Ep. 83: The Drive-Thru Chapter Banquet and Iowa’s Pheasant Surge

Host Bob St. Pierre heads across the airways to Iowa to hear all about the first ever drive-thru banquet hosted by the DubuqueLand chapter of Pheasants Forever. He’s joined by Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever Field Services Director Tom Fuller and DubuqueLand chapter President Tim Fiedler. Listen and learn about the innovative solution these chapter volunteers put together to make sure they continued to deliver the organization’s habitat mission in their local area during a worldwide pandemic. Episode Highlights: • Tim Fiedler explains how he got involved with Pheasants Forever and how he came to be president of the DubuqueLand chapter for the last 16 years. • Tim talks about the chapter’s habitat work, veteran and youth hunts, and their unique partnerships with other outdoor volunteer groups. A passionate man, Tim vividly describes the pride he feels in creating permanent public lands for hunters. With the real “Field of Dreams” only 12 miles from his house, Tim references the famous line from the movie “if you build it, they will come,” but references it to future generations of hunters. • Tom and Bob dig into the details of the first ever drive-thru banquet and Tim shares how the chapter came together to put the event on at their local fair grounds while abiding by COVID-19 safety guidelines. In the end, Tim called the event “easy” to put together and reports the chapter raised more than $35,000 for habitat projects during the evening. • The trio goes on to discuss the positive pheasant forecast recently released by the Iowa DNR, where there’s over a 100% increase in pheasant counts in three parts of the state. As Tim said, we’ve hit a home run for habitat; Iowa is seeing the results of habitat work. • The conversation ends with a big thank you to the sea of blaze orange Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever volunteers doing the work across the country. It is the chapter volunteers who make the locally-driven mission of “The Habitat Organization” possible. If you’re a chapter officer interested in learning more about hosting a drive-thru, contact your Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever Regional Representative. If you’d like to get involved with your local Pheasants Forever & Quail Chapter banquet, check out our chapter map.