By Bruce Ross, Executive Director [email]bross@wisducks.org[/email]
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s March, 2024 Newsletter edition.
I’m so confused. I mean, more so than normal. And it seems I’m not the only one: it’s barely March, yet my towering river bottom silver maples are budding (even beginning to leaf), wood duck pairs are squealing, and mallard pairs are mingling with the goldeneyes on my river.
It’s been a weird winter, right?!
Maybe, like the paired mallards outside my window, I should simply embrace the possibility that spring is close upon us. But I’m cautious by nature, with a sailor’s superstition – I fear that my premature emotional attachment to an early spring will mean greater disappointment when Wisconsin tells me otherwise. Man plans, God laughs.
After celebrating 2023 accomplishments last month, we’ve been busy focusing on WWA’s future. It’s gonna be a great year (I am touching wood) as I type this.
- Our budget reflects the highest level ever of mission-focused efforts.
- Our Waterfowler Academy efforts are ramping up to build on last year’s record learn to hunt
- The Better Business Bureau just reaffirmed that WWA meets its non-profit accreditation standards.
- We’ve got some neat restoration projects in the queue for both private and public lands.
- Even more wood ducks boxes are being hung (check out our Wood Duck Nesting Boxes FAQs for DIY wood duck nesting box success).
- Our Abrams property managers will be working to improve the Abrams’s property habitat in partnership with the local NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) office. Stay tuned for more developments!
- Speaking of the NRCS, our brand new collaboration is now getting underway for better managed wetlands and uplands.
- The ’24 EXPO is shaping up to be bigger and better (more exhibitors, higher profile celebrities, a Women’s Zone, a new calling area) as we build to two days in 2025. Check out this short video from last year.
- Complementing our 2024 Action Plan, WWA’s directors have begun a multi-year strategic review to ensure WWA’s future is even more impactful.
- And that’s just the tip of this month’s “iceberg”.
Do you want to make a difference on behalf of waterfowl and the passionate conservationists who pursue them? Let me know and I bet together we can find a role that is personally significant, from creating a better EXPO, to establishing more productive habitat in your “back yard”. We are particularly looking for volunteers willing to coordinate learn to hunts in their local area – we have the model, the funding, and maybe the connections to make that first experience for mentors and students memorable – and lasting. If you have questions (or even better, answers), call me at 262-224-4949.
