Columbia-Marquette County Pheasants Forever

09/20/2026

Not exactly what we had hoped for today for attendance at our first stab at Habitat Field Days, but was fun watching our future take interest in the environment and habitat.

09/15/2026

PHEASANTS FOREVER HABITAT FIELD DAY

SEPTEMBER 19, 2026

Our Columbia/Marquette Chapter Pheasants Forever chapter is hosting a field day at the UW Arlington Research Station public events facility, N633 Hopkins, Rd., Arlington WI with field trips and activities at Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance’s Goose Pond Sanctuary (GPS), Arlington from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Everyone should arrive at the UW public event building to sign in.

This event is being held in memory of Terry Socha, a longtime PF chapter member.

At the UW public events building:

Program:

9:00 - 9:30 Opening welcome and what is being covered.

9:30 - 10:00 Quinn Erdman with Pass it on outdoors

10:00 - 10:30 Three PF chapter members will provide tips on how to hunt pheasants in Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa.

10:30 -11:00 Bob Knack, DNR will provide updates on how to recruit, retain and reactivate hunters (R3)

11:00 -11:30 John Motoviloff, PF R3 Coordinator will provide more information on increasing the number of hunters, especially upland bird hunters

11:30-12:00 Cody Kamrowski, Exc. Director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation will provide updates on WI Prairie Chickens and more

12:00 -1:00 LUNCH (brats, burgers, etc.) along with Bingo and gun, cash, banner, and bench raffles

1:00 - 1:30 Savanna Hartman, DNR Columbia County Wildlife Biologist will provide informationon the 20,000 acres of wildlife areas that she manages and talk about

1:30 - 2:00 Kelly Maguire, Operations Supervisor of the Poynette Game Farm will talk about raising and releasing Ring-Necked Pheasants and the mission of the Friends of the Poynette Game Farm (tentative)

PF memberships can be renewed and new members can join.

Displays and outside activities include:
Habitat restoration companies; information on conducting prescribed burns; Friends of the Poynette Game Farm trailer table, pop up, pheasant display and the learn to hunt program; a certified deer dog tracker from Columbia County, and a 29 year old Turkey Vulture you can meet. Kids will like the bounce house.

Da Kota High Kennels from Wyocena will be present with chocolate pointing labrador retrievers. Shell will also take small groups for a field demonstration in a restored prairie.

Goose Pond Sanctuary - 3 miles by car to the northwest, W7503 Kampen Road

9:30 - 11:30 Assist with collecting prairie seeds and learning some prairie plant names
1:30 - 2:30 Assist with netting monarch butterflies on their fall migration to Mexico
1:00 - 2:00 and 2:00 to 3:00 Take a wagon tour through tallgrass prairie restorations (need to sign up)

1:00 - 2:45 Learn the basics conducting a prairie restoration (need to sign up)

Register Now

08/27/2026

Watch for this soon, in Outdoors News!!

08/11/2026

Here it is, the final announcement with all the details. Please share with like-minded folks and please scan the QR Code for more details as they develop, and register all of your group, so we have an idea of how many are coming. Thank You.

05/23/2026

04/22/2026

A few of our Board members gladly volunteer to instruct students during hunter safety training in Portage 2x/ year.

This is our 1st Graduating class of 26 and now in the books. Congrats to all students for passing the tests with 50% of them getting a perfect score!!!

04/09/2026

Members and FB followers,

Please note that our Chapter Board has decided to do something different and we will not be having a Chapter Banquet this year in Oct.

We are now in the early planning stages for a exciting get-together in September for an event that will include some raffles and prizes, but will be educational, social, and above all centered around HABITAT. We are working on Speakers for a few topics as well as hands-on prairie and seed experiences.

This year's event is part of our outreach and will allow you, as current members, to renew your membership, while providing a way for us to welcome the public potential NEW MEMBERS to Pheasants Forever.

Our only ask from you is that you bring a friend or family member that that may be interested in becoming a PF member. Our national organization and local chapters are only as good as the people that support it.

The event will be held at Goose Pond https://swibirds.org/goose-pond and hopefully utilize an event center adjacent. The property orders both Dane and Columbia Counties so we're hoping to see some new people from down south of us too.

More to come as we work through the details. Please hold the date of Sept. 19 as "Tentative" as we're still aligning dates with venues and speakers.

Feel free to drop questions or comments below, or send us an email @ [email protected]

Thank you!
Eric
Chapter President

Goose Pond A prairie wetland and gorgeous restored tallgrass prairies