Taber Pheasant Festival

The Taber Pheasant Festival has been a fixture in the town of Taber since 2011, with sponsors, partners, and supportive landholders bringing the event to life each year. The festival celebrates Alberta’s diverse hunting heritage, with focus on one of the most recognizable game birds in Alberta, the ring-necked pheasant. Since its inception, the festival has been hosted by the Town of Taber and has fostered a strong sense of community among hunters and other festival participants. Other benefits of the festival include positive economic contributions to the community through hunters supporting locally-owned restaurants, lodging, and many other businesses with their travel dollars. We released pheasant roosters daily at 40 pre-determined hunting sites within the municipal district, with many locations provided by private landowners. During the festival, we also hosted a Novice Shoot training event in collaboration with Alberta Hunter Education Instructors’ Association. The Novice Shoot is designed for those who are either brand new to hunting or interested in furthering their game bird hunting experience with practice and instruction in a supportive setting; 75 novice hunters participated in this training event.

An important aspect of the festival is promoting local habitat stewardship. This is primarily accomplished through discussions with partnering landholders, and festival participants, about the habitat needs of pheasants and other wildlife. The festival also showcases the concept of hunting from field-to-plate to the non-hunting community. There is no registration fee to hunt in the festival, and it is open to anyone who holds the appropriate licence to hunt ring-necked pheasants in Alberta.

To help raise funds for next year’s festival, we hosted raffles and an online auction. The year 2022 marked the 12^th year of the festival and an unwavering interest in the event by hunters and other supporters. In total, 657 hunters registered for the festival and participated in the drawn hunts, with participants attending the festival from locations in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia as well as from the United States.

Partnerships

A1 Fabrication, Alberta Environment and Protected Areas, Alberta Fish & Game Association, Alberta Hunter Education Instructors’ Association, Alberta Professional Outfitters Society, Ashbros Enterprises Ltd., Benchmade, Beretta/Benelli/Tikka/Sako, Cabela’s Bass Pro Shops, Can West Legacy Inc., Chinook Arms Ltd., Cycle Works Calgary, Gateway Livestock Marketing Inc., Heritage Inn Taber/Canadian Destinations, High Caliber Products, Johnson’s Drugs, landowners, Lethbridge College, MacFarlane Pheasants Inc., McKay Roughrider Resources Ltd., Municipal District of Taber, NFP Insurance, Pivot Spirits, Perlich Bros Auction Market Ltd., Predator Camo, Royal Hotel, Taber & District Chamber of Commerce, Taber and District Housing Foundation, Taber Economic Development, Taber Irrigation District, Thiessen, Town of Taber, Taber Organizing Committee, United Farmers of Alberta Co-operative Ltd., Vortex Optics

Annual Summaries

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