{"id":54706,"date":"2024-05-03T14:01:20","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T19:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisducks.org\/?page_id=54706"},"modified":"2024-05-03T14:01:20","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T19:01:20","slug":"whats-your-waterfowling-passion","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/whats-your-waterfowling-passion\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s Your Waterfowling Passion?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a ref=\"magnificPopup\" href=\"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Bruce-Ross.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-49001\" src=\"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Bruce-Ross-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>By Bruce Ross, Executive Director [email]bross@wisducks.org[\/email]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association\u2019s May, 2024 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wisducks.org\/newsletter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Newsletter<\/a>\u00a0edition.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Last month was Volunteer Recognition Month and I missed an opportunity to use this article to acknowledge the critical importance of volunteers in WWA\u2019s expanding impact. The examples are many:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_33979\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33979\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a ref=\"magnificPopup\" href=\"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Mike-Alaimo-rotated-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-33979\" src=\"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Mike-Alaimo-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33979\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Alaimo out in the field on an Adopt a Wildlife Area project<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Todd Schaller (2024\u2019s WWA Volunteer of Year) has elevated our learn to hunt program from a single chapter\u2019s event, to multiple events around the state, acquired, while leading the EXPO\u2019s volunteer efforts.<\/li>\n<li>Bart Tegen is managing the construction and distribution of our wood duck boxes, which result in thousands of ducklings each year<\/li>\n<li>Ryan Disterhaft manages a bunch of those boxes in the field, and has just stepped up to help coordinate the Adopt a Wildlife Area (AWA) program around the state &#8211; and helped advance the idea for our public lands initiative.<\/li>\n<li>Speaking of AWA, there are score of volunteers who get their fingernails dirty in local marshes to make them better places to be.<\/li>\n<li>Mike Alaimo, of the Waukesha Chapter, started WWA participation in the AWA program, including prototyping the widely respected black tern nest platform initiative. I just learned that in his 13 years leading the Waukesha Chapter, they\u2019ve raised nearly $400,000 to support WWA\u2019s initiatives (wow!)<\/li>\n<li>\n<figure id=\"attachment_41970\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-41970\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a ref=\"magnificPopup\" href=\"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Valley-Novak-5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-41970\" src=\"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/1_Valley-Novak-5-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-41970\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Volunteers from WWA&#8217;s Valley Chapter installing wood duck boxes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Valley Chapter volunteers, led by Brad Miller, who put on several funraising events, manage over a hundred wood duck boxes, while also engaging local students in the effort.<\/li>\n<li>B.J. Grassmann, chair of the Habitat Committee, who keeps our habitat programs driving forward and managing our volunteer rice collection efforts.<\/li>\n<li>Ryan and Jessica Peterson\u2019s development of a waterfowl-based middle school science curriculum (see the article in this month\u2019s newsletter)<\/li>\n<li>Doug Steiner\u2019s Green Bay Chapter, that puts on the biggest WWA gala of the year, and quietly maintain WWA\u2019s only property in Abrams (by the way, they\u2019ve just secured a contract with NRCS to do significant forest, upland and wetland restorations on this neat property to be managed by volunteer Jesse Nichols).<\/li>\n<li>Dave Elwing and the Midland Wings Chapter who have started a wood duck box program on Theresa Marsh and continued a legacy banquet event. Dave is also our board secretary and has gone above and beyond to help staff in our development efforts.<\/li>\n<li>George Ermert, a director and professional lobbyist who bears a heavy responsibility for the policy success we\u2019ve enjoyed over the last few years (think duck stamp increase and advancing a sandhill crane season) and managing some of communications that lead to our recent bump in earned media recognitions.<\/li>\n<li>John Regan\u2019s creative solutions to fundraising challenges in sleepy Chilton (apologies to Chilton).<\/li>\n<li>And there are so many, many, many more, that I would run out of space and miss the newsletter deadline to specifically acknowledge each one (as it is, I will be chastised for who\u2019ve I\u2019ve <u>not<\/u> mentioned, I\u2019m sure\u2026)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These few named and the MANY more unnamed volunteers are responsible for WWA\u2019s recent growth in impact on behalf of state waterfowlers.\u00a0 And what\u2019s common among them all is a passion for waterfowling and the wetlands that support them, coupled with their willingness to put their energy where their passion is. Thank you all!<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d love to have the deeper pockets that the larger waterfowling organizations enjoy. But we simply don\u2019t.\u00a0 WWA\u2019s impact depends on the energy of passionate volunteers &#8211; not just to raise funds (yes that\u2019s important too) &#8211; but to advance our missions at all.<\/p>\n<p>What I love about this organization is its ability to take a person\u2019s waterfowling passion and their particular interests and skillsets and then find the right place for them to maximize their impact on state waterfowling.\u00a0 Interested?\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk.\u00a0 [email]bross@wisducks.org[\/email]\n<p>See you in the marsh (or maybe out on the lake fishing &#8211; happy opener!)<\/p>\n<p>Bruce<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Bruce Ross, Executive Director [email]bross@wisducks.org[\/email] This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association\u2019s May, 2024 Newsletter\u00a0edition. Last month was Volunteer Recognition Month and I missed an opportunity to use this article to acknowledge the critical importance of volunteers in WWA\u2019s expanding impact. The examples are many: Todd Schaller (2024\u2019s WWA Volunteer of Year) has&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-54706","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}