Pheasants Forever Launches Build a Wildlife Area Campaign in South Dakota

Same concept has already produced 5 new public wildlife areas in Minnesota in just 3 years

Huron, S.D. - October 30, 2006 - Pheasants Forever (PF) announces the launch of the first annual South Dakota Build a Wildlife Area campaign.  Through the Build a Wildlife Area campaign, PF and partners will raise funds to be used for the acquisition of public game production areas (GPAs) in South Dakota.  All funds raised through the campaign will be tripled by matching grants. 

The Build a Wildlife Area campaign is a wide reaching effort to engage individual donors, corporations, non-profit and government organizations to create permanent public wildlife areas.  Once lands are acquired, they are turned over to the state for management and opened to the public for recreation, including hunting.  South Dakota is the fourth state to launch a Build a Wildlife Area campaign following Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.  In fact, Minnesota's campaigns have generated over $1 million for the creation of 5 new wildlife areas covering 1,400 acres in just three years. 

"We are very excited to be launching a Build a Wildlife Area campaign in South Dakota; the nation's pheasant hunting capital," explained Howard Vincent, PF's president and chief executive officer.  "This campaign is very unique in that every one dollar we raise will turn into three.  Every twenty dollars becomes sixty.  Where else can your conservation dollar go farther?" 

"South Dakota's Game Fish and Parks Commission and the Department's Wildlife Division have a very successful history of working with conservation partners like Pheasants Forever to acquire Game Production Areas across the state," said Doug Hansen, Wildlife Division Director.  "Partnerships like the Build a Wildlife Area campaign will further assist in our efforts to secure wildlife management and hunting access opportunities through habitat acquisition."

Woody Brehm, an avid South Dakota pheasant hunter from California, has stepped forward with the first individual gift to the campaign.  And, the Brookings Chapter of PF has joined the effort with a generous $5,000 contribution. 

One South Dakota business, Mid-West Seed Services, Inc. of Brookings has also already made a donation to the campaign.  "Expanding wildlife habitat across South Dakota and increasing hunting opportunities are immediate benefits we see in this new program.  On a longer range scale, South Dakotans need a program like this to help us all continue the conservation tradition and hunting heritage we enjoy in this state," said Tim Gutormson, president of Mid-West Seed Services, Inc. who donated $1,000 to the effort. 

To learn more, or to make a donation to the Build a Wildlife Area campaign in South Dakota, please contact PF's South Dakota biologist Ben Bigalke at (605)350-2409 or via email at bbigalke@pheasantsforever.org.

The first South Dakota chapter of PF was formed in 1986.  Today, South Dakota is home to 29 PF chapters and 4,000 PF members.  Those chapters have spent over $2 million to complete 12,465 habitat projects now benefiting over 150,000 South Dakota acres for wildlife.  Nationwide, PF accounts for 700 chapters and 115,000 members.  Since inception in 1982, the organization has spent nearly $200 million on wildlife habitat projects and conservation education.  Those funds have translated into 300,000 habitat projects benefiting over 4 million acres across the continent.  Charity Navigator, America's charity watchdog, gives PF their highest rating of 4 stars.  In fact, Charity Navigator says that PF outperforms most non-profits in America.