Alabama Waterfowl Association Fall E-Newsletter -  November 2002

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AWA Marshall County Banquet November 9, 2002

The banquet will be held at the Guntersville Recreation Center at 6:30 PM. Admission is only ten dollars and there will be a silent auction and raffle that will include guns, prints and outdoor equipment. Please make every effort to support this event. 

Tickets will be sold at the door, this will be a good way for you to renew your AWA membership.

Revenues Generated by Hunters and Anglers Would Rank #11 on the Fortune 500

WASHINGTON, DC - Spending over $70 billion dollars a year in pursuit of their pastime, America's hunters and anglers would rank #11 on the Fortune 500 if they formed a corporation, according to a new report released today by the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation and the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Over 38 million Americans enjoy the outdoors - twice the number of labor unions members - and sportsmen support 1.6 million jobs, well more than Wal-Mart, the country's largest employer. American sportsmen are a demographic group worth a closer look. 

"Because sportsmen enjoy hunting and fishing alone or in small groups, they are often overlooked as a constituency and as a substantial economic force," notes Melinda Gable, Executive Director for the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation. "These impressive statistics actually underestimate the impact of sportsmen since they do not take into account the millions of hunters and anglers under 16 years of age, and people who were not able to get out and hunt or fish in 2001."

The report, The American Sportsman ~ Take a Closer Look, uses the results from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 2001 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation and compares hunters' and anglers' impact on the economy with other industries. When sportsmen's spending is thought of in business terms and compared to other sectors of the economy, it is remarkable how much state and federal tax revenues are generated, how many people are employed and how many sectors of the economy are impacted as a result of hunting and fishing. While economic analysts worried about a looming recession in 2001, each American sportsman was doing his part to keep the economy in motion, and together hunters and anglers were making a difference across America. From small rural towns scattered across our country's landscape to the bottom-line of Fortune 500 companies located in major cities - take away hunting and fishing, and you take away the equivalent of a multi-billion dollar corporation. 

"Hunters and shooters have been widely acknowledged for their role in conserving our wildlife and natural resources," stated Doug Painter, President of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, "but they represent so much more than meets the eye. Hunters spend $2 billion just on food when they take hunting trips - that's more than Americans spend on Domino's pizza. These statistics would be even larger if some 30 million sport shooters were incorporated into the spending estimates. NSSF is working with competitive and recreational shooting organizations to complete the economic picture with the inclusion of the non-hunting sport shooter. "While the combined national economic impact of sportsmen is remarkable, it is even more important to recognize the impact at the state and local level. 

In Florida, recreational anglers spend three times more each year than the cash receipts for the state's orange crop. In Minnesota, sportsmen pay $175 million in state sales, fuel and income taxes equivalent to the salaries for 8% of the state's teachers. In Oregon, sportsmen support more jobs than are provided by Intel, Nike, Oregon State University and the University of Oregon combined. And in Montana, annual spending by sportsmen is nearly 3% of the entire Gross State Product.

"It is a fairly simple equation - hunters and anglers mean jobs in states and local communities that have made the effort to maintain their hunting and fishing opportunities," commented Gable. "The economic impact that sportsmen have on state economies should be a wake-up call to state governments to welcome and encourage hunting and fishing in their state.

"The American Sportsman ~ Take a Closer Look with national statistics and an interactive map of state-specific information is available on the web at: www.sportsmenslink.org. 

AWA's new logo

Mallard Restoration Program


The Frost ducks met all expectations with checking with Flint Riordan in Montgomery who reported that his birds started flying at 4-6 weeks after they were released. At the other MPP projects that was monitored the mallards did exceptionally well. One MRP had problem with a dog getting into the fenced in area and killing many of the birds. At the Phillips project mallards can be seen in the picked corn field feeding at this site. I have seen many ducks joining the Frost mallards and sampling the habitat here in Alabama. Many migratory waterfowl are arriving every day here in our state. It seems that we do have a good early migration and very good habitat such as milfoil, hydrilla, we have water is in the bottomland hardwoods and many potholes in grain fields are holding ducks. I have noticed where the grain has been harvested many habitat developers have plugged their control structures to trap the rainwater that has fallen. This saves time and money if they do not have to pump up their ponds.

Several AWA band returns has been reported check http://www.bandreturns.com 

Migration On

The early cold fronts have pushed many migratory birds south, this could be good for Alabama's waterfowlers. It is also true that with all the early rains, Alabama has ample water to hold the ducks if they are in our state.

Don't Let Another Tax Year Pass Without Conserving Your Land

April 15 doesn't have to be painful again next year. Instead, it can be a day you celebrate both your tax savings and the satisfaction of permanently conserving important fish and wildlife habitat.
The Mississippi Land Trust, a non-profit organization that is independent of government and works hand-in-hand with landowners who choose to conserve their lands, offers a variety of ways that you can permanently protect your land and perhaps shave your tax bill. 

1)One can donate it to a land trust, 2) donate a conservation easement, which permanently limits the type and scope of development or 3) sell the land to a land trust in a "bargain sale" for below fair market price.
According to James L. Cummins, Executive Director of the Mississippi Land Trust, "Under the Internal Revenue Code, for most gifts of appreciated land or conservation easements, a taxpayer can deduct up to 30 percent of his or her adjusted gross income in the year of the donation. If the value of the gift exceeds that deduction the taxpayer can carry forward the balance for up to five more years. For example, if a landowner has an adjusted gross income of $50,000 and makes a gift of a conservation easement worth $80,000, the deduction in the first year would be $15,000. The balance can then be carried forward for five years until the landowner deducted the full $80,000 value of the gift."
Because development pressures dramatically increased property values during the past 20 years, many people are forced to sell lands that have been in the family for generations to pay estate taxes. 
Consider The Stewart Place, a fictional working farm, but a true-to-life financial example. The family bought the farm in the early 1950s, when land was far less expensive. Today, it is worth $1,250,000. The current owner is a widow and the farm comprises nearly her whole estate. She and her husband accumulated just $250,000 in other assets. Therefore, her total estate is worth $1.5 million. The combined state and federal estate taxes are approximately $200,000 - more than the surviving children could afford to pay, even though they want to see the farm remain in the family and not used for development.
"The solution may be the voluntary donation of a conservation easement, which legally limits the amount and type of development that can take place on land. An easement can be tailored to a landowner's desires. The easement may, for example, permit construction of just two more homes for each of the children but protect the land from construction of a subdivision. As a result, the landowner may reduce the land's market value to $750,000, down from its current $1,250,000 value. Her estate, including $250,000 in other assets, would then be worth $1 million, and no estate taxes would be due," continued Cummins.

MEMBERSHIP FORM 

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Regular Member - $25
KUAC (Under Sixteen) - $10 (Kids Understanding About Conservation)
Marsh Sponsor - $200 



Mail to: 

Alabama Waterfowl Association
P. O. Box 67
Guntersville, AL 35976

http://www.alabamawaterfowl.org
email [email protected]

Alabama Waterfowl Association, Inc.
Mallard Restoration Research Field Office
1346 County Road # 11
Scottsboro, Alabama 35768