Question about DU

[Chad Manlove]

jroc,

Here's the real answer regarding the "payola scam." Your membership dollars are not spent building high dollar duck leases. The bulk of membership dollars are spent on the breeding grounds protecting critical duck nesting habitat. Through the event system (banquets), DU will raise roughly $40 million across the United States. About $20 million is set directly to Canada for conservation projects on the breeding grounds. Another $5-10 million is spent on the breeding grounds in the northern great plains (North and South Dakota). That's roughly 60-75% of your membership dollars being spent on the breeding grounds.

DU does not pay landowners to build projects. The private lands projects that have occurred are through a parternship with USFWS, MDWFP, Delta Wildlife, and DU. All partners chip in dollars to enhance private lands with water control structures. Many of these dollars were received from a federal grant (North America Wetlands Conservation Act).

Sorry about the leases. I haven't had much luck with duck leases either.

Chad

[ducksunlimitedsucks]

So your telling me that if the water rises we will have more ducks??? Last year around this same time I have a field that floods when the river gets out of the banks. I normally shoot 60 to 120 birds in this paticular field in a week. It is the best spot I have ever hunted. Ducks naturally like it. But last year when it flooded, I shot 10 ducks out of it. My favorite hole let me down. The one I look forward to hunting each year. The hunts in this field make up for all the bad hunts. Something last year just wasn't right. I don't know what. There is toooo many questions and not enough answers. Something is wrong......I am not pointing my finger at DU(don't look at my screen name). Something is really messing our hunting up down here in the southern states. It HAS to be from something up north. The birds just aren't coming down like they use to. What does DU say?? "More habitat on the ground means more ducks in the air". Yeah.......but not for us down here.
I know one spot in Arkansas that is a DU project. You can't hunt it. It is in the US. I just want birds.

[Wildfowler]

jkm,

I'm quite sure you did kill more ducks. With the advent of 60/6, hunting pressure is rediculous now. We had half the hunters during the late-80s. Only those dedicated duck hunters were willing to harvest 3 birds and they experienced some awesome hunting conditions. In my opinion, hunting pressure has reduced our success during the season.

Now wait a minute Chad, you're starting to sound just like Duckmen.

He's been advocating a short season for years....

Assuming Benny is right, and the exponential increase in hunting pressure is the real cause of the "perceived" lack of ducks that so many people are complaining about. I say let's keep the 60/6 just the way it is, so long as the duck counts will merit a liberal season framework. All you guys who are complaining and trying to blame everything for your lack of continued success are the very ones who will give up duck hunting and leave it to the "diehards" ( as Duckmen likes to put it ) who too stuck it out during the 3/30 days.

What's the difference, they will fall out of the game either way, right? Either out of frustration, or because of simple duckonomics ( I just made that word up ). But my plan allows the true diehards to have an extra month of being able to chase ducks around our great state.

I'm not singling any of the complainers out here specifically by name, but you know who you are. Why don't you do us all a favor, and go ahead and throw in the towel? The ducks are counting on you....

[BAY KINGFISHER]

Well guys anyway you look at it DU is a business first organization not any different than anybody with their own business, this means income first. So regardless if any of us are killing ducks and their bottom line is staying the same nothing will ever be done on their part. I'm not blaming DU for no ducks, I'm just saying they are avoiding the questions. What is going to happen eventually is the lack of a southern migration will drive duckhunters away from the sport. Is that what DU really wants. I am willing to bet DU is praying for ice from Memphis to Canada so all their midwest easements and private impoundments they helped fund will freeze up tighter than dicks hat band. And we will see the ducks that they are producing. DU has two solutions to stay in business, as far as i can see, One, start saying the populations are dwindling so we wont expect to see large numbers. Two figure out the problem with the Southern migration, if they dont already know. See the thing is simple economics is going to fix the problem, DU will always want to show a large number of ducks being produced, if not, their organization is not succesful. The pressure from the loss of memberships form Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana will hurt their bottom line (Note: more duck hunters in these three states than the rest of the country, and their not all just in for the free duck call), which of course is not condusive for a succesful business. So the way I see it, the lack of a true southern migration (when DU is preaching 100 million ducks to migrate) will be their downfall. I guess the good thing is maybe well finally get an answer, but on the contrary a few arctic blasts come through, we get two weeks of good hunting and everyone writes their checks to DU again. I already see the ball rolling for DU problems to escalate, everyone is talking Delta waterfowl, which alone is not the answer, but a start. Like I said weather will predict their bottom line next year. I hate to be senecal but a little bit of me would like to see what would happen if this season was like the last two. And to the biologist I think you'll are doing a great job if the numbers and different species are increasing but the problem is not you, its in the business side of DU, One more thing, I due realize that DU support hunters and I comend them for it, but hell dont call yoursel DU, maybe HU hunting unlimited. Well I have rambled on to much, I'm sure some will agree and others wont, but this is my opinion. Simple economics will cure us I hope, Supply= ducks Hunters= demand, No ducks, no demand, No demand no DU.

[Bustin' Ducks]

Chad..your doing good and I've been a DU supporter since '92....I've recently picked up with Delta though...DU banquet prices are double what they were before...ridiculous I must say...I don't want to brow beat ya but could you clarify the Predator Control stance DU supports, and possibly offer me an expaination on how my buddy in Ohio had DU come in and build a water levee system, including a dam, plant some crop, and he was told by agreement thru DU that he can't hunt it unitl next year....hmmm Thank you sir for your patience and support you do day in and day out for da ducks!!

[Bustin' Ducks]

And just for the record..DU's Free duck call sucks!! my .02

[ducksunlimitedsucks]

Lol at bustin ducks!!! They do!!! But that is what you get for a years membership. It was made in Japan for 1 dollar.

[NOHERE]

Simply put, you have water in " our part of the country" we would have some birds here, ice up north, you have birds here.

We ain't got either one.

Send your money to DU and DF, without them, we wouldnt be
talking about duckhunting.

[ducksunlimitedsucks]

Nohere........you need to look at the weather up north.

[ducksunlimitedsucks]

I guess all the ducks are in Wisconsin and Iowa and Missouri......waiting for the -20 degree weather to push them down?? What about the 105,000,000 ducks migrating??? It isn't going to happen. Damn Yankees!!!!

[mallardhunter]

Poor old DU, damned if they do, and damned if they don't - spend some $$ inside the US, that is. For those with memories, or who have been around long enough to remember, during the 1980's the main b*tch with DU was that they spent virtually no money inside the US for wintering ground habitat. Now, in the 2000's they are spending some money for wintering habitat improvement, and it's working well, guess what? Duck hunters are still pizzing and moaning at DU.

And Chad, you said:
"We had half the hunters during the late-80s".
Prove it. Source, please. According to the FWS duck stamp sales, during the late 80's we had 1300 (thousands) duck hunters and during the late 1990's and early 2000's we've had 1650 (thousands) duck hunters. "Half" is an absurd exaggeration, don't you think, since it's less than a 30% increase.

And NOHERE has obviously been around long enough to understand the basics. Without ice and at least 6 inches of snow up north (duckunlimitedsucks, look real CLOSELY at the freeze line and the snow depth), the ducks aren't going to move in massive numbers. Those that do move, ain't gonna stop in the dry, dustbowl of Mississippi. If the delta doesn't flood, the ducks aren't gonna stop there. In adition, this year, I have never seen so much cotton in the delta, replacing the traditional rice, beans, millet, milo and corn. Even if it floods, that cotton doesn't usually feed ducks too well.

Temperature map:
http://www.weatherimages.org/data/imag83.html
(ducks stay north of the green)

Snow depth map:
http://www.weatherimages.org/data/imag310.html
(ducks can get at food until the snow gets about 6 inches deep)

DU does good work. Habitat is key. Habitat is more important than predator control. Here's why. Without habitat, where are you gonna perform predator control? You can't have predator control without habitat, but you can have habitat without predator control (and you can have ducks, too). It's been working for centuries.

If you have a problem with a specific program or project that DU is involved in, get involved and raise he!!. Running away while giving DU the finger accomplishes very little in helping put more ducks in the sky, or in making DU a better organization.

[Seymore]

I know several "professionals" (as in lawyers, bankers, doctors, etc.) that go to these things to try an out bid each other for the over priced stuff then brag about how much they paid for a lease in the delta.

Dang. I've been a banker about 14 years and can't afford to be in a lease or bid some of the prices at DU banquets. All my hunting is done on public land.

I'm going to bring this up at my next performance evaluation 'cause I'm getting screwed somewhere in this deal.

Of course it may have something to do with having three daughters.

[Seymore]

I know several "professionals" (as in lawyers, bankers, doctors, etc.) that go to these things to try an out bid each other for the over priced stuff then brag about how much they paid for a lease in the delta.

Dang. I've been a banker about 14 years and can't afford to be in a lease or bid some of the prices at DU banquets. All my hunting is done on public land.

I'm going to bring this up at my next performance evaluation 'cause I'm getting screwed somewhere in this deal.

Of course it may have something to do with having three daughters.

[jroc]

Well guys anyway you look at it DU is a business first organization not any different than anybody with their own business, this means income first. So regardless if any of us are killing ducks and their bottom line is staying the same nothing will ever be done on their part. I'm not blaming DU for no ducks, I'm just saying they are avoiding the questions. What is going to happen eventually is the lack of a southern migration will drive duckhunters away from the sport. Is that what DU really wants. I am willing to bet DU is praying for ice from Memphis to Canada so all their midwest easements and private impoundments they helped fund will freeze up tighter than dicks hat band. And we will see the ducks that they are producing. DU has two solutions to stay in business, as far as i can see, One, start saying the populations are dwindling so we wont expect to see large numbers. Two figure out the problem with the Southern migration, if they dont already know. See the thing is simple economics is going to fix the problem, DU will always want to show a large number of ducks being produced, if not, their organization is not succesful. The pressure from the loss of memberships form Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana will hurt their bottom line (Note: more duck hunters in these three states than the rest of the country, and their not all just in for the free duck call), which of course is not condusive for a succesful business. So the way I see it, the lack of a true southern migration (when DU is preaching 100 million ducks to migrate) will be their downfall. I guess the good thing is maybe well finally get an answer, but on the contrary a few arctic blasts come through, we get two weeks of good hunting and everyone writes their checks to DU again. I already see the ball rolling for DU problems to escalate, everyone is talking Delta waterfowl, which alone is not the answer, but a start. Like I said weather will predict their bottom line next year. I hate to be senecal but a little bit of me would like to see what would happen if this season was like the last two. And to the biologist I think you'll are doing a great job if the numbers and different species are increasing but the problem is not you, its in the business side of DU, One more thing, I due realize that DU support hunters and I comend them for it, but hell dont call yoursel DU, maybe HU hunting unlimited. Well I have rambled on to much, I'm sure some will agree and others wont, but this is my opinion. Simple economics will cure us I hope, Supply= ducks Hunters= demand, No ducks, no demand, No demand no DU.

Louis Spotorno is that you? LOL

[jroc]

jroc,

Here's the real answer regarding the "payola scam." Your membership dollars are not spent building high dollar duck leases. The bulk of membership dollars are spent on the breeding grounds protecting critical duck nesting habitat. Through the event system (banquets), DU will raise roughly $40 million across the United States. About $20 million is set directly to Canada for conservation projects on the breeding grounds. Another $5-10 million is spent on the breeding grounds in the northern great plains (North and South Dakota). That's roughly 60-75% of your membership dollars being spent on the breeding grounds.

DU does not pay landowners to build projects. The private lands projects that have occurred are through a parternship with USFWS, MDWFP, Delta Wildlife, and DU. All partners chip in dollars to enhance private lands with water control structures. Many of these dollars were received from a federal grant (North America Wetlands Conservation Act).

Sorry about the leases. I haven't had much luck with duck leases either.

Chad

DU has to have a HUGE US Postal bill. I get something every month from them and I haven't given in years. Sorry but I don't think these groups put as much in to helping us as they claim. BTW why did I hear last weekend a guy say "I need to get my DU pipe and boards so I can flood this area". Is that not helping a private landowner? I've heard good things about Delta Waterfowl but since I'm way down south I hear very little of it. I'm for a group that puts 100% into what they stand for and not a big fine building fully staffed on 1 Waterfowl Drive..............or Lane or blvd or whatever it is....

Don't worry I'm the same way with CCA. I used to sport the refish "JOIN CCA" stickers but now they too send me a weekly 5 page letter telling me to send MORE MONEY!!!!