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Dear Fellow Members,
Well, another summer has come and gone and the hunting season is in full swing. Reports from around the state
indicate that we are off to a banner season. Good luck chasing roosters, and hopefully you will all get a chance
to get out and enjoy the great North Dakota outdoors.
Your club has been working hard all spring and summer on a number of projects and we have several in the works
for this fall and winter.
The club’s release program sent thousands of birds into the wild. Members raised and released 15,000 young
pheasant in northwest North Dakota. In addition, board members released 1000 adult birds on public hunting
areas. Interest in this program grows each year, so at this year’s banquet, we will again offer you a chance to
raise and release birds. The cost is still the same, $10.00 for 50 day old chicks with a free bag of chick starter feed.
PFTF members were invited to the first annual Minot Youth Jamboree held early September at the North Dakota
State Fairgrounds. Eight sportsmen clubs and organizations teamed up to educate and excite area youth about
the great outdoors as well as promote our clubs. We continued sponsoring kids to the Youth Conservation Camp
and to the Triangle Y fishing camp. Additionally, we continued our support to the Minot Gun Club Youth Trap
Shooting League; monies donated were used to defray costs of running the league and the youth state shoot.
The youth education building was completed on the Audubon Wildlife Refuge. Your club has also supported the
local 4H with their very successful shooting sports program.
This summer PFTF held the first annual motorcycle poker run at the Landing Bar and Bottle Shop. There were
over 165 entries and all the monies raised went to the Triangle Y Camp with matching funds from the American
Foundation for Wildlife. With the positive turnout and the great comments we received afterwards, I know we will
be making this an annual event.
With the help of local landowners Doug Hauge, Doug Stevick, and Dan Jagear, we now have 3 youth only hunting
areas. The board signed all areas so that members can easily find them. The Minot hunting area is located 2 miles
south of the Pour Farm and 3 miles west. The Berthold hunting area is located west of Minot by following
County Road 14 to County Road 9, then turning 1 mile north. The newest area is located by going on Hwy 53 south
of Balfour for 1.5 miles and then 1 more mile west. Any youngster lucky enough to shoot a rooster with a leg band
will receive a cap at our banquet in March, and their name will be placed in a drawing to win a shotgun.
We continue to look for habitat projects to cost-share, and would enjoy working with our members. If you are
considering a wildlife improvement habitat project on your land, please contact Scott Tellefson 726-5576 or
Dan Reeve 837-1160 for information on how your club can assist.
This year we will continue working with Community Action on the Hunter for the Hungry program. If you are not familiar
with this program, you can harvest a deer and donate it to the less fortunate and we’ll pay for the processing. Just
stop at Simonson’s gas station and pick up a certificate to give to the processing plant – there are several to choose
from and we hope to have more soon. The processor will cut the meat and turn it over to Community Action for
distribution to local food banks. If you are interested in participating or need more information contact Jason Foss
at 852-9506.
Winter is not too far off and we are beginning preparation for our winter feed program. Each feed night, we will offer
up to 15 bags of feed per member at our cost, and have a limited number of 55 gallon feed barrels available to help disperse feed. These feed barrels should be placed near suitable habitat and cover to enable pheasants to survive
the harsh winter weather. The feed mixture consists of corn, millet, sunflowers, and barley and wheat screenings
blended and bagged for us by North Central Research Center. We will send out postcards with dates, times, and
locations as winter sets in.
The Pour Farm is holding a Longest Pheasant Tail contest and Hides for Wildlife drawing. The Hitching Post Bar in Benedict is also sponsoring a longest tail contest, in addition the Landing Bar and Bottle Shop will have a deer hide
drop off as well. By supporting these sponsors with bringing in rooster tails to be measured or deer hides to be
donated, you will be supporting your club and also a chance to win one of many great prizes to be given away at
each location. Details of the rules and drawings can be found there.
Finally, the Board is already engaged in planning your next banquet. Mark your calendar for March 14, 2008 at the
Holiday Inn, and plan to have a great time with your hunting buddies. As in the past we will have lots of great stuff
to raffle off to include guns, prints, hunting and fishing gear, and we plan to raffle another gun safe. This year’s
main raffle gives you a chance to win one of 50 different shotguns and rifles. Tickets will go on sale in December
and will be limited to 1,250 so get your tickets early as these will go fast. Your ideas and comments continue to make
each banquet better than the last, and we look forward to seeing you in March. Thank you all for your attendance and continued support.
One final reminder to frequently visit our website at www.pftf.org for dates, times and locations of all of our activities throughout the year.
We hope your season is full of flushing roosters! See you at the banquet!
Sincerely,
Board of Directors