Western States are Focused on Pheasants

PF Adds Biologist in Western Pheasant Range

St. Paul, Minn. – August 2, 2005 – Pheasants Forever (PF) announces the addition of R. Cade Powell as the new regional wildlife biologist for southeast Idaho and Utah. The addition frees up incumbent PF regional biologist, Gabe McMasters, to focus his efforts on California, Oregon, Washington, and northern Idaho. Prior to the addition of Powell, McMasters serviced all PF chapters west of the Rockies.



Powell’s primary duties will include starting new chapters and working with the existing chapters in southeast Idaho and Utah. He will assist those chapters in raising and expending funds on wildlife habitat projects and conservation education. There are currently over 4,000 PF members in 36 chapters across the western pheasant range. Cade will also be working with local, state, and federal natural resource agencies on behalf of PF chapters. He will be working as a technical service provider (TSP) in Idaho as well. In that capacity he will help interested landowners apply for conservation programs, formulate a conservation plan, and ensure the use of proper conservation practices to meet federal standards.



“Like Gabe, who has done an excellent job energizing our western Pheasants Forever chapters, Cade is a guy from the west end of the pheasant range who truly cares about making a difference for western pheasants,” reports Rick Young, PF’s vice president of field operations. “Pheasants Forever chapters across California, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, and Washington have never been so well-equipped to make a difference for wildlife in the west as they are today.”



“This is the job I’ve been pointing towards my whole life,” explains Powell. “I am passionate about making a difference for wildlife in the west and I can’t think of a better organization to join in fulfilling that passion. The PF model of locally-empowered grassroots conservation works.” PF is unique among conservation organizations in that its local chapters maintain control of 100% of locally raised funds, and make all decisions on how to spend those habitat and conservation education dollars.



Powell is an Idaho Falls, Idaho native. He graduated with a B.S. in wildlife and fisheries biology and management from the University of Wyoming, Laramie. Prior to joining PF, Cade spent time with the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit studying sage grouse and Hungarian partridge. He has also worked for Montana State University’s Cooperative Extension Service. Powell has even dabbled in television as a prostaff member and sponsorship sales representative for a nationally televised hunting show. He and his wife, Brooke, and their three girls live in Idaho Falls.



PF is a non-profit conservation organization dedicated to the protection and enhancement of pheasant and other wildlife populations in North America through habitat improvement, land management, public awareness, and education. Such efforts benefit landowners and wildlife alike. PF has more than 110,000 members in over 600 local chapters across the continent. To learn more about PF, or to start a chapter in your area, contact Cade at Ihuntelk@yahoo.com or Gabe at gabem@pheasantsforever.org.