Pheasants Forever fundraiser March 30

By CHERYL SCHWEIZER

For The Sun Tribune

MOSES LAKE — Habitat conservation, hunting education and wildlife partnerships will be the focus – oh, and there’s dinner and a couple of auctions, too – at the banquet sponsored by the Grant County chapter of Pheasants Forever. It’s scheduled for March 30; dinner starts at 6:30 p.m., preceded by a social hour. The banquet will be at the Best Western Lakefront, 3000 W. Marina Drive in Moses Lake.

Tickets will be on sale through March 23.

Pheasants Forever is a national organization and its Columbia Basin chapter has been around since the late 1980s, said chapter member Gretchen Fitzgerald. “We work on habitat, mainly for pheasants and other wildlife,” she said. They also sponsor hunter education courses and a trip for young people and their hunting mentors.

“We have members all over,” Fitzgerald said, but most of the chapter’s efforts are focused in Grant County. The group partners with the Grant County Conservation District, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Noxious Weed Control Board on habitat projects. The goal is “to help landowners establish and enhance habitat for wildlife and beneficial insects.”

A lot of the group’s effort is directed to private lands, but they also work with WDFW and others on state lands, she said. The group has pledged $50,000 to help hire a local wildlife biologist, and $12,000 to help WDFW purchase new seeding equipment for the region.

Tickets are $70 per person, $100 per couple and $40 for youths. Tickets include dinner and membership in Pheasants Forever. “We have a lot of neat stuff to auction off,” Fitzgerald said, including bird hunting rifles.

Tickets can be purchased at www.pheasantsforever.org, by contacting Dick Price, 509-762-9027 or dickprice@nctv.com, or Sean Dougherty, 304-851-0706 or CBPheasants@gmail.com.