blake
Life Member
PF Build a Wildlife Area Program Helps Protect 328 Acres of Wildlife Habitat
Iowa Pheasants Forever chapters and partners have contributed to a combined 328 acres of newly protected habitat and open hunting land through Pheasants Forever's Build a Wildlife Area program. The acquisitions include the 156 acre addition to the Five Ridge Prairie State Preserve in Plymouth County and the 172 acre Jennet Heritage Area in Story County.
Addition to Five Ridge Prairie State Preserve, Plymouth County
The Plymouth County Pheasants Forever chapter and multiple partners have acquired a 156 acre property, which will be added to the Five Ridge Prairie State Preserve in the northern Loess Hills region of Plymouth County in northwest Iowa. Sheltered on three sides by permanently protected land, the parcel exhibits consistent characteristics of the Loess Hills with steep rolling hills, native mid and tall grass prairie, mature oak woodlands, deeply dissected valleys and about 48 acres of agricultural land.
"While the permanent protection of the addition will benefit both game and non-game species that call the property home, it is the proximity of this land to other important wildlife habitat that makes its acquisition so significant," explains John Linquist, Pheasants Forever's Regional Representative for western Iowa, "Protection of this addition expands one of the largest habitat complexes in the state of Iowa, the 790 acre Five Ridge Prairie State Preserve, prevents residential development and benefits many specials species that require larger, contiguous tracts of land for survival." The area will be open for public use, including hunting. Game species identified on the property are: white-tailed deer, wild turkey, ring-necked pheasant, fox squirrel, cottontail rabbit, raccoon, mink, red fox and coyote.
Jennet Heritage Area, Story County
Protected by the Story County Pheasants Forever chapter and partners, the Jennet Heritage Area is 3.5 miles south of the city of Nevada. This property has many diverse habitats including remnant prairie, ponds, woodland, and riparian corridors along two streams. Major game species include waterfowl, pheasant, deer, wild turkey, small game and furbearers.
Planting the 100 acres that are currently cropped into large blocks of native prairie species will not only help the game species, but will greatly benefit non-game species, including some of concern in Iowa. Henslow's Sparrows (on Iowa's list of threatened species) have been found nesting on a private prairie remnant one mile north of the property. Other grassland species that will benefit include meadowlarks, dickcissels, and bobolinks, all three of which are on decline in Iowa. The diversity of habitat on the Jennet Heritage Area will offer citizens a chance to hunt most major species in Iowa including waterfowl, upland game, wild turkey, deer, and small game (including squirrels and rabbits). Grey partridge have been seen on the area, which is unusual in Story County.
"The addition of this property signifies just how serious Story County Pheasants Forever is about the preservation of Iowa's open spaces," says Jared Wiklund, Pheasants Forever's Regional Representative for central Iowa, "Furthermore, it demonstrates the importance of partnering with other organizations to make unique land acquisitions such as this possible."
Pheasants Forever, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Iowa County Conservation Boards and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service launched Iowa's Build a Wildlife Area campaign effort in 2006. Since then, Iowa Build a Wildlife Area campaigns have resulted in more than 1,400 acres that have been opened to public hunting and outdoor recreation.
Pheasants Forever, including its quail conservation division, Quail Forever, is the nation's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to upland habitat conservation. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have more than 135,000 members and 700 local chapters across the United States and Canada. Chapters are empowered to determine how 100 percent of their locally raised conservation funds are spent - the only national conservation organization that operates through this truly grassroots structure.