SRO Director's Message
July 2009

Happy Birthday USA! I hope that as you celebrated the birth of Democracy on July 4, 1776, you said a prayer for the numerous veterans who have enabled us to continue our independence. We owe an unending debt of gratitude to those who have given their lives and those who have physical and mental challenges as a result of serving this great Country. God Bless America!

As we are dealing with the perils of heat in the south, ducks are busy rearing the 2009 fall flight. The last information on breeding habitat that I have is: Spring precipitation has been spotty across the Northern Great Plains and, though wetland conditions continue to be generally good to excellent across a large part of the region, the grasslands are in need of moisture to stimulate lush growth. A strong nesting effort has occurred throughout the region and large numbers of mallard and pintail broods are appearing. Blue-winged teal and shoveler nests are now beginning to hatch also. A very good duck production year is expected in this region.

We celebrated our conservation and fund raising success at the National Convention recently held in Denver, Colorado. As part of our cost savings plan, staff travel cost was reduced by developing videos to highlight our work in some of our most important areas. The Louisiana coast video was a particular hit! If you missed the convention, please take a moment to view the videos online.

The Southern Region is proud to have another DU President from within our ranks. John Pope of Jacksonville, Florida, has taken the reins from former president and current Chairman of the Board Bruce Lewis. We all look forward to John’s leadership.

As we close out FY ’09 and look toward FY ’10, I encourage you all to continue your tremendous support of DU. As of this writing, our projected FY ’09 closing budget shows the SRO will generate $15.5 million of revenue (includes $2.6 million of major sponsor funding) to offset conservation expenses of $17.7 million. The difference between revenue and expense is covered by $2.2 million of grassroots allocation. This funded the SRO’s conservation goal of over 69,000 acres of protected and enhanced habitat and included a transfer of $200,000 to the Great Plains Regional Office for breeding habitat work.

Our projected FY ’10 budget is $17.9 million in expense with revenue of $16.7 million of which major sponsors are expected to contribute $2.2 million. Grassroots allocation in FY10 will be $1.2 million. Our habitat conservation goals for FY ’10 are to conserve, enhance and restore over 71,600 acres.

Please encourage your waterfowl friends to join you in supporting our work to secure the future of waterfowl. For every 10 waterfowl hunters, less than two have current DU memberships.