By Bruce Urben, President
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s March 2020 Newsletter edition.
Education is one of our founding missions at WWA. Our Abrams project property, located in southern Oconto County (about 15 minutes north of Green Bay) is a 150+ acre parcel that WWA developed for recreation, disabled accessible usage and education. On Monday, February 24, 2020, Dave Landers, a teacher at the Pulaski Community School District and his Associate, Kelly Koller from the Howard Suamico School District, brought the “Great Lakes Explorer” group from Pulaski for a field trip to the Abrams project property. They wanted to learn more about the development of the property and wood ducks!
In winter, we don’t plow the driveway or parking lot at the Abrams property main site located off Highway 41. Unfortunately, in the last 3 weeks we received over 15 inches of snow in this part of the state. How do we get a busload of eager 7th and 8th grade students into the site safely? A call to a local WWA volunteer and supporter resulted in driveway and parking lot plowing within several hours from contact…all donated labor and equipment! Special thanks to Andy Ryczek and his son, Brady, for a great job making the site accessible. What would we do without our volunteers!
Nineteen seventh and eighth grade students arrived after school on Monday, with snowshoes in hand, to learn about the Abrams property development and wood duck biology. The group assisted me with cleaning out several wood duck boxes, replacing wood chips and some minor maintenance on several boxes. For the second year in a row, the twenty-on wood duck boxes on the property had nearly a 50% hatch rate. Ten of the twenty-on boxes had broken wood duck eggs, usually indicative of a successful hatch.
The students had many questions about wood duck biology including, “how does she fit in that box with twelve-plus eggs without breaking them?”, “how does she get in that little wood duck box opening?” and “are all the eggs that big?”
One young man was disappointed that he couldn’t see a wood duck, which led to the migration discussion…and more questions!
The group snowshoed the trail to observe the pike restoration area, the water control devices and the disabled blinds on the property. Based on the questions, they enjoyed the field trip and the development for waterfowl management. They all indicated they wanted to return to help with wild rice seeding and to observe the planned, prescribed burn this spring. There is even a summer school course in the planning.
Monday was a great day in the field with an eager group of youth who may be our future conservation leaders!
What I learned on Monday was that the best way to break trail in twenty inches of wet, melting snow is to follow nineteen young students – their trail looked like a sidewalk; and, if there is any open water in February, someone in a group of youth will find a way to get wet! Glad it was warm!
If you are interested in a field trip at Abrams, please contact me at [email]burben@netnet.net[/email] …hopefully after the snow melts?