By Bruce Ross, Executive Director bross@wisducks.org
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s March, 2023 Newsletter edition.
Three days ago, we received a donation from one of our members with a note expressing the hope that it would “kick-start” our nesting tube program. The donor “loves green-headed ducks” (who doesn’t!?!) and wants to do what he can to put more of them on the landscape. WWA’s ‘dabbling’ with nesting tubes has been a pretty dry well despite several years’ effort. But we’re going to take another look at it; we’re in discussions with Delta Waterfowl to gain any insights they have.
Based on those discussions, we may conduct some prototype installations to determine the right conditions under which the hen houses will actually produce birds in Wisconsin. While we may not continue down this road if we can’t see a way to success (like do with our cavity nesting program), wouldn’t it be great if we did!
Later in this newsletter, you’ll see a story about how WWA helped reverse a decision by a village board to close a traditional hunting area. Our successful involvement was triggered by a WWA volunteer who asked how we could help.
And later this month, you’ll see a press release about how WWA has hired not one, but TWO, new biologists to restore wetlands on the public lands you and I can hunt. The effort to contract our restoration services to the DNR was started over a year ago, when a volunteer pointed out a lot of neglected state wetlands – what could WWA do about it?
I’m sharing these anecdotes because they say a lot about the type of organization WWA is. We listen hard – we have to. We are very small compared to the national duck organizations, and that smaller size demands that we be as responsive as our resources allow. Or we die.
More on the power of listening: Together with the WI Wildlife Federation, we just conducted a survey of our members related to questions the DNR is facing in setting up waterfowl seasons this fall. Nearly 600 of you responded – an astounding response rate that makes our input far more statistically significant than any other group the DNR asks for input. That makes WWA’s voice for waterfowlers the strongest in the state. (BTW, we’d like that voice to be even more representative of state waterfowlers by growing our western and northwestern volunteer/member numbers. Want to help us grow in these areas? Let me know at [email]bross@wisducks.org[/email].)
In that survey from two week ago, we asked if respondents would like to play a role in helping WWA be an even stronger supporter of state waterfowlers. Over 10% said ‘yes’. Incredible! We are reaching back out to them this week to start the process of determining where they will find the most joy in their WWA volunteering. Our small size means we have many needs – we excel at building roles to ‘scratch’ volunteer passions while filling an organizational “hole”. See all of the options to help out here.
The Waterfowl Hunters EXPO is a very visible example of listening to what state waterfowlers want – and its rapidly growing success indicates we’re scratching that itch too.
WWA will always struggle to bring to bear the quantity of resources that our larger partners-in-waterfowling can. But I’m proud to be involved with an organization that is so singularly focused on meeting the full range of state waterfowler needs. I hope you feel that way too.