Outdoor Insights: Why wasn’t Pheasants Forever invited to outdoors forum meeting with Secretary of the Interior at the White House?

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum hosted a conservation leadership forum at the White House on Sept. 4 that included about 15 executives from the nation’s big outdoors groups.

In addition to Burgum, high-roller attendees from the Trump administration included Vince Haley, director of the president’s domestic policy council, Kate MacGregor, deputy Interior secretary, and Brian Nesvik, the new director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Groups present included Safari Club Int’l, Ducks Unlimited, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Delta Waterfowl, Hunter Nation, and Nature is Nonpartisan, among others.

Folks who attended described the two-hour-plus meeting as a listening session for Burgum and senior Interior leaders to hear priorities and concerns from outdoor leadership. Everyone on hand had five minutes to outline their group’s agendas. Not surprisingly, top topics included public lands, grizzly bear and wolf management, wetlands protection, migration corridors out West, and the Farm Bill conservation title.

Several groups were conspicuously absent, however, including Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, the National Wildlife Federation, plus Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever.

BHA has no CEO right now, and NWF perhaps leans too environmental for this administration. But where was Pheasants Forever, a group with two full-time Washington, D.C. government affairs staffers that has done a fine job for decades of navigating non-partisanship while advocating for grassland habitat across the nation?

Several sources tell me that Interior did not invite Pheasants Forever because of its presence last year at the Minnesota Governor’s Pheasant Opener, which included Gov. Tim Walz, then a vice presidential candidate. That’s at best unfortunate and at worst, a petulant action from the Trump administration.

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PF staff have been involved in pheasant opener festivities in Minnesota and many other states for decades, no matter which party has occupied those governorships. Even in these hyper-politicized times, holding that against a conservation outfit defies logic.

Pheasants Forevers’ communications folks said “no comment” when I asked them about the matter on Tuesday. PF/QF is one of the most effective groups in the country in delivering on-the-ground habitat work for the nation’s sportsmen. I have no doubt they wanted a seat at the Sept. 4 meeting, and it’s ridiculous that the White House and the Interior Department didn’t include them.

SCHOLARSHIPS. Outdoor News this year announced the launch of the Outdoor News Foundation, which aims to recruit new hunters, anglers, and conservationists.

A facet of that mission is supporting the next generation of outdoors journalists, as well as fish and wildlife managers via collegiate scholarships.

Thanks to generous donations, Outdoor News can request nominations for our first round of scholarships. Submit digital nominations via www.outdoornews.com/foundation-nominate/

Nominations are always welcome, but for this round of scholarships, we request that folks submit them by Friday, Nov. 7. We’ll announce the recipients by mid-November, so they can count on the scholarship dollars for spring semester 2026.

They’re available to any undergraduate enrolled in a four-year college or university with a focus on fish or wildlife management, or outdoors/environmental reporting or communications. Top candidates will exhibit dedicated outdoor interests and demonstrate a record of commitment to the fields of outdoor communications and/or fish and wildlife management.

Judges will confirm collegiate enrollment and review applicants who submit a brief essay of 500 words or less.