By Bruce Ross, Executive Director bross@wisducks.org
This article appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s March, 2025 Newsletter edition.
You’d have to be a hermit to have missed how DOGE activities are creating uncertainty in the federal government, particularly in grants. This is impacting WWA’s habitat restoration work. WWA is managing about $1.2M in federal restoration funds from the US Fish and Wildlife Service—or rather, we thought we were.
We signed what we believed were contractually binding agreements with the federal government for these projects and then signed contracts with locally based earth-movers to undertake the work. But now we lack confidence that those agreements will be honored and that the funds will be made available to pay those contractors.
Stay tuned.