By Bruce Ross, Executive Director [email]bross@wisducks.org[/email]
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s October, 2023 Newsletter edition.
The fall hunting season is full upon us, with the northern opener last week, and the south zone opener this week. I was able to hunt some grouse last week, but those explosive birds eluded my bag, even as my four-legged buddy Tack got some good work. There’s a lot going on with your WWA – I hope you are happy with where we are spending our time and energy. Here’s a selection of activities for the month.
Meet new Public Lands Ecologist Anna Rzchowski, joining our habitat team. More information on Anna here.
The Hunters EXPO was exactly 30 days ago. And our leadership team has barely celebrated what a great day that was but we are already planning to grow in 2024 and beyond, and we could use your help. Top on our list is building an even stronger planning team. We need:
- Event coordinators (to develop seminars and activities to draw greater attendance).
- Fund raisers (we have a great product to sell to industry and foundations).
- Project managers (to strengthen our planning effort).
- Marketeers (getting the word out to exhibitors and patrons).
- Other needs as well.
Leadership opportunities abound. If you want to be a part of this remarkable endeavor, let us know.
Speaking of Help Wanted… are you a social media guru? Maybe you helped administer a page, grew a group, or launched an Instagram? There’s a volunteer opportunity to help our social media team tell the WWA story, bring people to our events, increase WWA membership and support our missions more effectively. Let me know if you’re interested: [email]bross@wisducks.org[/email].
We just inked a deal with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to monitor up to 320 wetland reserve easements and report the condition of conservation reserve (CRP) plots per year. We will be hiring a new ecologist early in 2024 to help bring this program to life, giving WWA a total of four ecologists on staff! It is our intent to have all of our ecologists working on all of our habitat missions. We hope to exploit some logistical/travel efficiency and be able to expand our restoration efforts across a broader swath of Wisconsin. Oh, and we’ll get paid to do it. WWA is on the march!!
Dispute with Division of Gaming (DoG): WWA is deep into its dispute with the state’s Division of Gaming over our use of the internet to supplement our in-person raffles. Six months of dialogue, documentation, debate, and ultimately disagreement, has brought us to the point where we have engaged attorneys for an independent review by an administrative law judge. We believe our open, transparent, and legally justified practices protect the integrity of charitable gaming as well as our participants’ interests in those raffles. The DoG is fearful that widespread use of our practices by other organizations would be difficult for them to monitor and won’t consider that we are right.
We could have simply dropped the matter. But we’re not wrong. And the return on investment of a successful legal action is significant. So we view that contesting the DoG ruling is the right moral and financial thing to do.
Nevertheless, contesting the DoG ruling has been a double financial whammy—the loss of raffle income coupled with attorney fees has appreciably impacted our available funds to conduct our missions. Do you want to help? Read more here and make a contribution to our defense fund here.
Looking ahead to the Wood Duck Box season, I’m pleased to report that our relationship with McNaughton Correctional Facility is moving along smartly. They just arranged for timber to be transported to their sawmill operation to begin producing another year’s worth of nesting structures. Once cut into rough sawn lumber, it will be dried in their kiln, then turned into boxes and kits – great presents for the outdoor lover in your family (available to be shipped only to Wisconsin addresses). And nearly 100 will be used by our chapters to install/replace structures around the state.
Hope to see you in the marsh—be safe out there!
Bruce