VA Stamp Money

[SAXIS ISLANDER]

Folks, this issue really bothers me. Been discussing it in other places and since this is "the site of reason" across the net I'll bring it to you.

The article is attached. Let me preface it by saying that I believe in conservation, restoration and all that. I've been a DU sponsor for over 10 years and my dad is a Lifetime Sponsor. But this shit ain't right.

Using DU as a screen, the Commonwealth of Virginia utilized money generated from the Waterfowl stamp to fund four impoundments for private landowners. Public money being used to create hunting heavens for a select few. Public money should be used to enhance access for the public. Not as payback for political loyalty.

Article attached from DU website.. Comments welcomed.

Ducks Unlimited Receives Four VDGIF Waterfowl Stamp Grants

State agency continues support of wetland restoration

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - August 27, 2008 -The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) recently announced that Ducks Unlimited has been awarded four Waterfowl Stamp Grants for Virginia wetland restoration projects as a result of VDGIF’s 2007 and 2008 grant review cycles. These awards demonstrate VDGIF’s long tradition of supporting waterfowl conservation within the Commonwealth.

The individual awards will fund four shallow water wetland projects in Fauquier, King William, Lancaster and Northampton Counties. These projects will provide important habitat for migratory waterfowl and other wetland dependent wildlife. Other partners involved with these projects include the Easton Waterfowl Festival and the U.S.D.A. Natural Resource Conservation Service, as well as private landowners who are willing to take marginal areas out of production for the sake of wildlife habitat restoration.

The waterfowl stamp program, which started in 2007, is funded through the sale of the Virginia Duck Stamp. The Waterfowl Stamp Grant allows the VDGIF and non-profit groups, such as Ducks Unlimited, to conserve important waterfowl habitat in Virginia. Landowner and project supporter Mr. Jim Woolford says “the Virginia waterfowl stamp program is an exceptional program that conserves critical wetland habitat as well as providing enhanced and increased recreational opportunities in Virginia”.

Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay is one of the most important wintering areas for birds in North America, and constitutes a major link in the migratory chain stretching from South America to Canada along the Atlantic flyway. More than 250 different species of waterfowl, shorebirds, raptors and other neotropical migrants—a population of more than 3 million birds—stage in the region in preparation for the next leg of their migrations.

In addition to providing wildlife habitat, these projects will also provide crucial ecological services such as water filtration and purification by trapping excess sediments and nutrient runoff from adjacent agricultural fields. “These projects are critical steps in providing high quality habitat for wintering waterfowl, and improving the overall quality of the Chesapeake Bay” says Mike Budd - Regional Biologist for Ducks Unlimited in Virginia. Furthermore, says Budd, “wildlife habitat restoration funded through programs like the Virginia Waterfowl Stamp Grant Program illustrate the commitment of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Virginia hunters, and nonprofit groups toward securing natural resources and wild places for future generations.”

For more information on how to start a wetland restoration project on your property, please contact Ducks Unlimited’s Annapolis office at 410-224-6620 or visit http://glaromaps.ducks.org/restoration/ and complete an on-line form.

With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization. The United States has lost more than half of its original wetlands – natures’ most productive ecosystem – and continues to lose more than 80,000 wetland acres each year. The Virginia duck stamp is one more program that can help reverse these alarming trends.

Kristin Schrader
kschrader@ducks.org
734-623-2000










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[Buckeye]

Just because you can't use it doesn't mean that isn't being use for what they say it is. Habatit management is good for the watefoul weather public or private. Maybe even better if private if there is less pressure it will have a better overall outcome. I know you think your paying for someone's private hunting palace but that's life. And since you live close to the Nations Capital you should know that's how they do it.

[HOLWACHAGOT]

Originally Posted by Buckeye

Just because you can't use it doesn't mean that isn't being use for what they say it is. Habatit management is good for the watefoul weather public or private. Maybe even better if private if there is less pressure it will have a better overall outcome. I know you think your paying for someone's private hunting palace but that's life. And since you live close to the Nations Capital you should know that's how they do it.

That's how they do it all right! It's BS! As if the season closures and limits aren't screwed up enough as a result of VDGIF. Their logic is wacked! We will all be poachers soon as a direct result of these clowns.
Holwachagot

[Captain Jay Kavanagh]

Well, I gotta tell ya, it is nothing new here.

Public money gets spent all of the time on private land.

I beleive if public money gets spent, they should have to make it public land!

[Twin Rivers]

I would like to know where that money is being spent in King William County. My bet is that it will be used to build another impoundment or marsh in Oldtown, that will help everyones hunting around King William.

[Glenn W]

Originally Posted by Twin Rivers

I would like to know where that money is being spent in King William County. My bet is that it will be used to build another impoundment or marsh in Oldtown, that will help everyones hunting around King William.

I wonder if you are thinking of Elsing Green instead og Old Town Farm? Actually, Old Town doesn't have any tue impoundmwets--- there are 2 ponds and a big Swamp. Elsing Green (next farm over) is a private wildlife Refuge.

Anyway, back on topic--- I feel and share your sympathy. However, in Virginia land is privately owned to the mean low water mark. The State owns only a handful of marshes/swamps/wetlands. If the King William Grant went to the Elsing Green Foundation, thaks money well spent--- It rubs me wrong if the Grant money went to Old Town Farm (owned by the Gottwalds/Ethyl), but as stated above, it still promotes and helps us all.

[WAHOONBOX]

AND ANOTHER THING THAT MAY OR MAY NOT GRIPE SOME OF YOU...IT DOES ME...

.......WHY DOES ROSETTA STONE NOT DO HER OWN TV COMMERCIALS???


I MEAN....WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS....NOT MAKING AN APPEARNCE EVERY NOW AND THEN

[anthony]

For those of you that think this money spent for impoundments on PRIVATE (read that usually rich) landowner's property will improve hunting in the area....please provide us with your reasoning. CL (Saxis Islander) and I have seen first hand what these impoundments do...they are nothing more than a legal means of baiting and it has been my experience that they generally only get hunted a time or two a season. What happens the rest of the time?? The birds go in and sit around fat, dumb and happy all day. No one shoots them so they never get out...unless it is maybe to bed down for the night in the marsh. How does this HELP the hunting. Indeed, it does the opposite...it hurts the hunting. It pulls all the birds that would otherwise be looking for food in the creeks, bays, sounds and marshes and gives them a great refuge that no sane bird would want to leave. Pathetic in my opinion and I don't know who I am more pissed off at....DU or the Commonwealth.

And Glenn, maybe there would be more public marsh if Virginia would use our stamp $ to buy it!! Why not use those $ to build or improve boat ramps, re-introduce native grasses to marsh, creeks and bays that are now devoid of it.

[Glenn W]

Anferny, You know I agree with CL's disdain of providing funding for the elite hunting clubs in the name of conservation. However, I cannot say that Government Grants to private landowners should be forbidden per se. Lord knows the Va. Dept of Game in Inland Fisheries has one of the worst reputations in the Country for mismanagement and good ole boy kickbacks, and even though I too am a Sponsor (not just member) of DU, but am becoming less and less supportive of their culture and activities. Personally, I would like to see our Stamp money spent on habitat restoration and not habitat manipulation (as in impoundments). I don't know the details of the King William project, but the most likely candidate is a foundation that focuses on just that.

[anthony]

You hit the nail on the head with the term "habitat manipulation." That's all this is....it is NOT habitat restoration.