Will Poston for SPLIT REED
The holiday season usually means waterfowl season in much of the country is in full swing or only improving. Hopefully, you will be able to spend the holiday weekend with some time with family, or even better, time with family in the blind! Also, many probably enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday sales: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Regardless of everything else going on in the world, mainly the complications and harm caused by COVID, everyone has much to be thankful for.
South Dakota Slough. Some divers and a couple of puddle ducks loaf on the edge of a permanent wetland slough.
As waterfowlers, we should be thankful for a rich history of tradition and conservation that has allowed our sport to thrive. Being hunters, so much of what we do contributes to conservation: excise taxes on firearms and ammunition, license sales, and recruiting new hunters. But most of the waterfowl we chase are highly migratory, so there’s only so much we can do in our backyards. Sure, building wood duck boxes and providing food and other habitat does a lot. But the scale of impact of national organizations like Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl can not be replicated. These groups work throughout North American to restore and protect critical waterfowl habitat, educate new hunters, and ensure the long term health of our waterfowling tradition.
North Dakota, Hen Gadwall and Ducklings. Donations to conservation groups helps to protect critical waterfowl habitat, including some of the most prolific breeding and brooding grounds in the Northern Prairies.
So, for this Holiday Season (or end of the year spending), look to make a tax deductible donation to Ducks Unlimited and/or Delta Waterfowl. Aside from helping to protect some of the most important waterfowl habitat in the world, you are likely to receive a gift of something like a duck call, a coat or maybe a blind bag or knife, if you need more motivation to open up your pocket book- after all, we know it hasn’t been the easiest year financially for so many Americans. It has been a hard year anyway you look at it, but like clock work, the ducks and geese showed up. No matter how much you chose to donate, your donation will ensure that ducks and geese continue to show up in healthy populations for generations to come.
Springs Northern Migration brings breeding pairs of Mallards, Northern Pintails and Canada geese back to pothole country to use small seasonal wetlands as breeding grounds and to raise young in Spring. Many of these small wetlands are interspersed in farm fields across the North, and are protected through conservation easements purchased via donation funds.
You may live in a state or locality with their own Waterfowl Conservation groups, and they are in as much need of help as any national 501(c)(3) non profit so don’t forget about them this giving season!
