Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever Seed Program

10/31/2026

🎃Happy Halloween from the Seed Team!🦇

10/29/2026

🎃These native plants have names that sound straight out of a spooky story, have eerie shapes, or look a little otherworldly!🦇🌱

Ghost Plant (Monotropa uniflora)
Also known as Indianpipe and co**se plant. This ghostly white woodland plant lacks chlorophyll, so it doesn't look like a typical green plant. Instead of photosynthesizing, it obtains nutrients through a relationship involving fungi and nearby tree roots. Its native to much of the U.S.

Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)
The name fits Halloween perfectly, and its spidery yellow flowers often appear in fall, when many other plants have finished blooming. Native to eastern North America, from Canada down to Florida.

Devil’s Darning Needles (Clematis virginiana)
This native vine produces fluffy, threadlike seed heads that resemble tangled cobwebs. Its flowers attract insects, while its seed heads create an eerie late season look along woodland edges and fences. Its native to eastern North America.

Witch Grass (Panicum capillare)
Witch Grass is a short-lived annual bunchgrass that commonly grows where soil has been disturbed. It is native to North America including all of the U.S. While it is considered a w**d, particularly in agricultural crops, gardens, and landscaped areas, its spooky-themed name fits Halloween perfectly.

📷Credits:
Carol Nourse, USDA Forest Service
The Morton Arboretum
Frode Jacobsen, Maryland Biodiversity Project
Elena Palka Flores, iNaturalist

10/27/2026

🐦 Quail Update: From Family Groups to Fall Coveys!
What are quail up to this time of year? Some are still raising late-season broods, while others are foraging together in their family groups. As fall progresses, these family groups will gradually begin to come together, forming larger coveys that will help them navigate the cooler months ahead.
Keep an eye out for these little ground-dwellers as they prepare for fall and winter! 🍂
📸 Photo credit: Sig Olsen / Macaulay Library

10/25/2026

📚New Research: Fall Covey's!

Bobwhite spend approximately 40-50% of fall and winter at the roost site. That's why good vegetation at a roost site is important!

A 2026 paper by Justin Hill et al. found that birds roosted in both grasslands, recently disturbed areas, and in woody cover. However, birds with the strongest preference for woody cover had an estimated 181-day survival of 0.60, compared with 0.31 to 0.40 for the population overall in each year!

Bottom photo: James Martin -

"The pink flagging indicates where a covey spent the night. The small patches of woody vegetation, including some hardwood saplings, are important for day-time escape cover and loafing; it is also important for thermal cover at night.

✨ An important caveat: you do not want 100% of the landscape looking like that patch. I think you want ~5% like this. Once an area like that grows another year or so it needs to be set back but you want to keep that resource available at all times. ✨ "

Why didn’t all birds select for woody cover despite it improving survival? Likely because there wasn’t enough of it in close proximity!

🌳Looking to add more woody cover to your property?

Keep an eye out for our pre-order plums in November!

10/23/2026

10/20/2026

Habitat managers, partner agencies, landowners, and chapters, we need your photos and stories!!📸

Have you purchased our products (native seed, food plot seed, seed packets, shrubs, habitat stickers, prairie seed bears, conservation clay kits, etc.) and have photos or a story you are willing to share? We would love to hear from you.

Email your photos to [email protected] or send us a Facebook message for a chance to be featured on our media platforms (Facebook, PFQF magazine and newsletters). We are excited to hear about your projects!

Quail Forever Pheasants Forever

10/20/2026

Canopy cover can have an impact on whether quail utilize an area or not. Often, there is a balance that can support bobwhite and commercial timber operations, but it's hard to maximize both. Read more about balancing a canopy cover that works for your property. https://talltimbers.org/articles/managing-overstory-is-vital-to-bobwhite-timber-health/

10/19/2026

Wildlife Management with Herbicides VS Prescribed Fire

Wildlife Management with Herbicides VS Prescribed Fire

When prescribed fire can't be used as a management tool, herbicide can be an effective alternative.

When to use...
Herbicide:
- Managing individual non-native or problem plants
- If prescribed fire resources and training are limited
- If near fire-sensitive neighborhoods or structures
- Decreasing overstory trees to increase sunlight and promote fuels for prescribed fire

Prescribed Fire:
- Maintaining plant community composition and structure
- In ecosystems where fire was historically frequent
- Prescribed fire resources and training are not limited
- When ecologically appropriate and logistically possible

Use herbicides to...
- Create snags for wildlife use by controlling individual trees
- Increase plant diversity by controlling invading monocultures
- Increase broadleaves for wildlife food by controlling dense grass
- Promote diverse understory plants by controlling overstory trees and reducing their coverage

Herbicides & prescribed fire can be used together! Both require knowledge of plant communities & management practices.

Source: Wigley et al., 2002. "Herbicides as an Alternative to Prescribed Burning for Achieving Wildlife Management Objectives" https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/19104

10/16/2026

Planning a fall native seeding? Setting a planting timeline based on good planting conditions is pertinent.

We recommend consulting with your local USDA office, university extension program, or a PF/QF wildlife biologist to determine the optimal planting timelines for dormant seeding, as soil temperatures drop and stay consistently below 50°F at varying times depending on geographic location.

10/15/2026

Migrating monarch butterflies have reached Mexico! ✈️🌎

Monarch Joint Venture received the first reports of monarchs roosting in the state of Coahuila on Oct. 5 and 7. Monarchs usually begin reaching their overwintering sites between October and November. Individually tagged monarchs through the Project Monarch Collaboration from Manitoba, Minnesota, and Ontario have been located confirming that migrating monarchs from Canada and the United States have arrived in Mexico!

Read more at the link in comments🦋