What we accomplish together: Impact Report
Thanks to your support, it was another record year for upland conservation! Here’s a look into what we accomplished in a year - together. Where we’re going - together. Together, we shall continue conserving and creating places where quail, pheasants and other upland wildlife can thrive.
See the impact you’re making by helping put more acres of high-quality habitat on the landscape and by opening more public access to ensure our hunting heritage can be passed on.
It all happens because of action taken by people, like you, who care and want to make a difference for the uplands. Your support drives everything QF & PF does, from our habitat work to our education, hunting heritage and upland conservation advocacy efforts. Here’s what we did, what you did … and where we’re going. Together.
Your Impact
HABITAT
As habitat is the lifeblood of our namesake birds, it is also the soul of our mission.
In 2024, Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever – and you – delivered 2.42 million acres of habitat improvements across the quail, pheasant and prairie grouse ranges. Here’s just a glimpse of the accomplishments.
- QF & PF restoration specialists, habitat strike teams and other team members restored or enhanced nearly 662,000 acres across America’s quail, pheasant and prairie grouse ranges.
- Our wildlife biologist team worked alongside 34,648 landowners in 2024 to create, protect and improve more than 1.71 million acres of habitat.
- QF & PF were successful in our efforts to secure multiple Regional Conservation Partnership Program awards from the USDA this year totaling $75 million to improve 280,000 acres in support of wildlife habitat and other mission objectives in the following regions:
- Arizona: QF and its partners will restore 35,000 acres of native plant communities by removing invasive woody plants in the Colorado River Basin. Strategically implemented, and expanding on previous landscape-scale projects, this grant award will enhance habitat for wildlife, reduce the risk of wildfires, improve water quality, sequester carbon, protect soils, and improve wildlife connectivity.
- South Dakota: This investment is part of the broader effort to tackle the “green glacier” - woody encroachment of eastern redcedar - which is one of the primary threats to intact grassland ecosystems impacting upland wildlife, grazing lands, and migration corridors. Working with partners, the funding will be utilized to apply 50,000 acres of prescribed fire on South Dakota’s landscape, and an additional 75,000 acres of technical assistance for the state’s farming and ranching community for the benefit of people and wildlife alike.
- Montana: The grant funding will directly support the Montana Grasslands Initiative to impact grasslands by removing or modifying 200 miles of fence to facilitate wildlife movement, seeding 5,000 acres of grass, contracting management improvements on 10,000 acres and establishing reliable livestock water on 100,000 acres of grasslands. Additionally, partners expect to utilize land rental contracts to address barriers to grassland restorations, leverage partnerships, and keep restoration projects intact for a minimum of 10 years on 30,000 acres.
Will you kick off 2025’s habitat mission for quail, pheasants and other wildlife with a donation now?
Heritage
Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever’s conservation education team is dedicated to sharing outdoor lifestyles and an appreciation for wildlife, while inspiring audiences of all ages and skill levels. We work to inspire folks to become the next generation of hunter-conservationists.
In 2024, those efforts resulted in 1,687 educational events, helping nearly 63,000 new and reactivated conservationists, hunters and adventurists experience the outdoor lifestyle.
Passing on our Hunting Heritage: Learn to Hunt Event in 2024
As the clock stuck 4 a.m. on the outskirts of the Valley of the Sun, vehicle headlights could be seen bouncing down the entrance road to Robbins Butte Wildlife Area.
On this day, a crossover Learn to Hunt event and mentored experience was taking shape in a quest for mourning doves, thanks to dedicated volunteers and an approved grant request through the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
When darkness gave way to early morning hues, participants were taken out to fields, assigned a shooting station, and paired with a mentor for the morning hunt. Once legal shooting time began, a “cease fire” was called every 45 minutes to allow participants to retrieve their harvests and immerse themselves in field comradery. Once temperatures spiked mid-morning, the hunt concluded with bird cleaning, a BBQ lunch, and open discussions.
The idea behind this hunt was to promote family units hunting together, and with a little luck, advancing to future outdoor endeavors.
- Jim Bingle
“The idea behind this hunt was to promote family units hunting together, and with a little luck, advancing to future outdoor endeavors,” said Jim Bingle, secretary and family recruitment chair for the Valley of the Sun Quail Forever Chapter. “A requirement for this event was at least one adult with either a spouse, youth or both. We hosted numerous families, including an elderly gentleman and his 21-year-old son who had never dove hunted before.”
Will you invest in the future of upland conservation with a donation now?
Advocacy
It takes good habitat to produce abundant upland wildlife, as well as opportunities to hunt. But it also takes robust public funding and sound conservation policy to shape that habitat and the public access that results. That’s where Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever’s dedicated government affairs team focuses.
In 2024, The Habitat Organization made noteworthy investments in advocacy and built landmark successes like these:
- Inclusion of QF & PF policy priorities in the U.S. House draft and U.S. Senate framework versions of the next 5-year Farm Bill, to improve upland wildlife habitat, CRP, working lands, and hunting access.
- Securing more than $900 million for habitat conservation and conservation technical assistance for landowners in 2025.
- Working with partners to pass the EXPLORE (Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences) Act through the U.S. House, and to pass the America’s Conservation Enhancement Reauthorization Act through the U.S. Senate. Efforts continue to get both bills across the finish line.
- Hiring QF & PF’s first-ever dedicated state policy manager so we can be more effective closer to where our members and supporters live and recreate.
Will you help us continue to stand up for wildlife, wild places, and public access with a donation now?
Chapters
Our chapters are at once the root, backbone and heart of Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever.
This network of 754 chapters spread across North America determines how 100 percent of their locally raised funds are spent to support the organization’s top priorities. Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever is the only national conservation organization that operates through this grassroots structure.
The efforts of our chapters and volunteers go beyond adding acres. Through the financial support garnered at local fundraising events, our chapters are making an impact that resonates across generations, inspiring future hunters and conservationists to commit to the uplands.
Habitat Endeavors: At present, Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever chapters annually implement nearly 60,000 acres of habitat improvements including nesting cover projects, woody cover projects, wetland restorations, food and cover plots, land acquisitions, and maintenance tasks to maintain quality upland cover. The full slate of chapter statistics will be tallied and printed in the 2024 Annual Report as part of the spring issues of the QF & PF Journals.
Hands-on Habitat Events: This year, more than 1,000 Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever volunteers spearheaded 97 Hands-On Habitat projects during a dedicated month of on-the-ground volunteerism that improves our upland landscapes across the country. Chapters host these events each spring to get local communities involved in habitat improvement projects.
Will you support our chapters and the impactful work they do, with a donation now?
Permanent Protection
Together, Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever chapters, partners, donors and team members completed 46 fee-title land acquisition projects in 2024 encompassing nearly 15 square miles of upland habitat.
That accomplishment raises the bar of the organization’s permanently protected lands to 238,860 acres since 1982. Each property is conveyed to state or federal natural resource agencies, or managed in perpetuity by QF & PF as a Habitat Management Area.
By permanently protecting strategic lands for the benefit of quail, pheasants and other wildlife, we also open those properties to the public for outdoor recreation – to be enjoyed by hunters and their bird dogs, and all manner of wildlife lovers. Forever.
Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever’s permanent protection strategy also provides solutions for rural economic development and the nation’s most complex sustainability issues including improved biodiversity, soil health, and water stewardship— while simultaneously prioritizing maximum impact for quail, pheasants, and associated wildlife.
Will you contribute to our noble effort to permanently protect upland acres for the generations to follow us, with a donation now?
Building Forever
Together, the Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever community of more than 482,000 members, supporters and partners is building forever for the uplands.
America’s grasslands are some of the most imperiled biomes in the world. They are as deserving of protection as a coral reef or rainforest. They need you. Quail and pheasants need you. Forever starts now.
Will you kick off 2025’s habitat mission for quail, pheasants and other wildlife with a donation now?
YEAR-END GIVING
Acres. Access. Action.
Since its creation in 1982, QF & PF has dedicated more than $1 billion to 580,000 habitat projects benefiting 28.8 million acres.
That sounds like a lot. It is. But the pressures on our precious uplands are real and ever-growing. Our work, your work, our shared work, is never done.
As a nonprofit organization, Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever depends on the contributions of our members, supporters and partners. Your donation funds wildlife habitat conservation and helps fill the uplands with quail, pheasants and other wildlife. You will also be creating public lands and wild places to hunt and recreate. Those efforts will safeguard our hunting heritage and allow us to raise the next generation of hunter-conservationists who will carry the torch in protecting the uplands.
Together we build the future – a forever filled with wild places where quail, pheasants and other upland wildlife can thrive. Will you maximize your 2024 impact by donating?
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