The Ducks Unlimited Story

now there's no question at least from man's point of view that some life-forms are more important than others we could perhaps survive without certain flowers or trees or wildlife we may in fact someday have to but I'm optimistic that drastic decisions will never have to be made help at the time this film ends you'll be optimistic too because this is a story about a group of people who have been concerned about living resources of this planet for over 35 years more importantly they've been doing something about it it was 1936 seven years after the Wall Street Crash that would send the world into the midst of a Great Depression it was also seven years after the beginning of a devastating drought yet to relinquish its grip on the breeding grounds of ducks all across the prairie pothole region the Ducks were suffering their own depression and many hunters believe that they were about to see the end of water phone ducking is all over the United States were putting a fowling-pieces in mothballs many refuse to buy even a Federal Duck Stamp or a license let alone a box of shells it just isn't worth while to go ducking these days having to get up early in the morning or sit out in hard weather for a shot or two all day I wouldn't want my son to pursue a sport that I love so well that has sunk to such a low level after the way I have known it the season that year was a mere 30 days and many hunters fully expected the 1937 season to be closed completely it was the dual disasters of trout and drainage that had wrought the duck depression and it was the dual disasters of drought and drainage that gave birth to Ducks Unlimited an idea whose time had come and an organization whose principles and passion are still as evident today as they were in the beginning this is their story you you even before the worst of the drought we knew we were in a duct depression I visited my favorite fowling waters and I found nothing but empty skies all it was left of the great flights were my memories I knew then that we had to do something and do it soon the banks of a trout stream may seem like a strange place for the birth of an organization devoted to waterfowl but that is where Ducks Unlimited was born at the lodge were John C Huntington son of a st. Louis attorney who as early as 1912 had begun promoting restoration of game birds Arthur him Berkeley a man who liked to get his hands dirty and his feet wet ray e Benson an experienced shotgunner who would later edit the first Ducks Unlimited magazine and at the head of the table was Joseph Palmer met they had already formed and funded an organization which had laid out a ten-year plan of action for increasing the number of upland game birds but now they were about to do something incredibly bold something that had never been done before create an organization that would manage habitat on a massive scale to impact species that spanned an entire continent what started at that club with those men on that day would remain the key elements that define D you to this day volunteerism partnerships science-based decision-making and a sound business model it is not what men does but what he does not do for migratory waterfowl which is chiefly responsible for diminishing numbers what is urgently needed is a program which will take no account of international boundaries but will bring neighbor nations of the North American continent into harmonious Accord for the good of the game most hunters spend countless hours and dollars on ways to bring more ducks to their blind but we were talking about a need to manage water fell over the entire continent and it become clear that Mother Nature needed a helping hand you faced with the prospect of shortened or closed duck seasons Knapp and the others had decided that immediate action was required but first they would have to gain a fuller understanding of the causes of the duck decline to do so they undertook what has been called the granddaddy of all wildlife surveys the 1935 international wild duck census the survey area was to cover over 750,000 square miles in Canada and an additional 230,000 square miles in the United States in an area that is sparsely settled and poorly rooted when the survey was completed more game Birds issued their findings they reported that in the area surveyed they believed there were 40 2.7 million ducks with an estimated 65 million birds for the entire continent this survey became the template for how seasons and bag limits are established even today but most important the census also dramatically reinforced what the founders of d-u had suspected all along the focus of North American waterfowl errs must begin in the prairies of Canada you know the first pioneers wrote the folks back home that out here the flocks of ducks and geese were so big did or they darkened the Sun and maybe they were her for a while but you know soon North America started filling up with people and in the first part of this century they started moving west into the Canadian Prairies well for a while nobody paid too much attention to this situation until the 30s and then a survey was made and it proved the Ducks were declining yes they were declining very rapidly indeed and the reason was that the breeding marshes in Canada were drying up well of course periodic drought was partly responsible it really more and more land was being drained for agricultural purposes well it's worried a lot of folks soon these worried folks got together and they organized Ducks Unlimited and since that time this international conservation organization has been spending millions on the prairie provinces and all the way across Canada in sort of a colossal home improvement program for ducks and Fergie's you cannot grow ducks without grass and water and you cannot do the work of restoring that water without money success that first year would be determined in two ways Ducks Unlimited would have to find the best man they could find in the fledgling field of conservation and secondly they would set a lofty goal in its first year d you would seek to restore 100,000 acres the man they decided would be charged with the task of restoring these 100,000 acres was Thomas Maine Tom Maine was borrowed from the Canadian National Railways where he was the chief surface water engineer he was an avid hunter and an avid conservationist Maine was marked on the outside most notably by his snow-white head of hair and an injured eye that was rumored to have been caused by a falling Mallard the first staff meeting of d-u Canada was held in Winnipeg on Wednesday April 20th 1938 the group had discovered three sites to begin their conservation work water hid Marsh near kennis Teno in Saskatchewan many Island Lake northeast of Medicine Hat Alberta and big grass Marsh near languorous Manitoba big lake would come to be known as big grass Marsh which in turn would come to be known as duck factory number one the interesting group that has chosen the arresting name of Ducks Unlimited fits into the western scene as something more than an organization interested in sport it is interested in maintaining water supplies of creating and maintaining inland bodies of water where Ducks may breathe of attracting more birds of working with the farmer to creep better bodies of moisture all this is linked up with better agricultural development in Western Canada in an indirect way the farmer is is much interested in water for ducks as anyone else Ducks Unlimited what a wonderful name for a group of sportsmen whose object it is to perpetuate our splendid game birds and their natural breeding places and the good news is that they are getting busy we know that we're winning the battle in and we know that in order to go on winning it we must go on fighting and building protecting this heritage for our children and their children after them it's up to us I know it is Bob and I'm proud of the work ducks a limit has done and will continue to do at the end of its first year and really only eight months of field operations the founding fathers of Ducks Unlimited and knew it had something on its hands d you had forged solid partnerships wildlife agencies in the Canadian provinces with local landowners and farmers and with hunters across North America wells were filling again with water and the skies were filling again with birds by the end of 1938 D you would meet its ambitious goal of restoring 100,000 acres of habitat with a final tally in its very first year of 155 thousand acres Ducks Unlimited job is dedicated to the cause of waterfowl to the task of replenishing the supply of ducks and geese on the North American continent this ducks Unlimited has been able to do through the contributions of sportsmen and others in the United States and Canada and a support of the Dominion and provincial governments and the farmers of the prairie provinces without this truly splendid example of international cooperation between the sportsman of two nations the success of Ducks Unlimited may never have been attained exactly what has Ducks Unlimited done let's take a look at the evidence the first project begun in 1938 was a restoration of big grass Marsh today one of the most productive wildlife habitats in Manitoba since then D U has built over 700 dams and water control structures throughout Manitoba Saskatchewan and Alberta and now the prairies are dotted with more than 500 D U projects giving life to our waterfowl it's no exaggeration to say that every sportsman on this continent or the debt of gratitude to all who made this work possible if it were not for the conservation activities of men who wished to kill gang little game would be left for others to see after fighting wars across Europe and Asia the country would find itself on the edge of an era Americans built rocket ships pioneered computers rolled thunderously powerful cars off the assembly line which then raced across the newly completed interstate highway system in middle-class America enjoyed prosperity and leisure never seen before for many this stability meant that money and time could be spent in the field and in the marsh he use fundraising efforts in the United States up to that point was largely focused on the wealthy but it was the stable and prosperous middle class that needed to be reached if tu wanted to continue its work for the Ducks to reach the middle class do you turn to DoD Whitesell a graduate of Ohio State University white-cell had served 14 years with the Ohio Division of Wildlife he had a stellar reputation in Ohio among those who valued wildlife and was even dreaded by those who did not for he had been relentless in pursuing those who polluted Ohio's rivers white-cell understood that the key to Ducks Unlimited success has always been and always will be the volunteers who give so much of their time and effort to make sure it's conservation is funded in those days 65% of our income came from only 6% of our members the dinner program we started to change all of them our big idea other than starting chapters everywhere we could gather five duck comes together was to include the membership with the price of the dinner you the year after Dale white-cell was hired d you had its first million dollar year while no explicit records exist tracing the origins of the modern Membership dinner concept the paper trail does seem to point back to the Badger State during his tenure Ducks Unlimited became the premier wetlands and waterfowl conservation organization in the world annual income grew from seven hundred thousand dollars to fifty million dollars and membership swords almost six hundred thousand I had not been chewed out more by any one person than him in my entire life but also that I've never respected a man while many other groups are telling us what we can't do do you has been showing us what we can do for over 35 years and it's that can-do spirit that I believe in I feel that this outfit deserves our support by support I mean dollars so if you got any extra don't forget Ducks Unlimited you the formula had been blessedly simple Marshall the duck hunters of the United States into a mighty army of concern conservationists have them raise lots of money for the Ducks and send the money north to Canada where engineers would reshape the land so that even in dry years there would be water for the Ducks but then came habitat losses on a massive scale Chesapeake Bay grew polluted and there was little food for the canvasbacks that once poured into the bay during both spring and fall migrations thousands of miles of canals dug through the vast marshlands along the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coast allowed salt order to flow into the fragile coastal wetlands devastating the freshwater plants that held the marsh together the most important wintering grounds in the Pacific Flyway suffered a similar fate drainage pollution cultivation and redirection of water left far less room for ducks migration habitat especially important to waterfowl during the northward journey was also disappeared after 46 years of concentrating its efforts strictly in Canada and Mexico dee you was about to go today us ancient ritual playing out on the skies over the Great Plains this week one that comes along free fall and yet never fails to impress the first D you projects in the United States would be delivered in dinner North Dakota and South Dakota other projects followed swiftly regional offices had to be able and the first was established in Bismarck North Dakota in 1980 the Great Plains regional office now works in eight states from Minnesota and Iowa West in North and South Dakota Nebraska Colorado and Montana D use Western Regional office was opened in 1980 the WR all works across a huge swath of that is a very based in these halls are actively working to ensure with our first panel support specifically fly the Southern Regional Office located Ridgeland Mississippi was established in 1990 to protect store wetlands and other wildlife but a splash along the coast when the Great Lakes Atlantic region it's located in Ann Arbor Michigan was established in the eighteen with D you conservation initiatives Chesapeake Bay across the Great Lakes to the Buried bonus along the Canadian border the Valero's area of operation is almost as varied as that of the W artwork do you would sell help to restore the habitat and in 1989 d we opened its governmental affairs office in Washington to help encourage policies and secure funding components that would be required to achieve the North American water our management plans goals when this organization was founded in the Dust Bowl days there was just a handful of you committed to preserving and restoring our wetlands and just about that time a few hunters got together and formed a little group called Ducks Unlimited and thank goodness they did I wanted to come here today because this is a huge success you're doing the right thing and you're doing it in the right way but perhaps the volunteers can best explain why this project is so important it gives me hope that great visions can become reality if people work together for a good end it'll be here for me for my little brother and sister for my nephew for my children and for all the future generations of this area and of this nation Ducks Unlimited has traveled a long way to get here we began our journey in 1937 and worked our way marsh by Marsh pothole by pothole improving and securing some of the best waterfowl habitat in the world of Aldi use partners the Ducks are the most willing in 2010 keeping with a long tradition of getting the best conservationists in the business Dale hall became the CEO of Ducks Unlimited a year after Hall took the helm do you completed the largest capital campaign and conservation history seven-year and 1.8 billion dollar campaign wetlands for DeMarre this work as all of D use work spanning 75 years in three countries was delivered with the principles that had endured the rocky road DUS pioneer sound business model science-based decision may be the diligence of our volunteers and partners willing to do the work necessary to save wetlands for waterfowl and water Fowler's alive Ducks Unlimited continues to set the stage for the nation's waterfowl we have projects and priorities insuring the life cycle of ducks and geese throughout the cotton and will face new and probably unexpected challenges in the future but these challenges pale in comparison to those faced daily by the birds that inspire this grand organization the Magnificent migrations across a continent twice a year the struggle to remain healthy while winged thousands of miles so that when they settle into a weapon they are fit to reproduce ducks do not have it in them to give up nor does Ducks Unlimited do you will not give up because those that belong to and work for it cannot imagine a world will not allow a world in which autumn skies are not filled with scores of waterfowl they will not allow a time in which the human soul is no place to recharge with a dawn in the marsh or by the sound of wings and the growing light and the whimper of an anxious dog they will never give up on a world where they can experience the excitement of a youngsters first day in a blind or the one can smell of a plump bird and hand this is the legacy this is the life's work this is the passion and this is the promise of Ducks Unlimited happy birthday ducks unlimited I've been with you a long time and I'm approaching 75 myself and I wish you a happy 75th anniversary I joined Ducks Unlimited in 1970 and I'm proud to wish D you a happy 75th anniversary I wish I'd be here 75 years from now to see how you grow and how many more acres you've impacted throughout the continent I am so thrilled that that's unlimited is celebrating their 75th anniversary congratulations Ducks Unlimited then a member of D you for about 50 years best thing about this organization is that the employees and the volunteers are the most dedicated group of people to their purpose that I've ever known happy birthday doesn't limit it on your 75th birthday I've been a Ducks Unlimited member for a long time I'm on the wetlands America trust board and I'm also a duck hunter obviously and the more we can do for the Ducks the better happy birthday number 75 you're catching up with me happy 75th birthday Ducks Unlimited I think it's really that we preserve our wildlife habitat so that my children's children will have the opportunity to enjoy the same sport that my kids been able to enjoy when Ducks Unlimited was founded back in 1937 my dad was a member and my job was to sell stamps Ducks Unlimited stamps to the grade school kids dollar for a page of stamps so I can say I've been fundraising for Ducks Unlimited for 75 years I'm very proud to be associated with ducks Unlimited and I can't say something enough about the wonderful organization is happy birthday Ducks Unlimited I'm part of something that's bigger than me part of something is really important I'm part of something it's going to give a gift to my heirs that you have to be born and I think that may be as important as anything else Teru promise and the recitation of work it's up to you to keep it going you

Channel: Ducks Unlimited, Inc.

Views: 55,167

Rating: 4.8315787 out of 5

Keywords: DU75, 75th anniversary, ducks unlimited, DU, DU history, wetlands, conservation, happy 75th

Id: ssQoJqdZcRw

Length: 26min 52sec (1612 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 10 2012