Wichita home to third Kansas QF chapter opening
WICHITA -- Quail hunters from the Wichita area have formed the third Quail Forever (QF) chapter in Kansas. The new group, to be called the Keeper of the Plains Chapter, will focus on quail habitat and youth hunter recruitment in southcentral Kansas. The chapter held its first meeting Jan. 10 at the Wichita Big Brothers Big Sisters offices.

Pheasants Forever (PF) formed the first QF chapter on Aug. 13, 2005, in St. Louis, Missouri. Lyons became home to the first Kansas QF chapter on Nov. 1, and Smith Center added a second Kansas QF chapter later that month. To date, 27 QF chapters have formed nationwide during the organization’s first five months.

QF applies the Pheasants Forever model of letting local chapters determine how 100 percent of their locally-raised conservation funds will be spent. Projects include habitat improvement, land management, public awareness, education, and conservation advocacy.

“The locally-controlled conservation model provides us with added incentive,” explained Mike Dove, the new chapter’s treasurer. “We raise the money locally and we decide locally how to make a difference for quail in Kansas. That ability to affect change on hunting lands in our own community is something very important to us.”

Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres in central and western Kansas have helped to stem the decline of habitat in a state where hunters once consistently harvested more than 1 million bobwhites each season. Numbers of quail in southcentral and western Kansas have actually increased in recent years. However, in southeast Kansas, intensified agricultural practices, including conversion of native pasture to fescue, and the succession of prairie grasslands to woodlands have been the major causes of quail decline.

“Our chapter will work with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks to help create quail habitat in any way we can be of service to them,” said Mike King, Keeper of the Plains Chapter president. "We are also interested in helping recruit new hunters -- young and old, male and female -- to a sport we love and want to pass on.”

The chapter is planning a three-man fun shoot for Saturday, Feb. 18, at Kansas Clays and Hunts near Hesston. The public and media are invited. For more information, contact Mike King at 316-841-4242, Mike Dove at 316-267-7692, or Mike Christensen at 316-263-3300.

To learn more about starting a QF chapter in Kansas, contact Barth Crouch at 785-823-0240, email bcrouch@quailforever.org or contact the QF national office toll-free at 866-457-8245 or by email at contact@quailforever.org .
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