by a common interest and a shared passion. Let’s take a cue from the birds we love, and start tearing down that monoculture.
Doing so will not only make us grow, but grow stronger.
This story originally appeared in the 2020 Fall Issue of the Quail Forever Journal. If you enjoyed this story and would like to read more like it, join Quail Forever at the link below!
Written by Howard K. Vincent, President & CEO of Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever
Photo credit: Chad Love, Quail Forever Editor