This Friday, Oct. 13, the James Meger Memorial Wildlife Management Area will be dedicated at 4 p.m.. near Minneota, Minn., Meger's home town Pheasants Forever and about a dozen other conservation groups and contributors worked with the DNR to purchase and develop the area.

The new WMA is named for the late James Meger, a wildlife artist who hailed from Lyon County in southwest Minnesota. His artwork helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for conservation.

The ceremony is part of Gov. Mark Dayton's weekend Pheasant Opener in nearby Marshall, Minn.

As part of the weekend ceremonies, on Friday night, the public can join Dayton and Lt. Gov. Tina Smith at a community banquet at Southwest Minnesota State University. The banquet starts at 6 p.m.. with a social hour, dinner and a program featuring the governor as well as local community leaders. Tickets are $30. Call the Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce, 507-532-4484.

On Saturday, Dayton, Smith and participating hunters will pursue pheasants mostly on private land in the Marshall area. (Dayton will hunt public land.) The groups will focus on private land to keep area public lands open for hunters who are not part of the festivities.