Delta Waterfowl

[Bailey]

Are any of you guys on any of the local delta waterfowl committees.

[Fish Felon]

I'm not big on them....used to be....but think they're a total joke at this point. The banquets are fun and the committees/volunteers are all solid dudes....they're just that worthless of an organization that despite very much liking the social aspects of supporting them, I can't bring myself to do it.

[recker7676]

I'm not big on them....used to be....but think they're a total joke at this point. The banquets are fun and the committees/volunteers are all solid dudes....they're just that worthless of an organization that despite very much liking the social aspects of supporting them, I can't bring myself to do it.

Why do you think they are a joke? Just curious

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[Fish Felon]

Mass hen house sites are a joke. The manpower, time, money invested in them is a waste since they rarely get maintained....become an eye sore a year or two after being put up. Basically it's the same as littering. Delta touts the best of the best for their hatch rates but those almost never happen because the mass hen house sites never are maintained.

Delta's research is a joke. So....you mean to tell me a prey animal population increases when you reduce predator numbers? No shit. It's kindergarten level biology/wildlife management that they study ad nauseum.

They don't apply predator management very widely since everywhere they've done it they've pissed off the landowners in their trapping block and gotten the boot. Talk to any landowner who was enrolled in a trapping block of land and they won't have anything good to say about the organization.

They say they are the hunter organization but they get caught up in politics way too much, and typically look extremely stupid when doing it.

Their youth hunts do nothing to create new hunters, but the kids and kid's friends of the committee members get a bunch of cool free shit so it works out for them.

They have a $10 million annual budget that goes to paying their staff...who from what I've seen are a bunch of drunks who aren't able to find gainful employment elsewhere. For ten million they really don't do shit...like nothing. If Delta was gone tomorrow there'd be nothing they'd leave behind to show they even existed. Where as DU....if the $10 million in fundraising Delta has essentially siphoned off of DU....they didn't gain any new donors, they conned existing DU members into spending their money with them and did so by talking trash about DU....

...and that's Delta in a nutshell, "They're Not DU," and no....no they're not. That's not something they should be pointing out imo let alone be something they brag about.

[Drunk_Dynasty]

yah agree. Delta is kind of the tag along in the friend group that nobody really wants around but also nobody picks on them but because it would be like bullying a handicapped child.

[recker7676]

Mass hen house sites are a joke. The manpower, time, money invested in them is a waste since they rarely get maintained....become an eye sore a year or two after being put up. Basically it's the same as littering. Delta touts the best of the best for their hatch rates but those almost never happen because the mass hen house sites never are maintained.

Delta's research is a joke. So....you mean to tell me a prey animal population increases when you reduce predator numbers? No shit. It's kindergarten level biology/wildlife management that they study ad nauseum.

They don't apply predator management very widely since everywhere they've done it they've pissed off the landowners in their trapping block and gotten the boot. Talk to any landowner who was enrolled in a trapping block of land and they won't have anything good to say about the organization.

They say they are the hunter organization but they get caught up in politics way too much, and typically look extremely stupid when doing it.

Their youth hunts do nothing to create new hunters, but the kids and kid's friends of the committee members get a bunch of cool free shit so it works out for them.

They have a $10 million annual budget that goes to paying their staff...who from what I've seen are a bunch of drunks who aren't able to find gainful employment elsewhere. For ten million they really don't do shit...like nothing. If Delta was gone tomorrow there'd be nothing they'd leave behind to show they even existed. Where as DU....if the $10 million in fundraising Delta has essentially siphoned off of DU....they didn't gain any new donors, they conned existing DU members into spending their money with them and did so by talking trash about DU....

...and that's Delta in a nutshell, "They're Not DU," and no....no they're not. That's not something they should be pointing out imo let alone be something they brag about.

I was just curious I had been to one banquet and was thinking of getting involved but maybe not now. I did put up a few hen houses on my own about 10 years ago. Made them myself They both got used but I never maintained them after a few years as I lived like 90 miles from them. Both are surely underwater now.

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[recker7676]

I did also notice for the amount they bring in they seem to have way too many employees.

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[Quack]

I think it’s pretty safe to say that without conservation groups our natural resources would be in a lot worse shape. Arguing DU/Delta or good/bad isn’t really the issue. If you like a group or have any chance or reason to help out, you are doing right by the resource.

Of course projects without maintenance fizzle out but that’s a different discussion. There’s a problem with the DNR… they believe in “restoration” or “ecology” … if this state’s hunters had brains and backbones they would demand that the DNR actually do management- intensive management for wildlife like they do for fisheries. Their job should be to produce the maximum amount of shootable game on the acres they have. Hen houses, predator control, stocking pheasants and mallards, cutting down trees to eliminate raptor perches while creating bunny houses, etc etc.

The conservation groups are huge in the political arena- budgets and policy. Without them… agriculture would have no opposition at all. I’ll admit we are losing the war between agriculture, urbanites, and liberals, but the conservation groups are our voice.

[Nershi]

Quack I agree but we don’t want any stocking of mallards. That is causing some serious genetic issues on the east coast where that is common.

I don’t really think we need pheasants stocked either. We have plenty of wild birds. We don’t need the state running a glorified game farm like WI does.

If they’d just manage the land they already have I’d be happy. They seem to do okay with grouse and deer management areas but their waterfowl area management is a joke.

I was involved with the local delta chapter years ago and helped put on a banquet. It was fun but I never felt like our chapter raised enough to make a difference.

I quit DU because I felt they pissed away my annual membership dues. They mailed me so much chit asking for more money that I was convinced they spent more in printing and mail cost sending me stuff than what I paid them each year. I felt my money was just a waste and stopped supporting and contacted to take me off their mailing list.

Big Ag won and wildlife lost. If my business buys property I can’t just go in and drain the wetlands but if i’m in the farming business it’s no problem. Some day society will look back and wonder why we let our politicians and government be bent over by the ag industry.

[Drunk_Dynasty]

I agree that we don't think want any kind of duck or pheasant stocking.

I'm not an expert on any of this but I think deer/grouse management is a lot easier than waterfowl management. Maintaining quality wetlands is lot tougher than rotational timber harvests. Not saying they couldn't do better tho.

I've seen lots of private wetlands go to complete sh!t over the years as well. One in specific I'm sure Recker/Bailey has seen out around the Ortonville area that used to hold hundreds of ducks every time I'd drive by it got its water level raised atleast 5 feet and now its just a pea soup bowl of water.