Southern Illinois Bird Hunters Association used 20th Century Fund monies awarded in 2018 to remove Autumn Olive trees from an area that spans approximately a half mile connecting two crop fields, part of the grounds utilized in field trials held on a portion of the 20,000 acre Pyramid State Park near Cutler, Illinois. The Autumn Olive is an invasive species that out-competes and displaces native plants. Its elimination has greatly improved the lay of the course while making it a safer area for everyone and better allowing the State of Illinois to maintain this area for the future.

Along with amateur field trials, many championships are run on the grounds including the All America Open All Age and Derby Championships, the Egyptian Shooting Dog Championship, and recently the NBHA Futurity and Puppy Classic.

The Association greatly appreciates the help the 20th Century Fund provided to achieve their goals and much improve these field trial grounds.

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Pyramid State Park, Cutler, Illinois

Thanks to other AFTCA members who sent in short stories and photos describing how their clubs have used money awarded by the 20th Century Fund for improvements to their field trial grounds. We’ll post more stories over the summer. If your club has received money from the 20th Century Fund, please share your success story.

Reminder: The application submission deadline for the 20th Century Fund is May 1st of every year. You must submit your Request Application Form to both Piper Huffman and Hunter Wilcox VMD, Chairman by this date. Club Officers can find the Request Form and enrollment criteria in the AFTCA Club Area.