By Bruce Ross, Executive Director [email]bross@wisducks.org[/email]
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s June, 2023 Newsletter edition.
It’s been a weird spring, right? But Mike Alaimo’s black terns have returned to Rome pond, so it must mean summer is nearly upon us. And there are many great things WWA has planned for our 39th summer.
In my leadership role with WWA, I find myself wondering how much material we should put into our monthly newsletter. “Less is more”, I am told by experts in the field. There is so much good stuff happening with your WWA that I usually can’t help myself.
Clearly in some instances, “more is more”. Our public lands program is really gathering steam with over 70 DNR properties reviewed for restoration opportunities (and many of them very promising at this stage). In the last two months, WWA has been awarded funds from several different sources to support the actual restorations our ecologists will undertake:
- Wisconsin Waterfowl Stamp: $150,000
- James E. Dutton Foundation: $7,000
- The Wisconsin Bird Fund of the Natural Resources Foundation: $3,000
- And we have several other grants pending, totaling over $50,000
We expect to be able to at least double these funds by using them as matching dollars for available federal restoration funds. By the end of this year, we could have as much as half a million dollars available for wetland restorations on public lands that you and I can hunt. And our private lands program will have over $100K available for actual restorations. Now we just need to identify worthy parcels for restoration.
For this month, I’ll allow the newsletter to speak for itself (the beautiful weather outside my window has nothing to do with that decision, nor Tack’s whining to run some retriever drills, I assure you). With topics ranging from Matt Porter’s recipes for the duck that is still lingering in your freezer, to Warden Bob Jumbeck’s recognition as warden of the year, this newsletter’s slice of Wisconsin waterfowling can offer you some light reading. Tell me what you think: more or less information in our newsletter?
While you’re contemplating that question, I’ll finish by encouraging you to consider becoming an even bigger part of WWA through a recurring membership, a legacy gift, or simply coming to one of our events. Hope to see you at one of them.