Philip “Phil” James Benolkin

April 1, 1937 - May 12, 2025

Philip (Phil) James Benolkin, a devoted wildlife biologist, conservationist, and beloved member of the Lovelock, Nevada, community, passed away peacefully at the age of 88 on May 12, 2025.
Phil was born on April 1, 1937, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Charles Peter Benolkin and Marie Kevlin Benolkin.
His early years were spent in Minnesota before his family relocated to the Vancouver, Washington, area.
They eventually settled in Long Beach, California, where Phil graduated from Saint Anthony High School.
He often regaled his family with stories of those years in Southern California.
He witnessed the November 2, 1947, short flight of Howard Hughes’ massive Spruce Goose plane in Long Beach Harbor and would recall his boyhood excursions to an undeveloped Malibu area to hunt deer by bow and arrow in its steep ravines.
Phil had scores of wonderful stories from his lifetime, and he rarely repeated one.
He would start a story by saying, “I probably already told you this, but …” He had never “already told us.” Every story was fresh and astonishing.
Phil’s lifelong passion for wildlife and the natural world led him to Humboldt State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Big Game Management.
He worked in the forests of Northern California during his summers, fighting fires and carving out hiking trails for the California Department of Forestry.
His summers in the Trinity National Forest had a profound impact on Phil, and in later years he would share stories of working as a fire lookout, “swimming” over dense fields of manzanita to mark out hiking trails and mastering the management of the burros he and his coworkers used to carry provisions and equipment for their weeks-long treks into that trackless wilderness.
Their work would make that remarkable land accessible to future generations.
Years later, Phil would bring his son Andy on backpacking trips on the trails he helped blaze as a young man.
Phil also put himself through college by working in sawmills and supplementing his diet with the ducks he hunted on Arcata Bay.
During these lean years, Phil developed a deep appreciation of hunting dogs and, during his life, raised numerous dogs, primarily German shorthairs and German wirehairs.
He meticulously trained them to hunt duck and upland game birds.
While at Humboldt State, Phil met the love of his life, Gail Marlene Barrett.
They met at the Newman’s Catholic Center and went on their first date when they attended the Snowball formal dance.
They were married in 1961, and their union would last 43 years—until Gail’s passing in 2004.
After Phil graduated from HSU, he and Gail moved to Lakeport, California, where their first child, Andy, was born.
During that time, Phil worked for the California Department of Wildlife. In 1964, he became a member of The Wildlife Society.
In 1964, Phil and Gail moved to Lovelock, Nevada, where Phil worked as an animal biologist and game warden for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, and their second child, Karen, was born.
Phil quickly learned the ways of wildlife in the dry desert climate of his new home. In the summer months, Phil patrolled the waters of Rye Patch Reservoir, and during the fall and winter hunting season, he could be found hiking and four-wheeling the rugged hills of Pershing County.
Soon, anglers and hunters came to see him as a rich source of knowledge. On water, he knew how to catch walleye, wipers, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, white crappie, yellow perch, and bluegill.
On land, he became an expert of the habits of antelope, deer, bobcat, quail, turkey, bighorn sheep, and, most importantly, the chukar partridge, an upland game bird that had been introduced to Nevada just 30 years before Phil arrived in Nevada.
Phil helped establish the fishery at Rye Patch and helped introduce and sustain the desert bighorn sheep in both northern and central Nevada.
But nowhere is his influence more apparent than in the work he did to fortify and expand the state’s population of the chukar partridge.
Chukar are native to the Middle East, but thanks to Phil and wildlife biologists from neighboring counties, chukar have become an eponymous symbol of the richness and beauty of the rocky, ravine-raked mountains of Northern Nevada.
From 1965 to his retirement in 1995, Phil grew into one of the nation’s leading experts on chukar partridge.
Through countless hours roaming mountain ranges of Pershing County — from the Eugene to the Humboldt mountains and from the Lava Beds to the Dry Mountain — he monitored chukar and recorded how their numbers were affected by precipitation, forage, topography, and ecological factors, such as climate change, wildfire, and grazing.
He never stopped marveling at the resilience of the bird. He admired the chukar’s pluck—its ability to survive and adapt to the unforgiving world of the central Nevada landscape.
Moreover, he saw how the bird should be a symbol of the raw beauty of the Northern Nevada topography he was assigned to protect and patrol.
Phil was a biologist, but in chukar he found an artistry. It was a distinctive bird of clever markings: a bandit band of markings across its eyes, the stripes across its chest, the aural resonance of its call.
The cackle of a chukar that has seen you coming sounds like someone laughing at you.
Phil often told his fellow hunters that the first time you hunt the bird, it’s for sport. After that, you hunt it for revenge.
Much of Phil’s work focused on establishing watering devices, called guzzlers, that collected the scant desert rainfall and helped sustain robust populations of the bird in many areas of Northern Nevada.
Although chukar struggled in certain areas, Phil’s tireless efforts — to raise funds for guzzlers and then to redesign the devices to make them easier and cheaper to install — helped establish vibrant populations throughout Pershing County and many neighboring counties.
He led crews that installed dozens of guzzler devices, and his annual “Tour of Pershing County Guzzlers” was one of the more popular fund-raising items offered during annual Nevada Chukar Foundation auctions.
He also actively trapped surplus birds for distribution in other suitable habitats and helped wildlife biologists in other Western states establish chukar populations.
Phil, as an avid chukar hunter, introduced many to the challenging sport. Phil also hunted deer, elk, antelope, and bighorn sheep. He once bagged a caribou in Alaska using a bow and arrow.
But protecting and fostering wildlife herds was only one aspect of this man’s vim and exuberance for life.
He was a canny and highly successful businessman. Moreover, he was a skilled craftsman, building his first home in Lovelock with the assistance of his father-in-law.
An enterprising and industrious spirit, Phil also founded Cache Mini Storage in the 1980s and later acquired Full House Mini Storage, both located in Lovelock.
Upon his retirement, he purchased the Holcher farm and established a thriving wetland reserve that became a sanctuary for waterfowl, wild turkeys, raptors, quail, and deer — an enduring testament to his love for the natural world.
Phil touched the lives of many through his work, business ventures, and deep-rooted connection to the land he cherished.
He is preceded in death by his wife, Gail, and his parents, Charles and Marie, his brothers, Bernard and Lawrence (Red) Benolkin, and his sister, Helen Weir.
He is survived by his son, Andrew Benolkin, daughter, Karen Sloan, granddaughters, Emma and Lily Sloan, and numerous nieces, nephews.
A Celebration of Life and luncheon is scheduled for Saturday, June 21, at The Pershing County Community Center, 820 6th Street, Lovelock, Nevada from noon until 2 p.m.
If you plan to attend and join Phil’s family and friends for lunch, please send an RSVP email to karenmsloan@gmail.com by Saturday, June 14, and include the number of people in your party.