By Bruce Ross, Executive Director bross@wisducks.org
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s February, 2023 Newsletter edition.
WWA enjoyed a third straight year of strong financial and mission results, while setting the table for an even bigger impact in 2023.
Financial results: Very successful chapter events, strong state revenue returns, and EXPO financial success all contributed to WWA ending the year nearly $75,000 in the black. This allows WWA to invest in new initiatives that will benefit state waterfowlers like the Public Lands Ecologist (PLE), the Waterfowlers Academy (WWA’s expanded educational offerings), a middle school science curriculum based on the wood duck, and many more.
With a looming recession, it’s also important to reserve some funds for future “rainy days”. WWA has built, over the last two years, a six-figure reserve fund to help WWA weather economic downturns or setbacks. Bonus: it earns significant interest that support operations. And more immediately, 2022’s financial results provide the cash flow needed to support our growing numbers of initiatives.
Dedicated WWA volunteers are fueling WWA’s growing relevancy – they should take more than a little pride that their efforts are making a big difference for state waterfowling.
Mission results: At the risk of stealing Peter’s thunder at the upcoming virtual state meeting, I have to note that volunteer-developed funds allowed WWA to do more habitat projects – 220+ acres of wetland and associated uplands – than at any time in the past 5+ years. And just about as importantly, the queue of potential projects for consideration is growing thanks to greater volunteer “tree-shaking”; 29 submitted potential projects in 2022, up 50%. This means we can select the very best projects that will yield the best results for state waterfowlers, while helping every landowner get the most wetland benefits possible. Each of the 15 projects accomplished in 2022 tend to be the relatively small wetlands which are critical to waterfowl breeding success, but are relatively more expensive per acre than larger projects less conducive to brood-rearing success.
Wild rice efforts as the DNR’s new distribution agent grew to 1,100 pounds of rice re-seeded in waters with the highest probability of success. And by partnering with the DNR in submittal of a federal North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) grant this past year, this role will only grow in 2023.
Wood duck box efforts continued unabated with over 120 new boxes hung and 600+ more maintained – even as we rebuilt our manufacturing capacity. The number of hours volunteered under our Adopt-a-wildlife Area program grew as well, improving local wildlife areas.
Our decade-long partnership with USFWS continued. Cumulatively it has restored over 1,700 acres of wetlands and uplands. This was possible by leveraging WWA’s $120,000 into over $1 million of funds for these restorations. A great partnership!
These are just the habitat highlights. In our education mission, WWA’s volunteers expanded by three-fold our learn-to-hunt efforts, turning wannabe waterfowlers into newbies. Newsletter and EXPO offerings are helping every flavor of duck hunter advance along the “waterfowlers arc” to experienced hunter and seasoned conservationist. And a new species of duck parasite was discovered in our partnership with researcher Dr Sarah Orlofske.
And in WWA’s advocacy role, we continued to be a leader in promoting duck hunters’ interests: wetland mitigation proposals, Pelican River access, sand hill crane education, policy makers of the year, and more. More on these to come at the annual meeting.