It takes an inspired planner to look at the series of skywalks that connect office buildings in downtown Des Moines and see dogs.
Hundreds of dogs. All being walked by their owners through the skywalks, which are glass-enclosed and dozens of feet if not several stories above downtown’s busy streets.
But that’s what Pheasants Forever regional biologist Dave Van Waus arranged to kick off Pheasant Fest 2007, which was held in January of that year.
A little background: Pheasants Forever is a conservation organization that works to preserve and enhance pheasant habitat. It’s one those groups in which hunters and environmentalists happily work side by side, because the same actions that create good pheasant habitat—preserving or developing healthy wetlands and grasslands, keeping space unbuilt and open to public use, preventing farmland from being turned into condominiums that add to unplanned urban sprawl—also tend to be favored by environmentalists.
And pheasant hunters are well-known for their love of dogs, contributing to the creation of several dozen breeds over the years. Scratch a pheasant hunter and you’re likely to find a man or woman who takes their dogs seriously.
Which brings us to Pheasant Fest, an annual national event that features over 1,000 vendors and thousands of people who come to participate in habitat workshops, dog-training classes, wildlife talks, volunteer efforts and fund-raising.
“It’s an opportunity for upland sportsmen to get together and intermingle, swap lies and pick up some information,” Van Waus quips.
“Des Moines is blessed with a very long and large skywalk system in the downtown area,” he says. “It’s 10 feet or 12 feet wide and four miles long, connecting the different buildings downtown. It gives people a chance to walk around without putting their jackets on and going back out in the snow and rain.”
About 300 dogs and their owners turned out for the indoor dog walk, and nearly double that many spectators—not to mention thousands of Des Moines residents transiting from building to building during work hours.
“We turned it loose to the public so they can walk with their dogs in a parade—every species of man and dog known to man strolled the skywalk system from the Marriott hotel to the Hy-Vee Convention Center,” Van Waus recalls.
Lest you think having so many canines in tight quarters was a recipe for chaos, Van Waus points out that all dogs were leashed and on their best behavior; to his knowledge not a single dogfight or unfortunate “marking” occurred.
“We did not have people register until they showed up,” he says, describing the flexibility of the venue. “The skywalk system was very receptive to this event.”
