Copen wrote:Cut the days in the season back not the limits. If all you guys were killing ducks and the limit was only 4 ya'll would bitch we could not kill enough birds.
If what I continually hear is "poor habitat in the prairie pothole region" then put the majority of the money in creating better habitat in that area.
This is the exact reason we should all support Delta Waterfowl and not DU. They are actually trying to restore the breeding grounds up north instead of spending your money on some guys land in Lousiana daming up a spot to hold water so the ducks can "rest". FYI, ducks do not breed down here where we hunt, they breed up NORTH.
Does no one remember a few years back when DU tried to get some of the farm bill money. I know the farmers do. I have friends in the farming industry that still to this day will not even buy anything with the DU logo on it, myself included.
As for spinners. Who really cares if hunters are honest and it helps them kill their limits. If they are killing only their limits. We have four spinners and never use them any more. We have started using quiver magnets, does not flare the ducks like a spinner.
Just my pennies. Opinions are like elbows everyone has a couple.
Your pennies don't add up to anything........
If you'd take just a minute to actually learn what DU has accomplished on the breeding grounds, you wouldn't make such an uninformed comment.
DU has perpetually protected over 300,000 acres of waterfowl breeding habitat in prairie Canada. DU has restored and enhanced over 1 million acres of grassland and wetland habitat throughout Canadian provinces.
DU has helped protect over 100,000 acres of grasslands in the Dakotas. Not to mention, thousands of restored wetlands throughout the breeding grounds of the US.
To imply that DU is doing nothing on the breeding grounds is a JOKE. $15 million from DU banquets in the US are sent to prairie Canada for habitat conservation. Please identify another non-profit that puts that kind of money on the breeding grounds.....you can't.
DU did not try to get Farm Bill money.....I've posted this information about 5 times now.......With regards to the 2002 Farm Bill, here’s what I know. Let me start off by saying farmers and farming communities have been instrumental in conserving habitat for waterfowl. You are correct….farmers have played a big role in providing winter water for duck habitat (i.e., flooding fields with use of water control structures). Farming communities have utilized conservation programs like WRP and CRP to restore marginal agricultural lands back to productive forested wetlands and moist-soil habitat. Throughout North America, conservation of waterfowl habitat would not occur without help from the farming community. Farmers have been DU’s biggest partner / cooperators to date.
DU staff worked with House Ag Committee staff and offered proposals to improve conservation titles in line with our priorities by redistributing funds among conservation provisions of the bill. DU never proposed shifting funds from commodities to conservation titles.
DU supported the Boehlert/Kind amendment because the conservation titles were more in line with our priorities. DU was not fully aware nor did we support diverting money from commodity titles of the Bill.
Did DU support the conservation measure of the Farm Bill? Absolutely….the conservation programs like WRP, CRP, WHIP, GRP provide tremendous benefits to many wildlife populations. If it were not for CRP, we would not have seen the dramatic increase in duck populations in the mid-1990s. These birds were using CRP lands in the Dakotas. WRP has been a tremendous program for farmers in the south. In the last Farm Bill, AR, MS, LA, and MO enrolled 406,000 acres or 38% of the WRP acreage in the United States. Marginal agricultural lands were restored to forested wetlands or moist-soul habitats. Simply put, more WRP means more benefits for waterfowl.
DU’s position on the 2002 Farm Bill was focused on achieving the 4 priorities mentioned above. None of our actions were ever intended to hurt farmers or other landowners. Farmers and private landowners are DU’s most important and valued partners.
I guess the bottomline is DU never proposed to move funding away from commodity payments.
Copen, if you've got questions regarding Ducks Unlimited, how about asking before you post all this insightful knowledge.
Yep - told me one time that he was a member of DU....that's right...the head honcho at DW said we should support both.
I think that attitude is generated by frustration and the need to place blame somewhere but it is a double edged sword. Get people "not" interested in ducks and you basically clip your own nads.
