How many here are contributing time or dollars to conservation/environmental organizations that are attempting to curb some of the causes of habitat degradation?
I do. I'm a strong supporter of Delta Waterfowl as well as a partner in a significant project at Delta Marsh on Lake Manitoba to remove the Common Carp from the marsh.
Since the 1950's carp have had a profound and negative impact on the habitat and species range in Delta Marsh. A group that includes Delta Waterfowl, Ducks Unlimited and the Manitoba Government approached us (my brothers and me) to be able to build a series of dikes and weirs on our property as we sit on the main entrance to the marsh from the main body of Lake Manitoba. The project couldn't proceed without our cooperation. Our property and our access road/track, some owned and some on long term lease stretch out over about 2 miles from the start of our right of way to our lodge site, heading deeper into the marsh the whole way. That's important for us hunters as motorized vessels are not allowed. Given that rowing is the only way around, the deeper into the marsh you start the better.
The development has caused a major disruption to our property visually. It has required us to have a significant road built, allow heavy equipment across our lands for the build and weekly monitoring the weirs and collection of fish during the summer season. Don't quote me on this but I think they are taking out 40-50,000 pounds of fish each year. Those are significant negatives IOHO, to what was a beautiful, isolated and pristine spot in the marsh. However, the benefits to the marsh are already apparent after just a couple years.
Our lodge has been a hunting spot for over 100 years, built by the Hefflefinger family of Minneapolis. Our neighbors were the family of James Ford Bell, the founder of General Mills and a man who had the foresight to bring Aldo Leopold to the marsh in the 1930's to discuss the decline of waterfowl back then. While DU focused on habitat preservation, Bell sponsored biological research through his Delta Research Station (the forerunner to Delta Waterfowl) in partnership with the biology department of the University of Manitoba. Most of his lands have been turned over to Delta, although the family still has access rights.
Most of the hunting lodges at Delta were built by people who had made their fortune in the grain business. I like to think that because of their natural affinity for the land, nurtured by their profession, that they all took conservation seriously. Hanging on the wall of our lodge, until a catastrophic flood destroyed it in 2011, was a founding membership in Ducks Unlimited from March 1937 in the name of Mr Hefflefinger. That commitment continues to this day.
The pictures and video linked below are from our property.
http://www.ducks.ca/stories/science/cleaning-common-carp/Chukarman, your post had the tone of a bit of a challenge in it. What are you doing?
