ANKENY — Women who attended the recent Women on the Wing upland hunting workshop were learning to hunt for the first time, or were tired of following their husbands around on hunting trips and decided it was time to take up their own shotguns for pheasant season. Others came to build community in the male-dominated activity.
The two-day workshop in Polk County taught safety, hunting and harvesting practices to new and experienced pheasant hunters.
Amy Buckendahl, who organized and led the event said it was a “kick off” for the recently formed Iowa Heartland chapter of Women on the Wing, an initiative of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever. She hoped the program could garner some members and support for Iowa’s first chapter of the program.
“We just want to start a network of women who are interested in similar things,” Buckendahl said.
Buckendahl has hosted women-only workshops for the past four years in partnership with the Northern Polk chapter of Pheasants Forever.
The November workshop had 16 attendees who met Friday evening for classroom instruction on habitat and safety, followed by shooting practice at the Dragoon Trail Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America trap shooting range. Saturday morning, the group had a guided hunt to learn how to hunt with dogs, and get in the field practice. Everyone got to take home a bird after learning how to harvest and clean them.
Buckendahl said the event fits with the R3 conservation strategy of recruitment, retention, and reactivation, which essentially uses an activity like hunting or fishing to get folks outdoors to make them more interested in and connected to wildlife conservation strategies.
“We’re not just about shooting things with feathers,” Buckendahl said and noted some of the Pheasants Forever conservation efforts and partnerships with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Aaron Staker, a vice president with the Iowa Izaak Walton League and at the shooting range where the group gathered, stressed the importance of events like Women on the Wing that get folks outdoors.
“Without this, the conservation side doesn’t happen,” Staker said.
The Izaak Walton League, often called “Ikes,” is similarly positioned at a crossroads of outdoor recreation and water and land conservation. Many of the chapters, like the Ankeny Ikes, will focus on hunting or fishing, but overall the organization fights for clean water, soil and climate solutions.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the percentage of the population that hunts has remained at 6% from the 2001 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation survey to the most recent survey in 2022. However, the percentage of female hunters has increased from 1% of the total population in 2001 to 2% in 2022.
Becky Wu called it a “privilege” to attend the event and to have access to outdoor activities. Wu grew up in China and said she never had an opportunity to go shooting, nor does she recall anyone she knew hunting large animals.
“Millions and millions of people in China don’t have these opportunities,” Wu said.
Without this workshop, and others she has attended in the past, Wu said she would have no one to go shooting or hunting with.
“So I hope to join more events like this,” Wu said. “I just like being outdoors.”
Buckendahl will have another Women on the Wing workshop and field day in January as Iowa enters its 100th year of pheasant hunting.
For information on future events, visit the Iowa Heartland chapter Women on the Wing page on Facebook.
(Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
