WWA Forward

By Bruce Ross, Executive Director bross@wisducks.org

This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s April, 2023 Newsletter edition.

WWA’s 2023 Annual Meeting was a good opportunity to reflect on the many accomplishments last year, recognize stellar contributions, and take a sneak peek at the year ahead.  Over the course of the next two months, we’ll share some of that with our readers of this newsletter.  But here’s the Reader’s Digest version:  2022 was a pretty great year in all of our missions, and 2023 is shaping up to be even better.  These results (and forecast) were only possible  because of superb volunteer efforts.

Habitat: Wetland project numbers and restored acreage were up – check out the presentation put together by Peter showing the work your dollars are funding. With a lot of volunteer help, the wood duck box program has survived several significant transitions, and is running strong again – over 140 new wood duck boxes were hung, and hundreds more maintained, producing thousands of ducklings last year.  And this spring, over 400 new boxes were built and placed into chapter hands (or sold or saved for next year) to produce additional ducklings this spring.  Volunteer hours for chapter efforts at local wildlife areas were up as they tackled invasives, removed trash, and built a wheelchair accessible blind

Education: Our Green Bay Chapter held it 14^th learn to hunt waterfowl event while our Education Committee helped expand that number by facilitating three more around the state. The EXPO exceeded goals in only its second year, attracting nearly 4,000 attendees and nearly 30 corporate or philanthropic sponsors to the one-day “all things waterfowl” extravaganza.  And this newsletter hit new heights of readership – nearly 15,000 subscribers from around the state – who saw our coverage of over 85 different topics – something for everyone.

Advocacy:  WWA continued to grow our presence in the capital and with policy makers with regular visits and communications; we recognized our first two policy makers of the year for their help in getting the duck stamp fee increase over the finish line and Knowles Nelson Stewardship program re-authorized.  We spent time afield with legislators and educated many on the topic of sandhill crane hunting.  While that bill was not approved last year (nor did we expect it to be), we were clearly the strongest voice for a science-based ethical and sustainable SHC season.

Financial Results: Underpinning significant improvements in all of our missions efforts, this last one was a strong financial year for WWA.  For the third year running, our generous donors and volunteer ran events that created funding that helped us close out our books in the black by nearly $75,000 (while delivering even more impact in each mission area).  Coupled with the previous two years’ solid financial results,  these funds provided much-needed stabilization to our operations and allows new “investments” (such as our public wetlands restoration initiative and a re-boot of our website).

These results were only possible because virtually all of our chapters achieved super goal status (a measure of their fundraising success).  This entitled them to the attendant benefits, such as free wood duck boxes, up to $1000 for projects in their community (habitat and education), and awards for their volunteers, among other incentives.  While all chapters delivered amazing financial results from the fundraising events they put on, several chapters stood at the top of this category and warrant mentioning:

• The Fox Valley Chapter, led by Brad Miller, earned the “Avis Award“ (i.e., for trying harder) and upped their contributions to WWA missions by raising over $44,000 in three separate events – this is nearly double previous results! Well done.

• The Big Net Chapter – Doug Steiner’s Green Bay Chapter retained this recognition by hosting an event that drew 260 attendees and netted over $40,000 for that single event. And what a great event that was!

• The Top Gun Award – Mike Alaimo led the Waukesha team to retain this honor for the third year running (and maybe longer) by stringing together three successful events and several Class A raffles to net WWA over $60,000. Wow!

Make no mistake, WWA is on an upward trajectory, fueled by outstanding volunteerism. I say this a lot (because it’s true) – I’m proud to be associated with such a committed and impactful group.  And like Callie, here laying on the bow of my duck skiff after a successful teal hunt, I can’t wait to see what lies ahead.