The Professional Outdoor Media Association's (POMA) 2018 Pinnacle Award honorees were announced by Jake Meyer, Public Relations Manager at Mossy Oak, during POMA's 13th Annual Business Conference in Lincoln, Ne. on Wednesday, June 13. Mossy Oak has been the presenting partner of the Pinnacle Awards since the program's inception.

After more than a decade of hard work, constant fund raising, untold meetings and historical partnerships with sponsors, landowners and the Missouri Department of Conservation,  the multi-year restocking of the wild ruffed grouse will begin in August of this year.

Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever are gearing up to celebrate National Pollinator Week June 18 – 24 by publishing a content series highlighting the importance of pollinator habitat for bees and butterflies, as well as other wildlife -- namely upland birds. 

The OtterBox Trooper 20 Soft-Sided Cooler in Realtree EDGE is perfect for hunting excursions, sporting events, fishing trips, campouts, road trips and more. Equipped with innovative mounting systems, Duraflex tie-downs and a 2-inch wide padded shoulder strap, the Trooper 20 Soft-Sided Cooler easily adapts to wherever you love to go. 

The new Yamaha Wolverine X2 Side-by-Side in Realtree EDGE combines proven off-road capability and confidence-inspiring performance. Offering real-world comfort in a compact, nimble chassis, the Yamaha Wolverine X2 makes it the ultimate trail-exploring vehicle in tight, technical terrain.

 Building upon the success of the existing 15x56 model, Leupold & Stevens, Inc. has added 8x42 and 10x42 variants to the BX®-5 Santiam™ HD binocular line for 2018.

Flying Arrow Archery's ORION 3 is conventionality on steroids. This means a one piece, solid stainless steel, ferrule and tip designed to withstand the harshest of punishment.

The North American Crossbow Federation continues with their efforts to establish basic definitions, standards and testing procedures for the crossbow industry according to the procedure set forth by ANSI. 

Gray Loon Marketing Group is expanding its communications department team with a media relations and social media position focused on the outdoor, hunting and shooting industries. This position will play a key role in marketing projects for various outdoor industry clients.

Well established manufacturers representative agency is seeking a qualified sales associate with a sales responsibility in Washington, No. Oregon, No. Idaho, Western Montana and Alaska as a field representative responsible for sales to the sporting goods dealers, buying group members, box stores, and distributor employees.

ZEISS, the global leader in the optical and optoelectronic industry, has an immediate opening for a Customer Care Representative Consumer Optics at their Thornwood, NY headquarters. 

Ozonics Hunting®, the founders and leaders of harnessing the power of ozone and oxidation technology through active scent control while afield is growing, and looking to add to their team of dedicated and passionate product specialists.

Imagine driving 40 miles through the heart of America’s largest city just to hunt a miniscule 7-acre plot of land. To participate, that is reality for bow hunter Blake Mannion who lives in the heart of the Bronx, the northernmost of New York City’s five boroughs.

This week on The Revolution with Jim and Trav, we're chasing the summertime fishing bite. So join us as Doug Stange, host of In-Fisherman and Editor-in-Chief of In-Fisherman Magazine, CatDaddy, Hi MTN Seasonings' own Brian Tucker and Travis Calhoun, Ford's F-150 Consumer Marketing Manager, dish on summer strategies, effective gear and angling hotspots. 

This week, from its library of more than 15,000 episodes, MOTV is featuring all six seasons of “Dropped: Project Alaska,” featuring brothers Chris and Casey Keefer.

The National Archery Buyers Association (NABA), the nation’s largest and most active buying group for archery and bowhunting retailers, has hired Kelly Kelly as its Executive Director. Kelly, formerly the Executive Assistant for the Board and CEO/President of Archery Trade Association, will lead NABA with the support of its Board of Directors, and brings a renewed focus on retailer engagement to her new role. 

In a company meeting last week, the Board of Advisors of Otis Technology announced to its employees that Larry Williams will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer, effective July 9, 2018.

The Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society (RGS/AWS) announced the selection of Benjamin C. Jones as their new President and Chief Executive Officer. 

D.T. Systems manufacturer of dog training products and accessories for over 30 years is proud to announce 27 new dog training and dog care videos to their YouTube Channel and Social Media Outlets.

Badlands releases the second pattern in the Badlands Approach camouflage series, dubbed Approach FX, along with an entire new apparel line for 2018. Designed using a hardwood color palette that features Badlands Adaptive Coloration Technology, Approach FX is extremely effective concealment for Midwest or Eastern hunting as well as the Western or Southern hunter.

The PHARMAKON 3 broadhead is the latest members to join the Flying Arrow Archery family. Like its big brother, the original TOXIC, the PHAMAKON 3 has all the great features of the TOXIC and more. 

Hi Mountain Seasonings has added a new seasoning to its popular lineup of Burger Seasonings, Chipotle. Carefully crafted of a unique blend of peppers, garlic, sugar, onion, hot sauce and other ingredients, the new Chipotle Burger Seasoning will have your burger bursting with flavor.

Carbon Express® introduces a new high-performance hunting arrow that’s heavier, provides twice the accuracy of a single spine arrow, and delivers even more penetration; all while reducing wind drift, the Mayhem® Hunter SDS.

The all-new Stone Glacier Skyscraper 2P 4-season tent is the result of 30+ years of design experience incorporating a revolutionary patented pole setting technology.  Thanks to world-renowned and legendary tent designer, Martin Zemitis, mountain hunters now have access to a tent unlike any they have ever seen.  

Bear & Son Cutlery, the leader in U.S-made, hand-crafted production knives, has expanded its line of high-quality, purpose-built butterfly models with the introduction of the new SS14. 

 Since its introduction, the TruFire® Smoke has impressed users with its accuracy, user-friendly design and purposeful features. For 2018, TruFire has expanded the Smoke series with two new models: the Smoke Max and the Smoke Extreme.   

Skull Hooker, makers of innovative brackets and stands to display European mounts, has renewed as a Whitetails Unlimited national sponsor, said WTU President Jeff Schinkten. 

Krieghoff, International announces that it has hired BOLT Strategies as its marketing and public relations partner. As Krieghoff’s partner, BOLT will develop and effectively execute programs and activities concentrated on continued development and expansion of the Krieghoff brand in North America.  

onXmaps, Inc. and MeatEater, the outdoor media brand that includes Steven Rinella’s popular MeatEater podcast and television series, announced a partnership to help foster growth in the hunting industry. 

Zanders Sporting Goods, a national distributor located in Sparta, Illinois, announces its exclusive partnership with QuietKat.  QuietKat manufactures e-bikes: electric bicycles that are powered by a lithium-ion battery.  E-bikes are ideal for hunting and other outdoor applications.

The Mule Deer Foundation thanks Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow for inclusion of a sagebrush habitat restoration provision as part of the Senate Farm Bill. The provision, based on the Sage-Grouse and Mule Deer Habitat Conservation and Restoration Act (S. 1417) led by Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Martin Heinrich will help expedite the removal of encroaching piñon pine and juniper trees in sagebrush rangelands across the West. 

The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry passed their version of the Farm Bill out of committee with near unanimous support on Wednesday, moving the critical piece of legislation forward to the full Senate. The Farm Bill, which is renewed every five years, is the single-largest investment in private lands conservation in the United States.

  Rinehart Targets®, manufacturers of the most durable and lifelike 3-D archery targets in the world, would like you to join them for a full weekend of archery fun and friendly competition at the Rinehart R100 taking place June 30-July 1 at the Pavilion Motorcross Park in Pavilion, NY. 

On June 9th, the Gallatin County Regional 3-D Tournament was held at Norris City’s Outdoor Range. There were 86 shooters present from 11 different clubs and teams as well as approximately 160 spectators onsite to support their archers. 

Scholastic 3-D Archery will host the 2018 S3DA 3-D Archery National Championships June 22nd-24th at the Mermet Lake State Conservation Area near Metropolis, IL. 

Gold Tip and Bee Stinger pro shooter Levi Morgan won the Men’s Open Pro Division, while Gold Tip team member Chance Beaubouef won the Men’s Known Pro Division in the most recent Archery Shooters Association (ASA) Pro/Am in London, Kentucky.

Editor’s Note: This week is National Pollinator Week and I’m seeing folks both in and out of our industry sit up and take more notice of the plight of our pollinators. As well they should. For me, pollinators are an essential part of growing chocolate and coffee, key staples in my diet. So yes, I do have a butterfly garden and I’m happy when I see bees buzzing around my rose bushes.  I try not to flip out too much when I see bats flying around at dusk around our patio – mosquitoes are also a huge problem in Minnesota. (Are there any benefits to the mosquito? I have yet to find one…but God doesn’t make mistakes…). I asked Jared Wiklund at Pheasants Forever if he could forward me one of their editorials they are pushing out this week, and I learned a new word “forb.” A forb, according to the author below is “…a herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminid, or grass.” Or aka wildflowers. The author says wildflowers are even better cover for raising pheasants than grass. I’m all for that. Read on for more….

- Michelle Scheuermann, editor, Archery Wire 

Grass is great pheasant habitat. But forbs are prime – for young birds, bees and butterflies alike. Flowers are the key.

By Tom Carpenter

Grass, grass, grass. 

Grass is great. I love to walk through it any season of the year and see what’s hiding in it. 

Autumn walks, of course, are best – preferably with my little Brittany coursing ahead in search of a sneaky old rooster … or maybe better yet, a nice fat young one that will sit tight for her.

Spring and summer sojourns are good too (sans canine of course during nesting and brood-rearing seasons) … with the chance of finding a covey of young birds and watching them buzz away to land close by and start peeping and calling to get back together with mama as I swerve off in the other direction.

THE FORB CONNECTI0N

But there is cover even better than grass for raising pheasant broods: Forbs. What’s a forb? Pretty simple: A herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminid, or grass. 

Call them wildflowers.

Pollinators – bees and butterflies – need those flowers, and flock to them to drink nectar. Forbs attract a variety of other insects too, many of which also need those flowers. The forb list includes such beauties (and beautiful names) as butterflyweed, coneflower, larkspur, paintbrush, black-eyed Susan, ironweed and indigo. The insect list includes beetles of all descriptions, grasshoppers, crickets, ants, aphids and just good old bugs of every description.

Those abundant, protein-rich insects are exactly what young pheasants need to eat to thrive and grow during the first two months of life. Seeds and fruits won’t do the job now, and grain wouldn’t either: To start, it’s an insect diet or death.

What’s more, the sturdy stems of forbs serve as excellent hiding cover for young and mature pheasants alike. Tiny, half-grown and full-sized birds can just more easily walk, forage, slither, scurry and run through for stems than they can the dense, ground-level, thick-as-a-carpet stems of grass. 

FULL CIRCLE

It’s as simple as that: Forbs flower. The blooms and stems attract bees, butterflies and a host of insect life. That insect life feeds (and the forb stems house) insects and young pheasants. Full circle.

That’s precisely why upland bird fans also need to bee and butterfly guardians. 

*According to the Center for Biological Diversity, over a quarter of all North American bee species are in danger of extinction. Yes, extinction. Where is your food going to come from when pollinating bees are gone from the landscape? 

*According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, monarch butterfly populations have declined 90% over the last 20 years. They could be listed on the endangered species list as early as next year. Yes, the endangered species list.  Where are we without handsome orange-and-black monarchs wafting on a summer breeze?

 

A robust young rooster, raised on protein-rich insects nurtured by forbs, starts to show off his true colors.

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Pollinators need help – everybody’s help, and that includes conservation organizations of all descriptions, whether their members hunt or not. That’s why Pheasants Forever is leading the charge with so many other groups in the effort. 

Grass is great. We always need more of it on the landscape. But the habitat mosaic needs forbs too. Wildlflowers. What you do for pollinator habitat today could help put a bird in your gamebag this fall, as well as save some other species … and maybe even us.

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