Warning: Waterfowl Population at Risk!

At CollegiateCamo, we believe in following your passions in life. Passion is what gets changes made in the world and gets tasks accomplished. Passion is what makes the impossible tasks possible and the unattainable ideas come within our reach.

Well, hunters, imagine this: What if you wanted to pass your love of hunting waterfowl on to your kids, but were unable to because the waterfowl population is diminishing? As an outdoor community, we need to band together to make a difference. We need to make conservation a front runner in outdoor community topics, right alongside the issue of gun rights and gun control (or over-control, as some would say).

If we don’t do something to change the ways of preservation, there will be no more waterfowl to hunt. Worse yet, there will be no more ducks for enthusiasts to eat. We have enjoyed the passion of wildlife preservation, but recently a new foundation has come into play. The Save the Hens Foundation out of Sheldon, North Dakota has come to our attention. Through grassroots efforts, The Save the Hens Foundation has worked tirelessly and endlessly to get up and running and to stay in tune with the waterfowl population needs. This work is admirable, because it is completely dedicated to increasing the waterfowl population.

The foundation works through a few different, highly-effective methods. Invasive Predator Management reduces the number of predators in breeding grounds of waterfowl. Removing skunks, raccoons, opossums, snakes, foxes, eagles, hawks and any other variable pesky animals from the wetlands are one to help preserve the waterfowl breeding grounds. We know the task of reproducing is difficult, but imagine trying to make babies with these pests around?! Save the Hens removes these animals in humane and socially acceptable ways by trapping and relocating the pesky critters.

Another way to help is a little more time-consuming, but definitely worth every effort. Save The Hens also works with landowners to maintain favorable breeding grounds for native ducks. Managing the habitat that the ducks live in helps to maintain the breeding population. Landowners that participate in acreage-management are usually located in rural communities. Save the Hens also helps out these rural communities by providing job opportunities in these areas. As outdoor enthusiasts, we wish society would take a look at preserving all hunting populations.

Imagine what would happen if all the “green” population jumped in on this? Sure, recycling a plastic bottle or installing solar panels is important to the folks who are passionate about going green – but what about actually preserving the wildlife that is already here but diminishing? We can plant all the trees we can find, buy hybrid cars and install all the solar panels out their ears – but it won’t bring back a species when it goes extinct.

So, if you own land, or know someone that owns land, encourage them to maintain it. Or if you can make a breeding ground a little more pleasant by setting out a trap or two, or can make an effort to do something, anything for wildlife preservation, then do it. We find it strange that stray and abandoned dogs and cats have no problems reproducing, but native animals are being led to their own slaughter by our own ignorance and lack of attention.

To learn more, go to www.savethehens.org to see if you can donate money, time or effort in rebuilding these populations. Imagine never seeing ducks and geese migrate south for the winter again. Now imagine only being able to tell your children or grandchildren stories about them because they no longer exist. Remember, if we don’t pay attention to these issues, no one else will do it for us. Save our waterfowl hunt!