Rocky
member
Reged: 05/07/2008
Posts: 4
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Anybody want a chance to help a club raise funds to pay for marsh purchase and get some fantastic shooting opportunities?
Visit the Rockland Wildfowlers online auction by clicking HERE
Edited by Rocky (05/07/2008 10:50)
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JohnS
member
Reged: 23/07/2008
Posts: 12
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Hello, Rocky et al. As a wildfowler (ducks and geese) in Nova Scotia, I'm a firm supporter of an outfit called Ducks Unlimited. I don't know if there's a UK equivalent. If not, there should be. DU's focus is on marsh protection and remediation; land acquisition, co-operation with farmers for mutually beneficial purposes, breeding site protection, and all that good stuff. Core organizers in N. America were and remain gunners and sensible conservationists. If there is no UK equivalent, wildfowlers there should Google 'em up, explore the possibilities, and start flighting (as it were).
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Wildfowler
new user
Reged: 07/06/2004
Posts: 17
Loc: North
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I'm a member of DU even though I live this side of the pond?
--------------------
Wildfowler
 
"What's hit is history, What's missed is a mystery?"
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JohnS
member
Reged: 23/07/2008
Posts: 12
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Good on ya, Wildfowler. Does your DU membership hook you into any services in the UK? Here for instance, I can go to DU to express alarm at, say, the draining of a marsh for "development" purposes or at any activities which threaten migration patterns or inhibit breeding. Generally speaking, I discover that DU is already in the loop and on the move. DU is also very "farmer friendly" and loaded with professional biologists, ornithologists, and the like; thereby giving it considerable public credibility.The point is, it's an organization that does a great deal more than sit around and talk; it is grounded in wildfowling and country traditions, and always has a working eye on the future. I guess the question remains: Is DU at work in the UK? My Googling efforts in this respect have not been successful to date.
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JohnS
member
Reged: 23/07/2008
Posts: 12
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Hello, Rocky and Wildfowler. In an earlier post, and with a view to the Rockland on-line auction, I wondered if there might be a British Ducks Unlimited chapter or similar national body. I put the same question to DU Canada and they replied saying my query was being referred to the appropriate folk. The respondent was Debbie Menard at webfoot@ducks.ca. I can understand that there might be some resistance to involving a "foreign" organization in a UK national concern, but the point with DU is that local people run local (in this case, national)operations in accordance with local priorities. In spite of the Atlantic "gap", if DU Canada can provide organizational, fund raising, and the like advice (without let, hindrance or cost), there might be some advantage to no-risk conversations. But again, I might just be babbling in ignorance of the real situation in the UK. Good luck with the auction.
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Rocky
member
Reged: 05/07/2008
Posts: 4
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Thank you for you encouragement & support. We have just about recovered from the trauma - all in all it was a great success and we have learnt a great deal from the process. I was just checking the web stats and noticed the number of links generated from these threads and it triggered me to revisit them and catch up on any replies.
The Ducks Unlimited question is an interesting one. Locally I think many wildfowlers have become complacent due to the freedoms experienced in the past.
Wildfowling seemed to have stayed well under the fanatic's and conservation fascist's radar. However the political aspirations of national conservation "charities", bouyed up by their success in manipulative lobbying against wildfowling of banckrupt (both in terms of finance & knowledge) governement departments and QUANGOs (QUasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation) means they are now a force to be reckoned with.
The dificulty is that most wildfowlers it seems to me fiercely defend their independence and this would seem to blind them to the active participation with a pooled counter force. Some national bodies purport to be figting for the wildowler, but there would appear to be too many "failures" for this to raise the confidence of the shooter on the marsh. This apathy is our greatest weakness and is being exploited to the full. Conservationists are riding the wave of the fox hunting Bill and crass ignorance of urban "Disney Countryside Lovers".
I fear that it falls to individual clubs (of which there are many in the UK) to make their own arrangements and buy their own shooting grounds. True there is some help from sympathetic coservation bodies eg the WHT, however rising land prices to ridiculous levels (£4,000+ an acre for grazing marsh) means that commercial loans for small clubs are becoming very high and dificult to support on the limited funds received from low membership. None of this holds any water of course if political opinion is swayed by the ignorant and we are prevented from shooting our own lands by un-elected bodies on the grounds of conservation and preserving the delicate sensibilities of urban dog walkers in the countryside...
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JohnS
member
Reged: 23/07/2008
Posts: 12
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Happy to hear that the auction was a success. At the per-acre price you cited, I can see where a lot of very friendly and bulging hip pockets might be a Godsend. Ducks Unlimited had its origins in the individual "shooter in the marsh", and it's that same shooter who's driving the organization today. No individual independence or group autonomy has been lost through DU activities. Instead, the membership has developed some very considerable political clout and even a certain amount of non-shooting public affection. More importantly, countless acres of wetlands and saltmarsh have been saved and enhanced by DU. Come to think of it, their saltmarsh work has more than likely helped our fisheries industry (given that the saltmarsh is the nursery of the sea). Having said all that, I really must send in my $45 DU membership fee. God bless, and good shooting.
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