Over the past two weekends, Weyburn's Tim Kerslake was busy helping the Radville Wildlife Federation as well as the Regina Wildlife Federation to release a total of 930 pheasants across a number of different locations to help restore the bird population in our portion of the province.

"So with Radville we released 230 birds in the vicinity at all points and corners around the town and on different farms," shared Kerslake, a local volunteer with the Radville Wildlife Federation. "The big issue this year was us needing to release these birds where there was enough habitat with water. With the hot spell this year we needed to rethink the places that we were going to."

He added that they released the pheasants in at least six different spots around the town of Radville and near Ceylon.

"I'm also involved with the Regina Wildlife and their release and we did 400 birds on Saturday in the Tribune and Oungre area and we had about 20 people from Regina come down," Kerslake told. "Then on Sunday I teamed up again with the Regina Wildlife Federation and we took pheasants out to the Avonlea area because they also donated money to go towards the pheasants. So they were able to get 300 birds this year also and we released them all around that area in a dispersed manner."

Kerslake said that the Radville Wildlife Federation buys birds every year to have released in their area for overall repopulation and an increase in the local numbers.

"Without the sponsorship and the volunteers they can't make this kind of an operation work," stated Kerslake. "You have to have the volunteers from the community to help these projects prosper. You get the community involved and you get more people in on it to make sure everything goes off without a hitch."

He expressed that these events and programs are really all about the kids and with them taking part in the whole process they end up learning a lot of lifelong lessons about the local wildlife populations and how to control them in the safest way possible.

"The children are our future so we want to make sure that they're there releasing the birds and learning how to respect them as well," Kerslake said. "They get to learn the differences between the males and the females. They learn the sounds that they make and the kids are just pumped when they get to release the birds back to the wild."

Kerslake shared that there has to be a strategic plan in place when they send the birds off to fend for themselves. The wildlife clubs do quite a bit of research to make sure that they are releasing the birds at the right locations and at the best time of year for the birds to be able to reproduce and then continue to increase in population as they are often hunted and provide meals for a number of people as well as predators in the area.

"The numbers used to not be as significant as they are now for the southeast," added Kerslake. "Now we have birds all the way up to Francis, Griffin, Arcola, Oxbow, Redvers, and even Assiniboia. So these birds are being dropped off all over the southeast corner. Now more and more clubs are starting to see this so they're phoning to see if they can buy some birds to have released as well. So it is great. Seeing all the kids out there and the volunteers releasing them. The farmers watch them grow through the fall and the winter and then they have their babies. So the more you can get the birds out there it will help repopulate the species and it will help mother nature to produce more birds."

He expressed that these programs are no different than when the government replenishes the fish in different bodies of water and said that the releases are a necessity for the province.

The pheasants come from Ontario and were brought in through the Regina Wildlife Federation. After that, the birds are gathered up and given out to all of the local federations that had funded and paid for a supply that year.

Kerslake plans to continue to help out the Radville Wildlife Federation with their pheasant release program for many years to come and hopes to see more organizations, volunteers, sponsors, and children take part in the future.