PODCAST EP. 375: Conservation Scorecard: State Advocacy for Habitat, Hunting, and Public Lands

Speaker 1 (00:58.232)

So it's the heart of summer, but if we think back to the heart of winter last December, in episode 343, I had Swanny Evans, our Director of Government Affairs, on to talk very specifically about conservation battles on the horizon for 2026 in the states of Pheasant and Quail Country across the US. today Swanny is back on the podcast to close the loop, talk about what was won, what was lost, what's still in progress in state houses across the country. It's our conservation scorecard episode. We'll talk about wins and losses for wildlife, for habitat, and for public lands at the state level. Speaking of states, Swanny joins from Georgia where I'm guessing it's sweltering. Is it hot and humid in the Atlanta area right now.

Speaker 2 (02:08.31)

We're actually getting a thunderstorm right now. So hopefully the internet holds. but it has been relatively sweaty. They call it hotlanna for a reason. It's been a warm summer.

Speaker 1 (02:21.39)

What about you? you live relatively urban, right? Or at least suburban. Have you been able to get out into the countryside?

Speaker 2 (02:31.426)

Yeah, so I'm about an hour and a half outside of Atlanta, just northeast. you're okay. In Athens, where the University of Georgia is. but yeah, I've done a lot of shooting, shot a precision rifle series match. I shoot some pistol competitions as well. I've been trout fishing a bunch. that I do all my trout fishing in the summertime because it's so hot. The cold water feels great, you know. Try to stock the freezer. I I really enjoy that putting them on the smoker. But yeah. Been playing outside a little bit when y'all let me get away from work, which isn't that often.

Speaker 1 (03:03.382)

Well, okay, so trout fishing in Georgia, what kind of trout are we talking about?

Speaker 2 (03:09.036)

Let's see. The only native trout that we have is the burp trout. browns and rainbows are stocked, but you do get streamborne populations of those from the historical stocking. so I I love going into these small tributaries where you you hike in, there's no trails. It's kind of a miserable experience. We call it type two fun. It's a lot of fun to talk about afterward. It's not not so much fun in the moment. I've already broken two rods and lost a reel this year because I kind of straddled the wrong log and it rolled over on top of my leg and pinned me to the bottom of the the creek that we were in. That was

Speaker 1 (03:43.439)

And are we talking fly rods or?

Speaker 2 (03:45.686)

These are spinning reels, yeah. so my I'm big into I grew up hunting. I got big into bow hunting at a young age and started doing all I have a bow press. I cut my own arrows, do all do all the things myself and I I also work on all my friends' bows, yeah. And when I I didn't trout fish until I was in college and my friend Rhett, who's actually a memories involved in our West Georgia chapter, Quell Forever, but he he took me trout fishing for the first time.

And I asked him, I was like, Are you gonna teach me how to fly fish? And I won't say his exact words, but his answer was no. And it was very aggressive no. And he handed me a spinning reel and said, Let's go. but he's a great fly angler. He just didn't he he didn't want me to go down that pathway. They always call it the bow hunting of fishing, you know, you really get invested in it and I've got too many hobbies to start with, so

Speaker 1 (04:39.278)

Yeah and you mentioned filling up your freezer. So are you are you drowning worms and and putting you know these browns into the freezer? Are you smoking them and then freezing them? Like and is that fry in Georgia? Like hold their nose up if you're eating trout.

Speaker 2 (04:54.722)

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:59.414)

Well, yeah, that's they love me. I go in there with my you know, blue fox number two spinners and I'm running my my spinning reel and I'm keeping all the fish within the legal limits, of course. But so my elite fly angry friends do get a little upset when I keep some big browns and send them pictures of the brown on the smoker. But no, I I either smoke fresh or cook on the creek bank and then bring home those other ones and freeze So they package really well. I just use freezer paper.

And some plastic wrap and they keep for about a year in there, from my experience.

Speaker 1 (05:34.294)

A blue fox. So is there do you have the buck tail on the end or w one without any f feathers?

Speaker 2 (05:41.122)

some of have a little feather on the end, but I kinda switch up the varieties. I don't want to say exactly which ones, but you know.

Speaker 1 (05:48.622)

I I hadn't thought about a blue fox in a long time, but as a kid growing up in the UP, I don't remember the exact lure, but it was a b it it for sure was a blue fox and a yellow bucktail on the end and that thing was death on northerns. Yeah. I just like every time I tied that on I could catch a northern

Speaker 2 (06:09.656)

Well, I'm going out this weekend so I'll send you some pictures of the hopefully.

Speaker 1 (06:14.926)

the other thing you mentioned that piqued my interest is you said you're a precision rifle shooter. Did I get that right?

Speaker 2 (06:23.688)

Precision rifle series. So I wouldn't call myself much of a precision rifle shooter, but I I did a lot of work historically with rifles. We talked a little bit about it last time. I was in some of the Urban Deer stuff, but I've got some friends that are really big into PRS or the Precision Rifle series. Okay. That and the NRL Hunter are the two big kind of rifle matches around the country. And this was the first match that I had shot of the series. It was over in South Carolina. It was you want to talk about hot.

It felt like it was about a hundred degrees out there all day and you're eight hours in the sun. But it you're engaging targets from you know just a few hundred yards out to over a thousand yards. the first match I'd shot. I've shot a lot more of the handgun matches.

Speaker 1 (07:06.314)

Okay. So do we have a biathlete Olympic candidate in our future? Do you have do you do this with skis ever?

Speaker 2 (07:15.18)

Not a chance. It sounds too cold, Bob.

Speaker 1 (07:19.342)

All right, if we could be a tandem, I do the skiing and you do the rifle shooting.

Speaker 2 (07:24.526)

We might have a

Speaker 1 (07:26.69)

We like a a poor man's Olympiad.

Speaker 2 (07:29.262)

As long as I can bring some hand warmers, you know.

Speaker 1 (07:32.294)

Yeah. awesome. Well, what when I first asked you about living outside of Atlanta, I was curious if you've seen quail broods. how often do you see, you know, Coveys of Quail when you're moving around, you know, chasing trout in the streams around there and just across the countryside in Georgia?

Speaker 2 (07:54.956)

Yeah, well when you're chasing trout, I run into grouse and I drop a pin on every single one. do you really? Yeah. Rough yeah, rough grouse in Georgia. I killed one I've killed one rough grouse in Georgia. which is a claim to fame in my age group anyway, just because the populations are limited. You know, we're starting to get some more early successional habitat and burning and everything else in the mountains to help with that. but so trout fishing, not so much. You get down into South Georgia and even middle Georgia, you'll definitely bump into

to cubbies. I run into them a lot, you know, turkey season, deer season w when you're not targeting them, obviously. But pretty interesting. I killed a couple of deer in Hancock County, I believe it was last year, and they were laying out there in this field and this cubby of quail came out into the field and just was just walking all around these two does that were down in the field, you know. I've got a picture of it somewhere. Pretty interesting.

Speaker 1 (08:49.006)

what's your forecast for how the weather's been for quail reproduction in Georgia this year?

Speaker 2 (08:57.592)

Man, that's a good question. We'd have to talk to Miranda Golesby, our state coordinator in Georgia. I think I'd be speaking out at her in a little bit and then she might call me and criticize my fortune. So don't wanna get in trouble.

Speaker 1 (09:07.318)

All right. We won't we'll we'll save that for the quail forecast. We're not too far away. all right, we'll make the transition to talk about a little bit of a recap of what's happened at state houses across the country. Before we get rolling, I want to thank Parina Pro Plan, not only the presenting sponsor of On the Wing Podcast, but the national dog food sponsor of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever's Wildlife Habitat Mission.

My pups from trammole to little winter have always eaten Purina Pro Plan, not just because Purina supports the wildlife habitat conservation mission of our organization, which is really important to me. But what's most important is that Purina Pro Plan is a team of the world's best scientists and nutritionists behind their dog food. Purina Pro Plant was built, it was created. The recipe was made.

For the working bird dog like yours and like mine. You can learn more at proplensport.com. And I'll really encourage you as we head into hunting season, get your dogs on Pro Plant Sport. They support our organization, Rough Grouse Society, Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfall, you name it, they're the dog food of the conservation world. and please put that Pro Plant Sport in your dog.

Dogs Bull. It's great for them and it's great for everything we love. From Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever national headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota, this is Casey Sill with the Upland Newsroom, delivering top stories from the Habitat Organization and across the American Upland. Got a really interesting story for you today out of Florida, where a Quail Forever Farm Bill biologist just recently discovered a plant thought to be extirpated from the state.

While conducting vegetative surveys on private property near Sneeds, Florida, QF biologist Nick Reynolds stumbled upon what might be the last remaining location of Rubbeckia auriculata or Swamp Black-eyed Susan in the entire state of Florida. The plant can reach heights of a whopping 10 feet and has bright yellow sunburst-style blooms. Swamp Black-eyed Susan is a wetland dwelling plant historically documented in parts of the southeast.

Speaker 1 (11:25.824)

In Florida, however, the only two populations ever recorded before Reynolds encountered this one have not been observed in more than 20 years. Reynolds discovered the plant in a power line corridor that ran through private property owned by Joe Spooner, whose family has owned and cared for the land since 1958. And with the help of the University of South Florida herbarium, he was able to officially identify the plant. In hopes of preserving the swamp Black Eyed Susan, Reynolds reached out to Kelly Coles.

Gulf Coast Program Manager with the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Over the past three years, Coles has surveyed populations of the plant across Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, often finding this species in decline. Of the 21 documented Alabama populations she visited, only five still contained observable plants. The Florida population discovered by Reynolds, however, is thriving. Thousands of flowering stems stretch across the Powerline Corridor, creating what Coles describes

As the most robust population she's ever seen. Coles and her team collected approximately sixteen thousand seeds from the Florida population and transferred them to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens Conservation Seed Bank. There, the seeds will be tested, cataloged, and preserved as a safeguard against threats such as hurricanes, habitat loss, or population decline, in which case the seeds may be used to reestablish their population.

Beyond preserving rare species, the discovery of this plant highlights the value of habitat management practices that create open, sunlit conditions. Much like northern Bobwhale, swamp black-eyed Susan depends on disturbance to maintain suitable habitat. Prescribed fires, selective mowing, and other management practices that reduce woody encroachment can benefit both wildlife and these rare plants. In fact, Reynolds has documented Bob White calls on the very same property where the plant was discovered through acoustic recording units.

Reynolds now hopes to work with the power line company that manages the quarter to develop a management practices system that can help keep the swamp black-eyed Susan alive and thriving. This may involve reduced herbicide spraying or mowing around the time the flowers are blooming, allowing the plants to spread their seeds and reproduce. Reynolds' discovery illustrates how working lands can harbor remarkable biodiversity, even in unexpected places. With continued stewardship, this Florida population may help ensure the future of a species.

Speaker 1 (13:46.584)

That had disappeared from much of its historic range. A big thanks to Quail Forever Regional Communications Specialist Rachel Holt, who provided the initial reporting for this story. If you'd like to read her whole account of Reynolds' discovery, head over to QuailForever.org. That'll do it this week, reporting from PFNQF headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota. I'm Casey Sill. All right, Swanny. Let's ground our audience in state advocacy. You know, th this has been elevated in the last

I'll say eighteen to twenty-four months in the organization. talk a little bit about why. What where has that impetus came from?

Speaker 2 (14:28.278)

Yeah, so we've we covered this a little bit, but just if you missed the first podcast, we were kind of talking about the the states right after I came on board. You know, PF and QF have been known extremely well for their federal work on the farm bill and associated legislation in DC and just having a presence there. And it's not that we haven't ever done state advocacy before. I was literally 20 minutes ago, I hung up with Jim Inglis, who you know very well, that used to be with Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, and he engaged in a lot of different state stuff, but we never had a

a dedicated presence for state legislatures. And there is a lot of opportunity to work at the state level. And so that's the the first director level role that we had was when I stepped on board, we had a one manager before that for a short period. And the whole idea is to to build this presence in the state, the states, this is where the majority of conservation decisions, real conservation decisions are made, are at the state level.

and you can have a huge influence and it happens so fast. I mean, the the access to the legislators is is way easier. I mean, it chances are you probably know one of the legislators, one of the representatives or senators in your state. most state sessions are only a few months, you know, so things can happen extremely quick. And that can be good. That can be really good for us when we want something like a license plate to pass fast. But it can be really bad as well when it's something that we're trying to oppose and we don't have a lot of time to get our

our members engaged and really get to those capitals. So we've had this potential to do this. And in fact, I was talking to Jim and he was like, we talked about this a long time ago. We always kind of wanted it. And then when when Ariel came on as the VP, Ariel WeGard are VP of government affairs, kind of building out this vision and and bringing this position on to focus on the states and really capture that opportunity to have a positive impact on

On upland habitat that we care about and then also those upland hunting traditions. So that's that's kinda why we're focused on the States.

Speaker 1 (16:29.614)

That's a great recap. I even dialed it just a hair earlier, you know, when Marilyn Vetter took over as president and CEO and s you know, we started looking at updating our strategic plan. A focus on state advocacy was like number one to the top of the charts like a bullet. you know, is it w we had to invest more in here. There's so much opportunity and that, you know, then Ariel joins the organization and

You know, absolutely agreed, concurred with that thought and it fit into her vision and it it's grown from there and you're you know, the work you're doing has been in demand from the members for a long time and and now we're starting to see some fruit. Like you you mentioned that it's not like we've been absent, you know, s dedicated funding in Minnesota and I will efforts in Iowa and Environmental Trust Fund in Nebraska and y but we just haven't had

c the capacity until you you join the team. but let's talk a little bit about you know what what are some of those elements that you are focusing on when when we talk generically about state advocacy. You know, I kind of get at the what.

Speaker 2 (17:50.006)

Yeah, so we're engaging in pretty much anything that's gonna have a direct impact on on upland habitat, upland wildlife habitat. I mean, specifically quail and pheasants, obviously, but we're also very concerned about other wildlife and other upland species. Prairie grouse, absolutely. That's in our desired future state, you know, that we're we're looking at with the organization. And then with that, the majority of our members are hunters, you know. That is part of the reason that they're passionate about this.

Speaker 1 (18:04.888)

Particularly Pra prairie grout.

Speaker 2 (18:20.34)

And so upland hunting is a big concern to us in the state legislatures. And it's it's constantly under attack from one side, but then opportunity to improve it as well on the other side. So the that is the broad spectrum, and we'll get into examples here in a little bit about specifically what are some of the things that we've worked on. But we do have, you know, we've got limited resources to do this, right? We're the our government affairs team is already small. we've got we've got aerial.

in DC. We've got Andrew Schmidt who's also in DC. we've got Tim who's working on federal partnerships. And then you've got a staff of one working on 50 states over here and the state legislatures. And I get a lot of help from our and we'll talk about that too from our other staff. but we have to prioritize is what I'm getting at. we can't engage in everything. And then we also have to look at every issue and think, is that within the scope of our mission? Should we actually be engaging in this? We can't

engage in all of the dog issues, for example. You know, we could potentially get involved in some if it's going to have direct impacts. But I mean, we are the the habitat organization, right? So that is our main focus. We're focused on habitat. We're focused on access, education. So that's the priority area of what we're looking at. And we have this internal policy book that helps us guide this. And we we've we've been refining the way that we come up with these policies.

Getting member feedback, getting feedback from partners. And of course, our our board approves this and they just approved it at the last board meeting, our updated 2026 version of it. And I'll talk a little bit more about that as well. So that's kind of the the the what of it. And then when we actually engage, you know, there's a bunch of different ways that we do it. You know, we're we're having meetings all across the country. we're involved in coalitions, which are these these groups of partners that

Some of them are standing coalitions, like Pennsylvania has a standing coalition of all these organizations, Congressional Sportsman's Foundation, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. We're involved, Delta Waterfowl's involved, DU's involved. So you have all of these organizations that have these regular meetings talking about what's going on in the legislature that's going to impact wildlife or hunting. and it it's always something popping up. Then you have other coalitions that pop up just to deal with specific issues.

Speaker 2 (20:43.18)

whether that's a funding bill that's going through or or something else that's happening. And so we engage in a lot of those. testimony, support letters, comment periods, legislative events, I mean action alerts, we're gonna talk a little bit about all of this, but those are all kind of the ways in which we're really drilling down into those capitals and having an impact.

Speaker 1 (21:05.144)

You know, early in that explanation you talked about, you know, we advocate and f and fight for upland hunting. And on I think you st i at least the way I'm remembering you said on the other side, you know, there was the opposite of that fighting against it. And you know, as we talk politics these days, you know, the the listeners probably thinking, Well, are you referencing, you know, Republicans are here and Democrats are here, you know, like and

competing spectrums. And that's not at all what you're saying. That, you know, that it's the each side of the issue, generally speaking, conservation, habitat, hunting, it is a nonpartisan issue that we work with both sides of the aisle. It isn't a, you know, us versus them sort of thing. It's our mission versus the opposite of our mission, the habitat loss,

Taking access away. And I articulate that accurately.

Speaker 2 (22:05.462)

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we work with Democrats, Republicans, independents, anybody that cares about wildlife conservation hunting. and we are by definition, we're five one C three, we're strictly nonpartisan. We never will engage in campaigns or supporting elected officials. And we can't. Yeah, we have no desire to. We can't legally. And even if we could, you know, we are focused on our mission. And so that is what we're after. It doesn't matter what political party that they're in.

All I was referencing was just that that you do have these groups that are constantly trying to introduce legislation and advocating on legislation that would impact our mission in a negative way. And so, you know, sometimes we're we're on defense, oftentimes we're on defense, and then other times we get the opportunity to advocate for things that are gonna improve access or improve hunter education or whatever it might be.

Speaker 1 (22:58.38)

Yeah, yeah, right. It I may be dove in the weeds there, but it it just, you know, in the world we live in right now, you know, I I just feel like there's so much of you know, Reds versus Blues, you know, Yankees versus Mets that we can, you know, talk a little bit more about, you know, finding the harmony. no matter what team you root for, go tigers, that we can, you know, work for our habitat mission and in hunting hunting rights and hunting access.

Speaker 2 (23:28.216)

Always bring it back to baseball, don't you?

Speaker 1 (23:30.07)

you you started to touch on how we engage our audiences. Let's let's talk about that engagement that happened in twenty twenty six and the different groups that that we work with to move the needle at the state level.

Speaker 2 (23:48.716)

Yeah, absolutely. So if you listen to the last podcast, you know that I was in the middle of what we called a listening tour, which is it was literally me flying around the country, getting on calls, listening to our members, our partners, our staff about what was important to them from a priority standpoint, what was popping up in their states. and I ended up I ended up talking to our staff about literally all

fifty states and what was going on because we do have a lot of people don't realize this, but we have Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever members in all fifty states, which I still I think I mentioned that last time, but I think it's so cool. and

Speaker 1 (24:24.718)

We have chapters in almost every state.

Speaker 1 (24:30.604)

We're calling you out, Hawaii, in Alaska. We've had chapters in certain times in those states, but anyways, I w I take I'm not taking you off track, but yeah, we have members everywhere including other countries.

Speaker 2 (24:43.564)

been to forty seven states and I'm still missing Alaska and Hawaii. So we really need some chapters there. Need to get there to do some policy work.

Speaker 1 (24:51.704)

Forty seven. You're missing Alaska OI. What's the third one you're missing?

Speaker 2 (24:55.638)

You're gonna be surprised by this one. North Dakota. Never been Yeah. Never been to North Dakota. Emily Spoiler, our our state coordinator up there, keeps inviting me. They didn't they're a every two year legislature. So this year they they weren't in session. So I'm anticipating getting up there. I I

Speaker 1 (25:13.74)

I imagine you're gonna you should want to get to North Dakota and North Dakota shouldn't be nervous. You know, our CEO grew up and still still s travels all the time to North Dakota. We got strong presence. We just gotta get swanny to North Dakota. Preferably North Dakota in October.

Speaker 2 (25:28.888)

Think true.

Yeah. Yeah, that would be great. So we're gonna work on that. but yeah, w I talked to our staff about all the states. We ended up engaging with members, partners, coalitions that I I think it was almost forty states over the past the course of the past year. and then when you actually talk about what we might consider legislative guidance, right? That means we either engaged on a bill or we provided some sort of guidance to our membership or we showed up and

And testified, whatever it might be. We did that in 33 states in the past year, which is I think it's pretty impressive. I did not do that alone. obviously I was there to help drive it, but we we lean heavily on our state based staff that have the ability to engage here and there, of course, with the the guidance, the government affairs team, whether that's our state coordinators, our regional reps,

Our partners are huge. I mean, we're always leaning on our partners to to help with this work. A lot of the times they're the ones letting us know about things. And then our members. I mean, the that's that's probably the most crucial part is I I always consider the members the lifeblood of the organization, right? We wouldn't be here doing this without them. And having them so involved, I can't tell you how many phone calls I've gotten from across the country, from from California, literally all the way New York.

this past year about different issues impacting quail and pheasants from our membership. And it it's been fascinating. It's been eye opening to me. And honestly, a lot of the feedback that we've gotten from members has resulted in a change in our policy positions. Just if we're consistently getting this feedback about they want us engaged on whatever the issue might be, you know, we're listening to that. And so that was part of that listening tour. But when we're talking about the the actual engagement,

Speaker 2 (27:19.318)

that we did in twenty twenty six. Well, let's just start with the members since I was going on monologue about them. and, you know, a lot of that came through direct member engagement. So we had those phone calls, those emails. we've got great members like Randy Dahl is a a member down in Arizona. It's the Valley of the Sun Quail Forever chapter down there. He sends me emails and texts all the time updating me on what's happening. He stays involved and and updated on what's going on with the legislature down there.

We got our members to Capitol Days. So a a Capital Day for those that that aren't aware is just all we're talking about is like camo at the Capitol, conservation at the Capitol. It it's called different things in different states, but it's a show of presence. It's us as Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever showing up at a state capitol with many other partners on the same day, having conversations with legislators, just letting them know how important these issues are to all of us.

Speaker 1 (28:13.37)

And it's been particular sorry to jump in, it's particularly important to you to get representation outside of kind of a core historical states that PF and QF have been strong. Iowa, South Dakota, and with your addition, you're like, we're gonna get in Missouri and Tennessee and in Georgia and and you know, we're gonna be a more vocal voice for Quail in some of these other states. That that's been a focus of years, is it hasn't it?

Speaker 2 (28:48.566)

yeah. I mean, I've I've heard from our membership around the country. If they're not in the Midwest, they feel like maybe they're not paid as much attention to, which I understand, but they they are so engaged. We have such a presence in these states. It I think we were sitting over fifty percent of our staff were in quail country this past year. And so we're really building out the South and the West, and we've got great engagement in the Northeast, and we're s getting that feedback from members about how they're really enjoying.

a seen more of presence, especially on the advocacy side. Georgia's a great example. went to, let's see, it's called Keeping Georgia Wild Day at the Capitol this year. And one of our brand new life members, David Kidd, he lives just a a few miles down the road from me, actually has wild cubbies on his property here in Athens. Georgia just outside of Athens. He's done a lot of work on his property. It's beautiful, out in Oglethorpe County. Miranda Gold

Or Miranda, our state coordinator in Georgia, actually hosted a learn and burn on his property just here recently. But he came down to the Capitol with me and as part of that State Capitol Day. Miranda was there. We had some members from our West Georgia chapter that came as well. And it was just great having the engagement. I mean, it it was a a lot of a lot of fun. And I found out David Kidd is a bit of a celebrity at the Capitol because he knew everybody. And on the way out, he points to the wall, the portrait in the main.

capital room there and he was like, that's my father in law. Had no idea his father in law was the governor previously. But so what I'm kidding had is we have some really passionate, well connected members at all of these Capitol Days that are are helping us build a presence and build those relationships with legislators, which is what we want. So that's kind of that direct engagement. You know, we talked a little bit about what we call action alerts last time. And so we have this thing called

the Upland Action Center that we're building out. And it's just this system where we can track legislation and then we can empower our membership to reach out to their legislators with kind of our position or they can write in their own about a bill that pops up. Right. So let's see an example would be Minnesota with the OHF, the outdoor is it the outdoor here, just a fine is that yeah. Provides an incredible amount of money.

Speaker 1 (31:07.564)

Outdoor hair is it's fun, yep.

Speaker 2 (31:12.252)

for conservation every year. You know, our staff in Minnesota utilize a lot of that money, put a lot of it onto the ground for habitat work. And while it's protected, it has to be appropriated every year. And so there were some disagreements this year about those appropriations. So we did an action alert and we had our members in Minnesota reach out directly to their legislators and say, look, this is why this is important to us as an organization. This is why it's important to me as a supporter of Pheasants Forever. And it ultimately

ended up passing through. But that's an example. And we had we did 10 of those this year directly through the system. We had 7500 emails or thereabouts go from our supporters directly to their elected officials about why they should or should not support something. So pretty impactful. It's just an email, but we do hear back from those legislators oftentimes when we do a big push, just either thanking us or letting us know, hey,

Call off the dogs. We got the the message, you know. but if anybody wants to check that out, pheasantsforever.org slash action is where you can find it.

Speaker 1 (32:18.038)

It's gotta be a gratifying call when you get the respon Hey, call off the dogs. We heard ya. We're gonna correct us. That that's that's that's a major victory in your chair, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (32:32.68)

absolutely. It can be. But it it's still a bit of a game because you wanna you wanna have an impact, but you don't want to push too hard, right? Because you want to maintain those relationships. So it's all a bit of a relationship game. and then also on the the member side of the equation, you talked, you had Michaela Pepper on from the communications team talking about the Upland Caucus a few episodes ago. Yep. our fly into DC. So the Upland Caucus is this inaugural group.

Up 26 members from across the country. And so we've got broad coverage across across the country. And the whole idea was to engage members from the strongest supporting legislative action fund, which is our dedicated government affairs fund chapters, and to build out more grassroots advocates and more support within the states. And so we we really put them to work. and that was part of the the member engagement that we did this year. We brought them into DC to talk about the farm bill.

Yeah, we were wait waiting to see what what happens with that. But we were pushing the Senate and DC to, you know, take the House farm bill and introduce their own version of it. And it actually did work. All the talking points that we had with the the fly in there, with all of our our members having about thirty meetings with the Senate staff and the senators themselves. Almost all of his talking points except for one, I believe, landed in the Senate proposed farm bill.

and Andrew could Andrew Schmidt could tell you all the details about that. But pretty cool. We also had the Upland Caucus, you know, we were doing regular updates for them. They engaged in that policy book that I was talking about that kind of shapes our policies. We made a a bunch of changes to that this year based on their feedback, another feedback that we got. And then we I looped them into a lot of the state level stuff. So the legislative events, the capital days, some testimony here and there and really

really got them going with it. But you know, so member engagement's huge, staff leaning on the reps, the the coordinators, state coordinators, development staff, even field staff hoping hosting field tours and everything. It really is an all hands on deck experience, you know, to to coordinate everything. and of course our our partners. And we have contract lobbyists in a few priority states where there's something big that we're working on. So that's kind of the the how.

Speaker 2 (34:55.795)

We we engaged in the in a nutshell without boring everybody to death.

Speaker 1 (35:00.398)

before I transition to the you know, kind of the recap, the wins and losses, yeah, I'm thinking about listeners, maybe they're members, maybe they're actually an elected official from a state. They're like, you know, I I care about habitat, I care about public access to hunting opportunities. And they're they want to, you know, maybe they it is an elected official that wants to craft some legislation.

with you. How how do you want people to engage you, Swanny, to to reach out to potentially get involved in the Upland Caucus? To maybe there there is a state legislature this legislator that's listening. how do you want them to reach out and connect?

Speaker 2 (35:50.092)

do something dangerous, you can just have my email, s evans at pheasantsforever.org. But anybody can reach out to me. We're an open book at the government affairs team. Any member can email us, legislator, partner, whoever it is, we want to hear from you. And we'd love to get you engaged. I'm sure there's a way.

Speaker 1 (36:07.662)

I mean, who knows? Creative ideas come from all different directions. And you know, maybe there's a legislator out there listening in North Dakota that's got a concept to float your way to get you to to Bismarck, in front of a right at the Capitol. Like let's or or maybe, you know, Alaska or or Hawaii or who knows. but we invite folks to to engage Swanny. we're gonna talk

right now about what we accomplished some of the recap from the last year in state legislature legislative sessions before that i do want to thank onyx once again for supporting on the wing podcast onyx reminds us that waiting season is almost over we all know the feeling

The dogs are getting restless. We've been checking rainfall precipitation during the hatch. Every bird hunter is looking at gear. What do we need to get maybe maybe new pair of pants because our waste is a little bit bigger than it was a year ago. Maybe.

Speaker 1 (37:18.074)

A dog vest for the bird dog. It's a a wild child. you know, it's it's time to park that boat. It's time to get the dogs back in the field in shape, using their nose. Fall is almost here, and most importantly, it's time to get the Onyx app out and start looking for new opportunities to let that dog roll and for you to follow.

The best seasons don't start on opening day. They start right now with Onyx Hunt. All right. what we accomplished, and I'm looking at the kind of the notes of our last podcast episode together. And that was, as I mentioned, mid-December 2025, episode 343, for folks that want to go back and you know, listen to what ballot box biology means. But one of the items

on your list was license plates to generate funding for habitat. And I know if folks are following us on social media regularly, they've seen some victories there. hit us with the new license plates that are gonna be generating some habitat in different states.

Speaker 2 (38:35.468)

Yeah, absolutely. We had a exciting year with license plates. Before I get into that, another plug for Onyx. Their best feature is that you can turn off all your waypoints temporarily when you show your friend your map and they stand next to you. So just keep that in mind. You know, as a public land hunter, it's very important to know.

Speaker 1 (38:52.078)

secretive. You gotta yeah, you gotta be you gotta be able to hide those. Do you have the do you have the fishing?

Speaker 2 (39:01.422)

But use my on X hunt for the fishing side of the years.

Speaker 1 (39:05.302)

Yeah. I suppose it's not as much application for the depths when you're stream fishing.

Speaker 2 (39:11.916)

Yeah, you usually know how deep it is.

Speaker 1 (39:14.028)

Yeah. Especially if you're rolling over a lot.

Speaker 2 (39:17.294)

yeah. Yeah. All right. So the license plates. Let's get back to business here. The license plates are a cool thing. And we you know, we kind of we poked fun at maybe how they're not that exciting on the last episode, I believe. But it truly I mean it's something that's great for the organization and it's it's multi pronged, right? So license plates just at the the core level are very helpful because it provides

more funding for habitat work and everything else that we're doing with our mission in that state. So these funds are coming in. It's a voluntary way for our members and and other people that that care about our mission in the state. It's not restricted to our members to contribute to conservation. You know, it's not required. Yeah. And that well that's the other part. So those funds all stay right in the state and our state coordinators put those back to work on the ground. And then the other part is the the brand awareness.

Speaker 1 (39:57.624)

Shows some pride too.

Speaker 2 (40:10.306)

Right. So you've got the the Quail Forever brand or the Pheasants Forever brand and the awareness of that and kind of that upland heritage pride surrounding that and the awareness to the the broader community that that's important to a lot of people. So it generates a a lot of positive things in my mind. And it's something that we're a little bit behind on as compared to some other large nonprofits with a lot more license plates across the country. And we've we've heard from a lot of our members about how they want

license plates. So there's a there's a lot of demand. But we worked on a number of these across the the country this year. In Kansas we had one get through that's actually two license plates. So it was one bill, but it was a Pheasants Forever and a quail forever license plate. So you'll have the option in Kansas. Tyler, our state coordinator out there did a great job pulling that together. Sean Miller from Capital Strategies is you know we

We share him as a contract lobbyist. He's also a life member of ours. So very passionate about this. He helped push that through. And then I I've got to give a plug to Micah Rizak. She's our our regional rep or one of our regional reps out there in Kansas. I helped her write the testimony for it. She actually testified in front of committees twice to help get this license plate bill through. She did a great job. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:26.036)

She's great. She was on Rooster Road Trip with us. What a fabulous woman. Hardcore bird hunter, dog trainer. so yeah, I mean it I I'm sure she was super proud to be able to deliver the license plate testimony.

Speaker 2 (41:41.746)

she did she did an excellent job. I'm calling her every time we need testimony in Kansas from that month. But anyway, we had Tennessee was another one. I was pretty excited about that, you know, just north of me. great state up there. And what who was it? It was a representative Tandy Darby. He actually owns a quail plantation out in West Tennessee and he's a state representative. And he volunteered to help us introduce that and get that pass, which was awesome. and really dove in. We

We helped write the legislation and then that went through and and Kat Carter, who's one of our state physicians up there in Tennessee, has really been helping behind the scenes push this. So now we've passed the bill in Tennessee and it's been approved. Now we have to sell a thousand pre-sales before the plate will be developed. So that's the process that we're in. If you're in Tennessee, I really encourage you to get on the website, find that link for the pre-sales. There was a press release that went out. Yep.

Speaker 1 (42:38.43)

It was on social media too.

Speaker 2 (42:40.148)

on social media and and buy one of those plates because we're gonna we're gonna need it to make sure that that we get to the level that we need in tennis. Yeah, that's exciting. Louisiana. So Louisiana had a quail license plate. they've had one for quite some time and it was a quail forever license plate and we did some juggling with that restructuring. DU was doing the same Ducks Unlimited was doing the same thing at the same time and I went down there to testify on that one. And so we've we've taken that and directed

Speaker 2 (43:09.344)

All of the funds from those plate sales will now be coming to us in Louisiana. We're actually doing a membership if you buy a plate as well. So that was part of the bill that went through. And we're going to be able to help develop a more robust state fund there to put more habitat on the ground. Of course, closely partnering with the state agency that we've always had a great relationship with, but it's gonna help us strengthen that partnership to work on more projects together. So that was a great one. And then the last one that

that actually passed this year was South Carolina. So Senator Tom Young over there in South Carolina introduced a bill for a quail forever license plate. We worked with him. He's also a new member there in in South Carolina and we pushed that through. The governor just signed it. I've been on the phone with the D V, which, you know, great fun. I know everybody loves talking to the D V. They actually are very nice at the South Carolina DMV. They've been very helpful.

And we're we're moving this forward. I've been working with our state coordinator and regional rep and getting the design in place, getting all the forms that they need. It doesn't just stop with the bill. You gotta push it through. but yeah, so we've got those four plates.

Speaker 1 (44:23.33)

coming on. Yeah. Four quail forever plates and a pheasant plate. So five different plates that to generate funding for habitat.

Speaker 2 (44:31.108)

yeah, five different plates. And we've got we've got I've gotten just in the past week, I've gotten calls from out west, a call from kind of the middle of the country. I don't wanna say the states yet 'cause we don't know if we're actually gonna pursue it. looking at other plates. And then we've got one, delegate Buddy Fowler, who's a a great supporter of ours up there in Virginia, is gonna help us push a plate for Virginia in twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (44:53.422)

Do you do you have a count of how many states are currently in play that have pheasants or and or quail plates? Because I know I mean they we got one in Minnesota, there's a South Dakota pheasant plate, there's a Montana one.

Speaker 2 (45:08.012)

North Dakota, I believe. Nebraska's developing one. So so not every state has to go through the legislature to develop a plate. Okay. So some states it requires a bill to pass. And then other states it's a just a process with the DMV. there's it's very different from state to state. So I'm not exactly sure. I I know we're working on a few others that don't involve the legislature and I'm helping when asked with those, but obviously it's not directly in my lane.

and then, you know, we've got those others that are supported. But it it gets a little complicated 'cause some states like Georgia, we have an incredible relationship with the state agency here in Georgia and they have a Bob White plate that, you know, a lot of those funds support the work that we do as well. You know, so there's there's some plates where while it's not directly a Quail Forever plate, we benefit heavily from it and Quail benefit heavily from it. Right.

Speaker 1 (46:05.24)

That that's the Minnesota example too. There's a pheasant plate that, you know, all sorts of groups can apply for the funding to put towards different habitat oriented projects in in you know we're one of the groups. Let's transition to dedicated funding. What what what came to be or what's in process from state houses this past

Speaker 2 (46:29.324)

Yeah, so this is always a big one, right? yeah. And we were talking about dedicated funding, just as a reminder to everybody. We're talking about any funding source that's not coming from license sales or Pittman Robertson money coming out of the the excise tax. So that's kind of the bulk of of state conservation funding. I think sixty percent if we were to this is an average across all states, but sixty percent of conservation funding for state natural resources agencies is coming off of license sales or

the Pittman Robertson dollars, Dingle Johnson, all that stuff. And when you look outside of that, there's a huge need for additional funding to really do that work on the ground. And that's where these dedicated funds come in. So we talked about

Speaker 1 (47:13.07)

Free tickets, pot marijuana sales, right? Like syntaxes, yeah, yeah, some of those sort of things we're talking about.

Speaker 2 (47:23.03)

Yeah. I mean you you've got some states that pull pull off of oil and gas revenue. Montana pulling off of, you know, a new a new product coming to market, you know, the cannabis coming to market, weed for wildlife or whatever they called it up there. You know, it's a great catchy name. you've got Oregon with a transient lodging tax, just a whole bunch of different stuff. Sometimes the lottery proceeds, sometimes it's a portion of the sporting goods sales tax. But there's a lot of different models. The the main theme is just it's a dedicated

revenue source that's gonna bring money in that's gonna be stable to the agency to do wildlife work. So in Nebraska, they have a great example. It's called the Nebraska Environmental Trust. I think you might have mentioned it earlier already, but that was actually in jeopardy this year. they were trying to sweep about forty million dollars out of that for another project. We've Kelsey, our state coordinator there, has done an incredible amount of projects on the ground with those funds. They're competitive grants that we apply for and then

We take that money along with a bunch of other conservation groups and other landowners that are eligible for it and put it right back on the ground. And it's it's got a huge impact on on pheasants and and quail and everything else. And that was in jeopardy. And so all the groups, including us, kind of rose up. We did action alerts. Drew Larson, who's our our VP of conservation delivery, I helped him write testimony. He actually went down and and testified in front of the committee there since he was

He's right there in Nebraska for those people who don't know. And ultimately we're able to reduce that sweep significantly, save the funding that had already been allocated to Pheasants Forever, because that was in jeopardy initially, you know, the awards that we'd already received. And we're making sure that we're continuing to put those funds into the habitat on the ground. And we've got plans in place for next year to try to make sure that we get addition additional protections for those funds in the future. So

That was a big one. a r a really big one. And something that's a little bit smaller but still just as important is South Dakota. There's something called the Riparian Buffer Initiative. And we've used this for I think we've been involved in it since since the funding started, but we've done like nine hundred and fourteen acres and and seventy something miles of stream bakes just in the past year that have been positive wins for for upland habitat. And that's just our team in South Dakota using those ones for that. They're used for other things as well.

Speaker 2 (49:50.976)

but that was up for discussion in front of committee. And so we actually once again over the testimony for that. Our regional rep in South Dakota went in and testified. He did a great job in front of the committee there and that ended up passing and those funds were distributed. So that

Speaker 1 (50:06.55)

So when people hear that, they're like, well, 900 acres isn't that big a deal. But when you're when you think about that in terms of 900 plus acres as a buffer, you know, you're protecting the water quality. and it's not huge acres in terms of great big blocks, but they're the absolute top of the pyramid in terms of valuable acres that provide wildlife benefits.

As well as water quality benefits too.

Speaker 2 (50:37.014)

Yeah, the better metric to put around it is probably the seventy seven miles of stream to protected. Yeah. So that kind of illustrates it. And that's a great point, Bob, because it sounds small, even though it every acre matters, I would argue. But yeah. Yeah. It yeah. When when you stretch it out across the stream banks, it has a much larger connotation to it. So that was a another big one. We talked about the Minnesota example already, when we're talking about action alerts, but we engaged in

Dedicated funding for Tennessee. So in Tennessee, they've they've tried to what a lot of these states are running up against right now, and I'm hearing from states every day where this is an issue is the state natural resources agency, who who we always try to be as strong of a partner as possible to. So we care about their funding because it directly impacts our work as well. that state natural resources agency, they're projecting a lot of shortfalls in different states. some states it's twenty twenty eight when they're gonna

you know, run out of money to operate at their current level. So we've seen a lot of inflation and everything else. And it's getting more challenging. And they can only increase hunting license fees every so often because they get a lot of pushback. And it it can be very challenging in some states to increase those license dollars. So with that, there's all these pushes for dedicated conservation. And and Tennessee was one of those where they tried to increase hunting license fees, weren't able to pull it off. And now we're looking at dedicated sources to make sure

that they can continue to implement like they have been. In in Iowa, we helped nudge along some hunting license increases. It was a tiny f for the from the hunters perspective and from our members' perspective, it was a very like a dollar or two per license, you know, not a big deal. Especially when you're driving halfway across the states putting a bunch of money on side by side, everything else that while we want to be conscious of that, we did talk to a lot of our members and they were like, absolutely we would

absorb that cost to make sure that this habitat stays in place. And so we helped push that with with Iowa. Of course we're always working on I will. We don't need to get into the weeds on that. We did that with the last podcast, but that would be dedicated conservation funding. Kansans for conservation. It's it got further than it ever has this year. That's one that would be off with lottery proceeds, generate a lot of money for conservation in Kansas. And we're gonna continue to to chip away at that one. We think we've got a good strategy for this next session.

Speaker 2 (52:57.088)

Wyoming is starting to talk a little bit more about what they might do from a funding perspective in lieu of, you know, potential license increases. Just all of these states are looking at how are we gonna make sure that we operate, that we maintain the habitat, the access, all of those issues.

Speaker 1 (53:16.042)

So I'm I'm I'm thinking there's probably listeners out there, you're like, okay, we've talked about license plates. There's seems to be a lot of demand. We talked about dedicated funding, everything from, you know, weed for wildlife and you know that we I think on podcasts before mentioned sports gambling, creating attacks and in all sorts of different metrics. And one of the things that we haven't talked a lot about but is

sort of the predecessor of all this is stamps. You know, the the upland stamps, the pheasant stamp, the quail stamp. There doesn't seem to be a tremendous push for that at the state level, or maybe I'm maybe I'm not aware of it. What what's the what's the current appetite at from states to generate funding for the uplands through the sale of a tack on stamp or it

Or or are the states that are gonna do that have already done that?

Speaker 2 (54:19.766)

We actually I saw at least two introduced this past year. okay. Yeah. And the what you run into with those is some usually there's a release bird component with those stamps when they're introduced. Not always. but that's what I've seen in recent years. So in Kansas they introduced the stamp and they had a hundred percent of those funds going to release birds. Now it's not we're not saying

That's a bad thing, but we are saying we'd love to see public dollars spent on habitat, you know, especially in states where you have these viable populations of wild birds.

Speaker 1 (54:54.518)

Right. Yeah, Kansas. Boy, like put that money into habitat for boosting the wild populations of boboits and pheasants and free chicken.

Speaker 2 (55:04.972)

Yeah. And so we we engaged on that bill. I don't think it actually ended up going anywhere, but we just we didn't oppose it. We didn't support it. We said we commend you for the idea of the stamp. We just encourage you to consider taking up at least a portion of those funds and allocating it for habitat. You know. And that was the big message that we had for them. I was just talking with Marty in Wisconsin about the pheasant stamp up there.

So that stamp's been in existence. Once again, a portion of that goes towards habitat, a portion goes toward release birds. And it hasn't been increased. The the stamp fee has not been increased, I think, since it was introduced. And I mean this was like a decade or more ago, probably further than that. I can't remember the exact year. the waterfowl stamp just recently, two years ago, got an increase to that one. And so

I I don't know that, you know, we're working with the agency to figure out exactly what they need, what their desires are on the funding perspective. but that's one where we we might look at, you know, sometime in the future, I don't know what that timeline looks like, but an increase to that stamp. So yeah, stamps are always in play. They're always an option in those states that don't currently have them. Sometimes there's going to be necessary increases to those, just as we've seen the cost of everything go up. Sure. Just to make sure that we can we can do the work that

that we care about and that ultimately benefits all of our supporters. So

Speaker 1 (56:30.136)

Yeah, I think it's an important delineation that if you know, if we're asking, you know, pheasant hunters to step up and buy a stamp, a new stamp, that th those dollars be directed towards improving the habitat for wild birds in a way that you know, it pays off the investment that those hunters are making. But but kind of threw you a curveball there. Let's I think the next item on your list is access level.

efforts.

Speaker 2 (57:01.74)

Yeah. So access is a big I mean, access is huge. It's one of the biggest limiting factors when it comes to hunting participation that there is and who doesn't want more area to hunt, right? Birdwatch on or whatever your your main pursuit is. And so w we work on a number of access issues a across the country. And South I think we might have mentioned that this was ongoing last time, but in South Carolina there was a no net loss bill that ended up passing and getting signed by the government, which just means that

the public land that the state agency manages can't shrink at all. That doesn't mean they can't sell a portion, but they have to buy an equal or greater track. And so that's what no net loss in general means. And that went through in South Carolina, which was great news. I mean, we've got a lot of members over there, great staff, and they were very excited to see that. so we help support that with our partners. Wyoming there was a a bill that was just a it was literally called I think it was keeping public lands public.

You know, it was just an affirmation that this is the desire of the constituents. We want to make sure that we maintain this legacy in Wyoming and push for this. Cause we did start to see a trickle down from the federal level. You know, the all the public lands attention that we engaged in. You know, Andrew and Ariel did a great job with that. Our members engaged heavily. I can't it was thousands of emails that came directly from our members to to their legislators about why they cared about those federal public lands. Well

We've seen a lot of the state elected officials take that messaging and kind of bring it down to the state level and question the importance of public lands. Do we really need this? Right. We testified in Indiana about the importance of public lands to our membership. You know, we've done that kind of around the country, but those were some of the bills. And then in addition to that, there's some actual it's not as common, but there are bills that directly affect our ability to manage habitat.

not just a funding perspective. And a lot of at least in recent history, a lot of those revolve around prescribed fire. and I mean, who doesn't like lighting the woods on fire? Right. But it's trickier in some states than other states. And in South Dakota, this was this was a really cool one to me. In South Dakota along the Missouri River, you've got some state owned and public land down there. And it's not easily accessible for state employees or or government employees to access to burn. And it would be kind of a

Speaker 2 (59:27.776)

a challenge. But now with this bill that we supported and and got passed to South Dakota, a private landowner that borders that that public land up against the river can actually burn their property and the public land with approval at the same time. So it was increasing the prescribed fire that's going on the ground there in in South Dakota, which I thought was a a really cool, you know, kind of a small bill, but a significant change that's going to put more fire on the landscape and ultimately benefit the the wild birds there.

So pretty pretty neat. Nebraska, we saw some changes to burn permits that were positive, a couple other small things like that around. And then it's not just legislation when it comes to access and habitat. There's a lot of comment periods that happen. So in in Washington State, we submitted a letter to the agency in support of these public land acquisitions they were going to do. And so we supported them buying the property. We made that known with the support of our membership. But then we also said, We want you to buy this.

But keep it open to hunting and make sure that you actually have a management plan that's going to benefit elpen species. You know, so that's what we're reinforcing there. Down in Florida, a great example from just, I think it was like a month or two ago, we engaged in Volusia County is a a large public landowner in Florida, and they acquired this tract that was formerly known as the Carter Quail Ranch, as you might imagine. It has some covers on it. And the proposal that they put out to the public to comment on.

Included hunting and prescribed fire and all of these beneficial things. And they were getting some negative comments about allowing hunting access and the use of fire in that area. And so we actually did an alert to our members and we got great response from our members down in there in Florida. They reached out to Volusha County and that plan moved forward as is, allowing for hunting access, allowing for prescribed fire and all these things. so kind of cool stuff. Yeah.

I mean we can't even hit all of it, but these are just the things that are going on across the country that maybe you don't think about 'cause it's fifteen hundred acres there or just burning on a river corridor in this area, but it's all things that together have a huge impact.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37.782)

And I'll just touch on path for a moment, path being our public access to habitat. John Locks, who we've had on the podcast a number of times, that that's such a big program and an area of focus that we have a person dedicated to that initiative, in addition to SWANE. over the last year, we've added North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Michigan as states that have PATH programs that are opening up.

private lands to public access. So, you know, through kind of federal legislation, VPA hip, enabling states to access funds from the federal government. And then our ability to layer on, you know, our organization dollars, we can open up habitat for public hunting in a wide variety of ways, utilizing

sometimes our own program like Path or some legislative eff efforts at the state level like Swanny's touched upon. w what else do you want to cover that you kind of check the box on accomplishing before we before we look ahead to next year?

Speaker 2 (01:02:54.964)

We gotta talk about my favorite topic, hunting, right? I mean, we haven't really got into that. And you know what? My background is in wildlife, but the whole reason I got into wildlife is because I like to hunt. And I I think I share that with a lot of our members. The reason they're members is not that they're not passionate about h wildlife or passionate about quail or pheasants, but a lot of them were drawn to this because of an an upbringing or an introduction later in life to the outdoors in a form of hunting, right?

And so we hear we get a lot of feedback about how they want to see more engagement on this and I take all of those to heart because I wanna engage on it more too. But we we got some cool things and I'll just quickly run through these. but we've we've got hunter education in schools in two new states. So Georgia and Tennessee are those two states. We worked with partners on that, just stepped in and and as a show of support to to help get those across the line. Well well

Speaker 1 (01:03:48.568)

grade level are is hunter education happening at these days?

Speaker 2 (01:03:53.228)

Ooh, it was actually in the legislation which grade levels is going to be allowed for is up to twelfth, but I think it started at like sixth or something like that. Okay. Don't quote me on that. but

Speaker 1 (01:04:02.606)

So it's a relatively big window of opportunity.

Speaker 2 (01:04:05.722)

yeah. And it just it's not that the school has to do it. It just allows for it in the curriculum. I was I was growing up I grew up in Atlanta in the middle of Atlanta. And despite that, I had the benefit of being able to hunt every weekend just because of family further south of there. But I had to drive two hours to go take Hunter Ed in person when I was a kid. And it was let's just say it wasn't a positive experience, right? But how cool would that have been if I could just take it in school and then my friends that were interested in it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35.224)

could also take it in school. Whether you're ever going to hunt or not, it's an interesting curriculum. And there's firearm safety in there. There's the how conservation's funded. You know, there's all this great stuff. So pretty cool that those went through. another big one, and this is still wild to me that this is a thing, but Sunday hunting. You know, so we talked before Sunday hunting is now allowed in Pennsylvania. That that prohibition was lifted. So that was a big one. Maryland had some

Sunday hunting updates as well that we supported. Still a little bit restricted, but it's opened up more than it was previously. in Massachusetts, there's a bill right now that's being considered to allow for Sunday hunting. So the state agency did a survey and it was a public comment period asking for feedback on a couple different things. And one of those was should we allow hunting on Sunday? And of course, we grabbed that.

And went to all of our members and said, Hey, respond to this with how you think, you know, we're supportive of this. What do you think? And so they ended up between our members and, you know, everybody else that responded, they had like eleven thousand comments with over seventy percent of those in favor of Sunday hunting. And that so that turned into a piece of legislation that's now moving and hopefully gonna be passed, which we're pretty excited about. But we engage in right to hunt issues that

that might end up on the ballot. Delaware's considering that right now, different commission meetings across the country where hunting is a a big component that's considered. So that's always something that we're we're looking at. But that that's kind of I mean those rounding out with hunting, my favorite topic. That's why I put that one last. you know th those are kind of the big picture areas. I do want to be clear that that is not all inclusive. I mean we we worked on so many different things that yeah it

It was pretty cool and I think we have a lot of opportunity for twenty twenty seven. Well

Speaker 1 (01:06:32.49)

Including, you know, most of what we've touched on have been offensive victories where we're trying to get something past that we want to see happen. It you know, we've barely touched upon the things that, you know, we categorize as defense, where some legislation that is extremely bad that would eliminate access or eliminate hunting opportunities or take tools out of our habitat toolbox away.

You know, those are arguably just as important to win, to but beat back the the as our victories.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12.374)

Absolutely. Yeah. So I mean, we mainly hit on the things that have passed and been signed by the I think it was like nineteen pieces of priority legislation that passed this year that were signed by the governor. And then we we briefly covered some other things, but yeah, there was a lot of of defense in there where we just we're helping to make sure that a bill died, you know, that we're not necessarily illustrating on on this podcast, but there's a bunch of those and some of those never make it

you know, very far at all and others are more of a threat. So it it is wild to see what gets introduced and how ridiculous some of it is.

Speaker 1 (01:07:49.174)

Anything as you think back, you know, this year or the year, you know, maybe the last couple of years that you can identify as trends. As you're like, you know, I've I'm seeing winds of change, positive or negative, that your instant reaction is we gotta keep an eye on that, or this could be really good.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11.456)

Yeah, the keep an eye on thing is the ballot box biology. that that's a scary one. It's going on in Oregon. We talked about it with Colorado previously. It's going on in Oregon right now. It's called IP twenty eight. And it would effectively change these restrictions that would make killing animals illegal to some extent. So it would shut down hunting, right? And this is something that's been a big we're part of a coalition in Oregon, but but it's been a big point of

concern, as you might imagine, for all of the conservation groups, but also for agriculture and and many others. luckily the if it makes the ballot, so they've got the way it works is they have to get a certain number of signatures on this petition. And then those signatures have to be verified. And once they're verified, if they meet the threshold, then it goes on the ballot. That's the process. Well they've got the signatures. They've got over the amount of signatures, but in the verification process

they usually lose a certain percentage of those signatures due to them not verifying. And so that's the stage that they're in right now. So there's still a chance that it won't make the ballot. and then if it does, the chances of it passing are pretty slim. That doesn't mean that we're not going to be doing an education campaign around the potential impacts of it in partnership with many other organizations out there. But it's still just the fact that it might make it to the ballot is is concerning.

Speaker 2 (01:09:37.856)

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38.358)

A state would even consider eliminating hunting. I mean I mean it's fundamentally where so much food comes from. Yeah, as you mentioned, agriculture too. I mean, it's just it's it's it's baffling that society is kinda ha that momentum in that direction.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02.382)

Well, honeying is something that is truly human. I mean, involved with humans, predating Homo sapiens, you know, it wasn't until recent generations that it became uncommon. and now we've got about five percent of America that participates annually. But yeah, it is it is wild that it makes it that far. and it it's certainly concerning, but it's also an opportunity for us to educate the public and to jump out there and and tell them about why this this is important.

But kind of the scary part to me about some of these ballot initiatives is I mean, you you go to vote, right? And you are looking down and some people study the ballot beforehand, some people just walk in there and maybe they don't look at it as much. And you get to one of these ballot initiatives and they write it in such a way that it can be very convincing that it's a good thing. I mean, they're not gonna put on the ballot and this is gonna end hunting and agricultural practices, you know. They're gonna write it in a way that this is good for animals.

And so to the unknowing individual that maybe hasn't done their research on it, they're gonna be like, yeah, that sounds great. You know, so that's the challenge with this ballot initiatives is it's a split second decision, oftentimes, if we don't get in front of the right people to educate them. And it might sound like a really good thing when you're standing there in the

Speaker 1 (01:11:19.032)

Don't get duped. Do your research. A any other trends that you want to flag?

Speaker 2 (01:11:21.622)

There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:11:25.942)

Well, we already talked about the funding issue. That's just gonna be a continuous one, you know, where states are running aga up against these funding problems, which directly impacts our partnership with them, impacts the habitat that goes on the ground, the public lands potential, all of these different things that we care about. And so that's that's gonna be a big trend that we see as well. And one other thing that we didn't talk about that I've been working on that is it's not even fun to talk about, which is why I didn't bring it up, is the like the gambling commissions and the gaming.

Charitable gaming laws and everything else. We're working on that in Washington, Ohio, Pennsylvania. Just trying to make sure that we can actually fundraise and allow our chapters to have banquets in the way that they want to, is is important. It

Speaker 1 (01:12:08.118)

It may not be fun, but there's tens of thousands of our volunteers out there listening, like we gotta win that one. Like the handcuffs that are on our volunteers these days to raise money to put into the ground to create habitat are in some states absolutely ludicrous. So yeah, keep your keep your nose to the grindstone on that one. That that's a that's a tough one, but it's a very worthwhile one.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36.961)

Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38.918)

so looking ahead, as you mentioned, most of the states now kind of they're in a recess. Some states won't even meet for another year. but a as you look ahead, what's what's on the horizon for ya?

Speaker 2 (01:12:53.046)

Yeah, we've got a lot of things teed up that we want to work on in the twenty twenty seven sessions. So Texas will be in session, they're gonna have a funding battle over there, but they're in every two year session. North North Dakota will be in session, you know, where they weren't previously this past year. And there's some things we're gonna work on up there. But they're we've got kind of this landscape of legislation that we've got to watch out for that we wanna push across the country.

But this I'm really excited about 2027 because this was my first full year in the job. And so looking into these next sessions, I have a lot better idea of of how to prioritize, what to expect. I've got those relationships both internally and externally with our with our members, with our staff, with our partners, to be able to act a little more quickly on these things. We've got our Upland Action Center up and running a little bit better. You know, that was our first year using it.

Right. So you're gonna see a lot more action alerts coming out to engage our membership, which I'm I'm pretty excited about. And the one fun I mean, the Upland Caucus, that group that we talked about, the inaugural group, was a lot of fun this year. The twenty six members, we had a good time, virtual meetings, some in person stuff, the DC fly in. Well, we're we're continuing that forward. So that's gonna be an annual thing. we just had the final meeting of our Upland Caucus and I believe it was it was on Tuesday evening.

of this week and you know kind of bittersweet because it was a great group and we're gonna see some of those individuals come back and we're gonna have some new individuals come into the caucus as well. And I'm just excited to get that group engaged, both at the state level and then also do the the federal stuff with them. But it's a lot of fun. I get I get phone calls from them all the time. We send them to events and just really it's allowed them to see how everything works and gain a real appreciation for that.

But then it's also given us kind of this army of people at the state level to really lean on and and be our ears on the ground and help move things forward.

Speaker 1 (01:14:57.018)

well, I know we've we we've gone on, we covered a lot of ground. I I'm gonna reiterate if folks out there, whether you're a member, volunteer, partner, agency, maybe even an elected official, if you want to reach out to Swanny, put a bug in his ear, something that you want to see happen at the state level, or maybe you got an idea for legislation, can reach SWANE at S Evans.

at pheasantsforever.org. You can always reach me at Bob S at PheasantsForever.org and I can field any email and make sure it's routed to the right person to help. Swane, thanks for doing this. I appreciate you coming back and recapping what what we got accomplished and what's on the horizon that's still to be done in the year ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:15:48.684)

Yeah, thanks for having me back on, Bob.