Thu Mar 26, 2015 10:14 am
Sorry Al, haven't GPS'd your houses..... only the one's I see, from the road, in the comfort of my leather interior heated seat Ford Fusion with automatic transmission anti-lock brakes traction controlled with side mirror defrost.... wait, you mean I could have saved several thousand and bought a Focus with cloth and manual and windows that crank down? Damn.
So what if I changed "good enough" to "entry level"?
Dude~ "Hi, I have a kid and think the wood duck boxes are pretty neat, but I drive a Ford Escort with no AC and a manual transmission, and the kid already has to wear the same pair of shoes for school, soccer, and baseball.... so the free house thing would work well for us...."
Al~ "Excellent, you're just the man I'm looking for. Do you have access to a pond, meadow or prairie habitat in which to install this fine house of pine?"
Dude~ "Well, we live in the end unit of a town house complex and small creek runs along the edge. The yard is about 30' wide and there are woods along the creek. Looks like a good place for a wood duck, since there is trees and some water."
Al~ "Hmmmm.... sorry. If I give you this there is high likelihood the ducks, if any actually use it, will get slaughtered in their sleep by raccoons. Maybe you could just go buy a house and do the same thing, then I won't have contributed to your mindless and merciless treatment of the tenants this fine home was designed for."
Dude~ "So, I can go buy a house for $25, nail it to a tree, and not have to buy a post and predator guard... Sweet."
Al~ places hand on forehead and resolves to start a campaign to require nesting structure permitting to include an online test and GPS location for house inspections.
Fowler: You're the leather lined Fusion in this deal. And yes, I used *exaggeration* (the big word is Hyperbole: Hyperbole (/haɪˈpɜrbəliː/ hy-pur-bə-lee;[1] Greek: ὑπερβολή hyperbolē, "exaggeration") is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally).
My entire point is: made up rules are barriers of entry to the Ford Focus. If the only way to drive was the leather lined Fusion, a lot of people won't be driving.
You as well as anyone can lay out the steps in hunter growth/engagement. Being at the "mature" end of the spectrum is an evolution, it isn't a starting point, it's a goal. Because you've accomplished a goal, setting that expectation as a standard does not get people to move toward it. Quite the opposite, they'll either move away from it or go around it.
As someone with as many boxes as you maintain, access to the materials, etc. movement towards the goal would be setting limits on who would get them: looking for a scout group, asking for contacts to the schools' environmental clubs, etc. with the idea you could help them with site selection, materials, and education on proper maintenance. These groups have savvy kids that could do web cams and post them to their school/group web pages, and expand the education opportunities. They could fundraise to support or expand the program learning valuable lessons in the economics of conservation.....
Or, you could put them up for grabs on the internet with some rules that remind me of The Peasants conversation from The Holy Grail where "watery tarts are handing out swords" as no way to form a government.....
I dunno. Your boxes, do whatever the hell you want with them.