ALABAMA WATERFOWL ASSOCIATION DRAFT �003�

�� Summer E-Newsletter�� June 2002��

Please print this and give to friend or tell them about signing up for the AWA e-newsletter

Mallards / Mallard Restoration Program

Will be here soon, most likely after July 4^th ,� Frost Waterfowl Trust is making delivery schedules now.� AWA is asking for volunteers to help band and placement of mallards.� The date will be announce on the AWA website as soon as we here a date from Frost.�� AWA has ordered 2,350 mallards and all will be banded and use an internet reporting system only http://www.bandreturns.com .� There is several custom or personalized banding codes and one promotional MSP.� Much thanks to Scott Marshall at West End Outdoors http://www.BassBuckandDuck.com) for sponsoring 100 ducks for this promotion.� The mallards will be released near Swan Creek Wildlife Management Area.� Anyone who harvest a mallard with this West End Outdoors band should report this on� http://www.bandreturns.com website and take by West End Outdoors and you will have a chance to will a prize.

AWA�s proposed new logo

Here is one of the proposed logo designs for AWA,� email your opinion and let us know if you like this one.

Mallard Restoration Program

AWA�s new direction will be geared more toward waterfowl population enhancement especially the Mallard Restoration Program (MSP) working with private landowners, farmers and hunting clubs to stewardship the mallards until they can fly.� Our research indicates even if the mallards are released and held until duck season opens, many of the birds leave and use public land for their habitat.� This offers even the public hunters a chance to harvest these birds.� AWA�s banding research also shows if 200 ducks are release on MSP project, 40% will be harvested by the project, 30% will be harvested on public lands and 15% will leave and go north in the spring.� What AWA does not know is how much recruitment we are blessed with.� However, AWA does know a significant amount of recruitment is happening.� This would be a great study for some graduate student in waterfowl biology in Alabama.�

Where Waterfowl Management Has Strayed�� by Jerry D. Davis, CEO

Just like when the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) was failing miserably in meeting their goals of providing habitat for waterfowl and other species that need moist soil for their life cycle.� The NAWMP saw right away that there would be no way the state and federal agencies could buy and manage all the land needed to produce a fall flight of 100 million ducks, the plans goal in ten years from implementation.� In 1993 AWA was heavily involved in the North American Waterfowl Federation, this is all the 20 state waterfowl associations.� James Cummins, Wildlife Mississippi Foundation and several other state directors, including myself suggested to NAWMP that 80 percent of the habitat is owned by the private sector and that the plan would get a bigger band for their buck if they would assist the private landowners, farmer and hunting club and give them the incentive to develop and manage habitat in our reproduction, staging and over-wintering habitat areas.� This worked and created millions of acres and� was the basis for developing many new conservation programs in the 1996 Farm Bill.� This has carried over into the new 2002 Farm and Rural Reinvestment Act.� Please check this out on the USDA website http://usda.gov and go to conservation section.�

When AWA was founded in 1987, then called the Tennessee Valley Waterfowl Association, the primary purpose was to offset the loss of the Canada geese that once migrated to Alabama. AWA through our Giant Canada Goose reintroduction program brought over 2,500 geese into our state with funds and volunteers provided solely by AWA.� AWA with the banding research conducted for the last 10 years on the Mallard Restoration Program was setting the trend to inspired more states such as South Carolina Waterfowl Association to implement a Mallard Restoration Program model after AWA�s.� I have spoken at many functions and written many articles for years, on how we should start raising more ducks per acre like the example set with our farming practices by American Farmers.�� The USFWS and many of the big national organizations preached more habitats is the key.� Now the premier waterfowl research organization Delta Waterfowl Foundation is saying what AWA has been doing since 1987 that is more intensive management such as predator control and mallard nesting structures to offset predator depredation.� Ducks Unlimited had fought predator control for many years, saying you should not manage one species so another species can survive.� Well AWA is in the waterfowl business and realize the animal rights activist has impeded trapping and nuisance animal control until this is a real problem combined with loss of the grass cover around nesting areas.� The predators have learned to zero in on the limited covered areas and nesting success has dropped from 50 percent to 15 percent.� This will get any better because this situation has happen under ideal wet weather patterns in the pothole regions of nesting habitat.� We are now entering into a dry cycle and even with the increases in the Conservation Reserve Program, Wetlands Reserve Program and other 2002 Farm Bill programs duck population will drop.� Right now Canada does not have a farm bill and if we experience a drought this could be a disaster for duck population.� When the duck population falls and more conservative duck seasons are implemented, this hurts conservation.� People will not develop and manage new habitat, which will result in loss of open land to development, which is bad for our environment and hurt the economy.�

I look for the Six Southern Mississippi Flyway states to have a 45-day season, 6 duck limit, with season closing the last Sunday in January.� This is not in stone and may change; this is just my prediction for this 2002-2003 duck season.

I still say, �increase the mallard population in Alabama and the private sector will respond by developing and managing more waterfowl habitat, for the hunting and watching opportunity.��

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�� Phillips Wildlife Demonstration Area

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AWA information booth under construction�� Rice planted in wetland in front of the

At Phillips WDA�� physically challenged blind��

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Corn planted and will be flooded this winter�� Unloading ramp for physically challenge blind

�� at Phillips WDA

The wildlife corridor that surrounds this 80 acre project is planted in pin, willow, and saw tooth oaks, this provides and excellent upland buffer for this project.

NEW 2002 FARM BILL PROGRAMS SIGNED BY PRESIDENT BUSH

This is an expanded CRP program to all states /� Check with your county Farm Service Agency to see what new programs are available for eligible participants.

�� This cell is 1996- 2001 Farm Bill�� This cell is 2002 Farm Bill� (New)��

CRP Wetland Enrollment Pilot Program allows enrollment of farmed wetland acres in the CRP.

Pilot program was established in the 2001 Agricultural Appropriation Act. Enrollment of wetland and associated buffers was limited to a total of 500,000 acres in 6 States: Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. No more than 150,000 acres could be enrolled in any single State.

Wetland acres are to be enrolled through a continuous sign-up similar to that for other high-priority conservation practices. Payments are to be commensurate with those provided to landowners who enroll filter strips in CRP.

Continues Wetland Enrollment Pilot Program, extending it to all States and increasing the enrollment cap to 1 million acres (part of overall CRP acreage cap). Enrollment is limited to 100,000 acres in any 1 State, but could, within 3 years, be increased to 150,000 acres following a review of enrollment by the Secretary.

Individual contracts were limited to 5 wetland acres plus buffer acreage, and no more than 40 acres per tract.

Contracts can include up to 10 acres of wetland, although not more than 5 would be eligible for payment. Buffer acreage is limited to 3 times the wetland acreage.

Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) enables the Secretary to purchase long-term or permanent easements and provide cost sharing to producers who agree to restore wetland on agricultural land. Restoring wetlands wildlife habitat is a priority.

WRP area was capped at 1.075 million acres.

Maximum acreage cap is increased to 2.275 million acres. The Secretary is required, to the extent practicable, to enroll 250,000 acres per calendar year.

Wetland could be restored through permanent easements, long-term easements (30 years or the maximum allowed by State law), and restoration cost-share agreements without easements. Requires one-third of acreage to be allocated to permanent easements, long-term easements, and restoration agreements.

Wetlands are to be restored through permanent easements, 30-year easements, restoration cost-share agreements, or any combination of these options. Removes requirement for one-third of acreage in each type of agreement.

Summer Fun Things to Do in Alabama / While Waiting on Duck Season

Vacation in Alabama / Tourism Alabama number 1 industry

Many ask what can I do for my family and maybe I can have some fun too here in Alabama.�� We are very blessed here in our state.� We have the scenic mountains and fresh water lakes of North Alabama and the sugar white sand and emerald water of the Alabama Gulf Coast.�� Alabama offers some great rental prices on 1,2,and 3 bedroom condos you can book on line at http://www.gulfshoresrentals.com.� You can take your family and you and you companion can deep-sea fish.� Everyone thinks it costs $700 or $800 to go fishing on a charter.� Well at Zekes (http://www.zekescharters.com)� and other charters you can do what is called a walk-on.� Just sign up the day or give the booking agent 1-4 days that on your vacation you will be able to fish.� Most of the time you will get a call to come fish on one of the days you specify.� I recommend at least an 8 to 10 hour trip.� This will cost $130-$150 plus a 15% tip for your deck hand.�� Alabama has the best fishing of any area on the Gulf Coast especially red snapper.� It is not unusual to catch your limit of snapper (4 fish 16� minimum) and amberjack also.� This is a perfect way to spend a family vacation.� Why leave Alabama when our state has so much to offer.

A June 3, 2002� over 700 lbs of snapper, amberjack, wahoo, mackerel and trigger fish were caught

Immunocontraception Projects

Deer birth control projects are on the rise and constitute a real threat to hunting - especially bowhunting. Deer birth control was concocted by the animal rights movement, which sees it as a way to eliminate hunting in the long term. In the short term, the anti�s have focused their energies on urban deer management. Their campaign appears to be working.

Deer overpopulation has been, and continues to be, a growing problem in metropolitan parks and other urban areas. When park managers announce controlled hunts, the anti�s respond with a storm of publicity, stoking the public�s unfounded concerns over safety and cruelty to deer. Local officials quickly buckle to the pressure, and look for other solutions. The anti�s, of course, then offer deer birth control or sterilization as "humane" options.

In the past, state wildlife agencies would not issue permits for such projects, but public pressure from large urban centers has resulted in a surprising number of approvals during the past decade.

The U.S. Sportsmen�s Alliance recently conducted a survey of the fifty state wildlife agencies on the subject. The results were alarming. Eighteen deer birth control projects have been completed or are underway in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

In 2000, Rutgers University reported that birth control projects are inefficient and expensive. State wildlife agency information reinforces those findings.

Statistics show that only 513 deer were treated during the studies. The cost was $1,509,739 � an average of $2,943 per deer!

Aside from the inflated cost, many of the projects simply did not work. Connecticut, Minnesota and Ohio all reported continued growth of deer numbers in the targeted areas.

Conversely, hunters continue to provide the most effective deer control. Bowhunters have been effective in urban situations.

Of greater concern than the effectiveness of the treatments is the safety of the birth control drugs. Regardless of their effectiveness, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved them for human consumption. The U.S. government would not tolerate such an experiment with livestock. There have been no findings to ensure that other wildlife species are not adversely affected.

The U.S. Sportsmen�s Alliance is crafting model legislation that will require that these health concerns be addressed before permits for future projects can be issued. We will be working with the bowhunting community and state wildlife officials to refine the language in preparation for bill introductions in state legislatures around the nation.

This article is courtesy of:�� Protecting your hunting rights.

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