St. Clair County Pheasants Forever Highlights from 2015

Our 2015 Banquet was mentioned in the National Magazine as being in the “Top Ten” in the country for attendance.

At the 2016 Pheasants Forever State Convention, President Bill Furtaw was named to the PF “Long Spur Society” in recognition of his many years of service to PF.

At the 2016 State Convention, St. Clair County Pheasants Forever received four framed Certificates of Recogniton.  They were for Banquet Attendance, Significantly Increasing Memberships,  Grassland Acreage Habitat Recognition, and “Conservationists Without Boarders”  recognizing our contributions in working with other chapters on grassland projects, contributions to Youth Outreach Coordinator, Legislative Action Fund, and the Youth Shooting Sports Endowment Fund.

SCCPF donated $300 to Pine River Sportsman Club to help obtain supplies for their Youth Shooting Day.

SCCPF is distributing high quality youth booklets, “Ultimate Youth Shooting Sports Guide” to some area shooting clubs and hunter safety classes

PF Rep. Bill Vander Zouwen has been named the Chairman of the Mich. Pheasant Restoration Initiative Steering Committee.

The collective chapters of PF in Michigan, Michigan PF State Council, was a sponsor of the “Camo at the Capitol” event held on the steps of the State Capitol in Lansing.   Pheasants Forever has obtained a seat on the Legislative Sportsman’s Caucas Advisory Council to advise our State Legislators.  Along with our PF National Legislative Action, the voice of our members is being heard.

Our 2015 30^th Annual Banquet was one of most successful ever!  We had only a couple open seats. The near-sellout crowd helped us raise near-record level of funds to put towards habitat improvement, conservation education, and youth activities.  Let a Board member know if you aware of activities that align with our mission and should be considered for some support from St. Clair County Pheasants Forever.

Information for 2016 Habitat Cooperators

St. Clair County Pheasants Forever members who are interested in planting a habitat project in the spring of 2016 are encouraged to act quickly. Please continue reading for this year's guidelines and order forms.

Habitat Recap from 2015

We had another active year with our habitat projects for the 2015 planting season on both private and public lands. A big THANK YOU goes out to our local habitat cooperators and those who support Pheasants Forever to make it happen.

We’d like to give a special thanks to our local Habitat Coordinator Tim Vargo and to Bob Liebetreu (Adair Grain). Tim coordinated all the necessary paperwork and follow up to complete our projects.
This year, we had 48 local cooperators and 61 projects. They established 472 acres of habitat. That includes 236 locally and over 230 acres of nesting habitat on public hunting lands in the Thumb. Locally, we had 56 acres of nesting habitat, 177 acres of food plots, and 3 acres of pollinator mix. Because of your help and the successful banquet last year, we were able to fund over $16,500 for these local projects’ costs.

We have offered to fund an additional $10,000 to the local DNR for habitat projects on local public hunting areas, so we hope to develop more projects public state lands in St. Clair County in the future.

St. Clair County PF has elected to continue to make a contribution to the MI Pheasant Restoration Initiative in the Verona State Game Areas. Our funding, combined with some other chapters, helped PF chapters win two successful DNR grants in the Wildlife Habitat Grant Program (WHGP). This year, one winning grant was for Verona SGA (PF) and one winning grant was for Lapeer State Game Area (with Lapeer PF and the Soil Conservation District).

We look forward to working with our habitat cooperators and local public land stewards to improve quality nesting areas and additional pheasant/ wildlife habitat in 2016.

The forms can be downloaded this site (in the sidebar on the right), or from VF Sports, from Tim Vargo at thenryv@reagan.com, or Jim Bearss at JLbearss@comcast.net . 

2016 Banquet Information

Plans are under way for the 31st Annual Banquet. The banquet will be held Saturday, March 19, 2016 at Perch Point Conservation Club, 7930 Meisner Road, Fair Haven, MI.

The ticket price for this year’s banquet Membership Dinner remains $60.00. Your ticket includes: the banquet dinner, a local, and national membership. Each membership purchased will receive a 1-year subscription to the Pheasants Forever Journal magazine, a membership card, a decal, and the opportunity to obtain seed for habitat projects next spring. Spouse (does not include a PF membership) and Ringneck (18 years-old and under) dinner tickets are $30 and $20, respectively. All Spouse and Ringnecks must be accompanied by a Membership Dinner ticket holder.

The doors will open at 3:00 P.M., with dinner served at 5:00 P.M. Early admittance will not be permitted until the banquet is entirely set up. The banquet will be a smoke-free event. Those wishing to smoke will need to go outside. The format will be similar to previous years and includes a live auction and raffle tables featuring guns, sporting goods, and PF merchandise. Tickets to the banquet are available now at VF Sports or by mail. You can also contact any chapter officer or board member for tickets.

As a special incentive to individuals who pay for their PF Banquet Dinner tickets prior to February 1, 2016, a raffle ticket will be issued for each dinner ticket purchased for an “Early Bird Raffle” at the banquet for a prize of a Henry Golden Boy .22 rife. This “Early Bird” offer is available regardless of where the ticket is purchased. You have a ticket(s) entry for the Golden Boy just for purchasing your dinner tickets prior to Feb. 1.

VF Sports is located at 4136 Lapeer Road in Port Huron, MI. If you are ordering tickets by mail, please mail a check for amount of tickets purchased (payable to Pheasants Forever) to: Jim Bearss, 6760 Abbottsford Rd., Ruby, MI 48049 and include a stamped, self- addressed, standard business sized envelope to return the tickets to you.

All seating will be reserved. There will be a seating chart at the entrance

showing all table numbers and the dinner ticket numbers assigned to each table (a table seats 8). Every attempt will be made to honor seating requests made prior to the evening. If you have a specific group you would like to sit near or have special needs such as handicap seating, please send a note to Jim Bearss. We will do our best to fulfill requests, but NO GUARANTEES.

The “stub” part of the ticket is used for national membership information and it is very important that you completely fill it out in a careful and legible fashion. Please include your phone number in case we have a membership question and need to call you. Please include an e-mail address as our chapter does, on occasion, share information electronically with our local chapter members.

Please feel free to call any chapter officer if you have any questions or are interested in helping with the 2016 banquet.