Published: Tuesday, April 2, 2013 1:07 AM CDT

The Yankton chapter of Pheasants Forever has spent more than $880,000 during its existence to acquire land the public can use for hunting — and it’s always looking for more.

“There was very little public space available for hunting in the Yankton area 20 years ago,” said Ron Pesek, habitat chairman of the chapter. “We work with government agencies to help in getting more land available for hunting. Over the years, we’ve developed more than 1,300 acres within 40 miles of Yankton to be used for hunting.”

Pheasants Forever will hold its annual fundraiser on Saturday at Minervas in hopes of raising more money to be used to get land for hunting and to support land owners who leave their grasslands and food plots undisturbed during the winter.

“The maximum payment we give to those landowners is $300,” Pesek said. “This equals around $10,000 a year we spend on that, which really isn’t a lot of money. However, it does help those landowners cover their costs.”

The banquet, open to members only, will feature raffles, a meal and live and silent auctions. Memberships will be sold at the door and cost $35. A youth membership for children 15 and younger is also offered and costs $20, which will include a meal at the banquet.

Pheasants Forever will also be sponsoring a few area youth to attend a wildlife camp this June in the Black Hills.

“We had a meeting and decided we will sponsor up to four kids from the area to go to the camp,” Pesek said. “Kids can send in a letter to be sponsored and go to the camp. It’s primarily a learning camp, but also is fun for anyone who enjoys wildlife and the outdoors.”

The camp will last for one week and features a number of outdoor activities including canoeing, archery, conservation, game management and fishing and shooting skills.

Youth who want to be considered for sponsorship must write a letter on why they would like to go. All letters, which must be postmarked by April 12, can be mailed to P.O. Box 757, Yankton, SD 57078.

Because of the drought, Pesek said pheasants have faced bad conditions in the immediate area.

“The drought has been tough on a lot of birds and other wildlife,” he said. “All wildlife has been impacted by the drought and it’s really been a difficult situation. The numbers of pheasants in the area are down as well.”

Kevin Heiman, chair president of the group, said they work to do everything they can to improve the habitat for pheasants and increase their numbers in the area.

“We have to play within Mother Nature’s guidelines, and we can’t control that too much,” Pesek said. “It has been the driest it’s been here in 50 years. Our ultimate goal is to give wildlife a place it can live and thrive in the area.”

He added that Pheasants Forever is a particularly unique organization because it is one of the only groups that allows local chapters to keep all their profits at the local level.

“For other organizations, if local groups profit, their money will go back to the national organization,” Pesek said. “Here, aside from membership fees, whatever we profit stays within our control and is kept here locally.”

As of last year, the Yankton area chapter of Pheasants Forever was the all-time leader in habitat expenditures among all chapters in the state. A large portion of the profits it’s had has gone into getting more land for hunting.

“When it comes to acquiring public hunting grounds, usually it’s because the land owner wants their grounds to become a public hunting place,” Pesek said. “Usually we’re not going to auctions to get lands. We’re working with individuals.”

The group recently lent a hand in purchasing an old tractor ground outside of Tabor.

“We really played a minimal role in that process; we let everyone else do their staff and we acted as the ‘clean-up batter’ in order to make the land acquisition work,” Pesek said. “A lot of different organizations put up money to get that to become public hunting land.”

The area, which encompasses more than 190 acres, features fishing, duck, deer and dove hunting, and has song birds for people to watch.

Pheasants Forever also puts an emphasis on getting kids exposed to the outdoors.

“We put on a number of youth events throughout the year to get kids interested in being outside, hunting and fishing,” Pesek said. “We want to introduce the sport of pheasant hunting to new generations. The sport is so vital to the state economy — more pheasants are shot in South Dakota than in any other state. We hope that we can help to continue that trend.”

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