Congratulations to Brian Lozes of Covington Louisiana, winner of the 2007 Daisy outdoor Products "Take aim at Safety" youth essay contest. Brian won a trip to Elk Camp for him and one of his parents, plus a new Daisy Red Rider BB gun. He will be introduced and was honored at the beginning of the Friday luncheon Auction. His essay, printed below, will also be in the July-August 2008 Bugle.

We are hoping to get a short interview with this remarkable young man about his experiences at RMEF Elk Camp in Reno and to learn about his hunting plans for 2008.

Essay and Pictures attached 

Having spent several days of the last week being bombarded by turkey calling and turkey paraphernalia, I find my self in a "turkey state of mind." And since we still have a short time before I can go turkey hunting, I am inspired to share with you the account of a trip I made to Missouri with my daughter Jana during the spring break of her senior year of high school.

It isn’t often that you convince a girly girl high school senior to spend spring break with their mom, much less spend it turkey hunting. But my girl was not your ordinary teenage girl. Having grown up in a family with a mom that makes her living hunting, fishing, shooting, and promoting an outdoor lifestyle, Jana was the dream girl of all the guys that loved and pursued the outdoors. She was beautiful, smart, witty, and a tomboy underneath the glitz and glamour. I have to chuckle every time I think of her telling the boys that if they didn’t walk the straight and narrow that I would shoot them with a grasshopper attached to an arrow and fired from my bow.

Watch out turkeys, here we come.

Two long-beards strolled through the Black Angus grazed pasture with about two hours of light remaining. Only a mile later, we turned to the east on White Oak Road, a gravel road, with a sign and arrow pointing to White Oak Lodge. Bobwhite quail flew into a locust tree and young rabbits darted from the road into the ditches. A dark wooden farm house rested in a well manicured lawn overlooking a deep blue farm pond. It was Friday evening April 29th, when Jana and I arrived in Edina, Missouri. We were the guests of Darrell and Lois Huchteman. Darrell had coached Laden Force, who at the time of our hunt was the pro staff director of Mothwing Camo, during his football days at Knox County High School. 

MISSOULA, Mont.—A record $1.6 million was raised for conservation via auctions held at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s annual convention, which concluded Feb. 24 in Reno, Nev.
 
Items sold included firearms, art, furniture, jewelry, Harley-Davidson motorcycle, log doghouse, handcrafted guitar, vacations, hunts and a sociable mule named Tulip.
 
Highlights of these annual fundraisers also include many special hunting permits sold in partnership with state and tribal conservation agencies. Monies raised are returned to these agencies for conservation projects, usually in elk country. In some cases, the Elk Foundation keeps a small percentage as a commission to supplement its own elk habitat protection and enhancement efforts.

New York Times Article on the World Elk Calling Competition

MISSOULA, Mont.—Conservationists from Florida, Minnesota, Montana, Texas and Wisconsin have been appointed to the board of directors for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, an organization devoted to ensuring the future of elk, other wildlife and their habitat.
 
The six new volunteer leaders began their terms during the Elk Foundation’s annual convention, which concluded Feb. 24 in Reno, Nev.
 
“This class of board members brings experience as well as brand new perspectives, and both are vital to effective leadership. We welcome them to our organization and look forward to their energy and ideas for conservation in elk country,” said David Allen, Elk Foundation president.

McCormick, S.C. – February 28, 2008 – Concerned with the area's declining bobwhite quail population, residents in South Carolina's McCormick County have formed the state's second Quail Forever (QF) chapter, the Long Cane Chapter of QF. The chapter joins the Peak/Chapin Chapter of QF in central South Carolina in leading efforts to restore the state's bobwhite quail habitat.

"We just don't have the habitat anymore, and that's what Quail Forever is interested in creating," said Wayne Kirkland of Parksville, the chapter's newly elected president, "To bring back the bobs we need to do it from the ground up."

Pheasants Forever launched Quail Forever in 2005 to address the continuing loss of habitat suitable for quail and the subsequent quail population decline. QF chapters promote local, state, and federal conservation programs that help landowners protect environmentally sensitive acres for quail and other wildlife. They also employ the organization's unique model of empowering local chapters with 100 percent control of the chapters' locally-raised funds to complete habitat and youth education projects in the chapters' own communities.

Saint Paul, Minn. – February 28, 2008 – Pheasants Forever, Inc. and Quail Forever announce Scott Roemhildt as the organization's new Regional Representative for Southern Minnesota. A communications consultant and adjunct instructor in Mass Communications at Minnesota State University-Mankato (MSU) since 2003, Roemhildt has also worked on Pheasants Forever's seasonal prescribed burn crew since 2006. He succeeds Aaron Kuehl, who after seven years in the position became the organization's Conservation Director in Illinois.

Roemhildt's primary duties with Pheasants Forever (PF) and Quail Forever (QF) will include starting chapters and servicing the 33 existing PF chapters and one QF chapter in Southern Minnesota. He will work with chapters in raising and expending funds on wildlife habitat and conservation education, as well as work with local, state, and federal natural resource agencies on behalf of PF/QF chapters.

"Scott Roemhildt is an outstanding addition to Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever's conservation efforts in Southern Minnesota," said Matt Holland, PF/QF Senior Field Coordinator, "His extensive background in education and communications make him perfectly suited for working with our dedicated volunteers and building wildlife habitat."

ATLANTA - Kenny Odom, of Waynesboro, Miss., puts wild turkeys and conservation at the top of his list of priorities. He's done it for more than 15 years, which is why representatives from Wild Turkey Bourbon presented this Mississippi conservationist the 2008 Wild Turkey Bourbon Rare Breed Award.

Odom received the award at the 2008 NWTF National Convention and Sport Show in Atlanta, Ga., Feb. 21 to Feb. 24.

"I'm very humble and appreciative," Odom said after accepting the award. "From the bottom to the top, the NWTF is made up of great people who are doing great things for the wild turkey. I'm just proud to be a part of it."

Odom has been a member of the NWTF for 15 years, and was one of the founders of his local chapter. He has served as local chapter president, state chapter president and state chapter secretary. He is a relentless volunteer for the NWTF, and with a positive outlook, ensures he is behind the NWTF in every way. Along with his volunteer work with the NWTF, he's a Deacon at his local church, serves on the Board of Trustees at his local hospital and provides radio color commentary for his local high school football team.

LINCOLN, Neb. - Brett Bayer, Nebraska's National Wild Turkey Federation state chapter president and Dennis Conger, NWTF regional director, attended a ceremonial signing of a new law by Gov. Dave Heineman that will enhance opportunities for Nebraska's youth hunters.

The NWTF, the National Rifle Association (NRA), the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance (USSA) and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) worked diligently to create support for, and the passage of Legislative Bill 690.

The law creates an apprentice hunter education exemption certificate that allows experienced hunters to take a newcomer hunting before completing a hunter education course. The new law also lowers the deer-hunting age for mentored youth from 12 to 10, allowing parents to introduce their sons and daughters to America's hunting tradition at a younger age.

Pine, Colorado – The Co-Chair of CDTA’s Honorary Board of Directors was recently recognized at the Annual Conservation Community Award Banquet celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the National Trails System and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

The Natural Resources Council of America (NRCA) bestowed its annual Public Service Award to Stephen Fausel, founder of the Fausel Foundation and co-founder of the Continental Divide Trail Alliance, for his dedication to building partnerships among government, non-profit, business and
public partners on conservation of America’s public lands.

“Steve represents the ideal model of citizen-activist who invests his time, and his personal resources, to the cause of conservation without hesitation,” said Jeffrey T. Olson, president of NRCA. “His leadership of many conservation causes has produced a remarkable record of success,” added Olson.