DU Loses It's Mind???

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Double R 2
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Postby Double R 2 » Tue Dec 13, 2005 2:27 pm

FYI. An article someone sent. Talk about timing.

http://www.madduck.org/pdf/melancholy.baby.pdf

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has raised only 22 percent of the total habitat dollars, yet has purchased 88 percent of the permanently protected northern prairie waterfowl conservation acreage. (These lands include the refuges and waterfowl production areas that you encounter frequently while motoring across the Dakotas and eastern Montana.)
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Postby weimhunter » Tue Dec 13, 2005 2:31 pm

Good article Ramsey!
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Postby the doctor » Tue Dec 13, 2005 2:41 pm

wow...looks like mismanagement from day one, good read ramsey

go USFWS...like I said before, and this article reiterates, if DU had been permanently securing habitat along with the USFWS at the same rate, then we wouldn't "need" DU anymore

rent, don't buy = job security

to hell with them, I am buying extra stamps from now on

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Postby Super Black Eagle » Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:08 pm

Nice read.

To some of you refugers, is this same conversation being discussed over there? Or are us MS folks the only ones upset?
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Seem too Xtrema2 you?
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Postby Seem too Xtrema2 you? » Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:25 pm

hell, with 2.5 billion, DU couldve just bought Canada outright....what a lame country...went there to fish for walleye and pike once....would never do again...Alberta goose hunting is about the only intriguing thing canada seems to have to offer....
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Postby the doctor » Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:33 pm

Canada...leading the world at being just north of the US

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Postby Squealer » Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:48 pm

This sucks! I hate it for BRF.
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Postby bioduckmc » Tue Dec 13, 2005 4:58 pm

So you guys are so mad that you'll now believe anything. It does not look like some of you are interested in facts but I'll post up a few anyway.

First what you got for the money is over 11.2 million acres conserved.

Considering only acres on the breeding grounds and only those that have been purchased as the only acres benefiting the future of ducks is inaccurate and inherently insulting to all of the hard work that DU and its NAWMP Partners; state, federal, other non-governmental conservation organizations and hunters have done for the future of waterfowl.

Fee-title ownership (Acquisition) is only a small percentage of efforts intended to help waterfowl. DU has always recognized that conservationists could never afford to buy all the land that waterfowl requires, and if that approach was taken, waterfowl conservationists truly would get push back from the agricultural community and landowners. That just isn't a realistic approach. So, the waterfowl conservation community purchases only the best, most important, most imperiled habitats. DU focuses primarily on working with landowners, as has the rest of the mainstream waterfowl conservation community, to help ranchers and farmers implement conservation practices that benefit waterfowl on the millions of acres of lands that will determine the future of waterfowl on the continent. We m ust work on a landscape scale to be effective. Purchase is usually a last resort when critical habitat is about to be lost. Consider this as well, the majority of the remaining wetland habitats are on private land, where 90% of waterfowl are produced and much of this is not for sale! Lets not also forget that the USFWS has thousands of employees and a huge budget to manage all these acres. Neither of which DU has.

If you are interested in the factual numbers here they are:

The standard for waterfowl habitat conservation under NAWCA in Canada is the document Habitat Matters: http://www.nawmp.ca/pdf/HabMat2005e.pdf

I'll save you some reading. According to that document 5.6 million acres in Canada have been conserved by NAWCA. DU is the primary delivery agent for these programs. Over 82% of those acres have been in the critical nesting habitat of the Prairie Habitat Joint Venture. This is an extraordinary accomplishment, and one all should be proud of.

The standard for information regarding waterfowl habitat conservation in North America NAWMP is the fact sheet located at: http://www.fws.gov/birdhabitat/NAWMP/im ... t-0505.pdf.

I'll again save you some reading. According to the Fact Sheet on the NAWMP issued in May 2005 by the USFWS, “During the plans 17-year history, these partnerships, called joint ventures, have marshaled more than US$3 billion to conserve more than 13 million acres of wetlands and associated-uplands habitats that these birds depend upon for survival.” This is an extraordinary accomplishment, and one reason why NAWMP is regarded as one of the most successful conservation programs in the world.

Along with being innaccurate and missrepresented the numbers used in that article are a bit out of date and to some degree cannot be considered as apples to apples. Many of the USFWS acres were acquired through partnerships with DU on Conservation easements as well as some properties that were acquired by DU and deeded over to the USFWS. That brings up another good point. DU has purchased thousands of acres and deeded them over to state agencies as well. Currently DU owns over 350,000 acres in Canada and about 27,000 in the U.S. mainly in critical breeding areas.

In FY05, Ducks Unlimited purchased 5,678 acres of wetland easements and 37,674 acres of grassland easements in the Missouri Coteau Focus Area of North and South Dakota. This involved working with farm and ranch families who share our vision of protecting wetlands and native prairie for future generations. Since the start of Grasslands for Tomorrow in 1998, DU/FWS partnership have protected over 570,000 acres with perpetual easements in North and South Dakota. Combined with easement acquisitions by the FWS that occurred prior to the start of GFT, there are now 910,000 acres of grassland and wetland easements in DU’s GFT initiative area.

Currently, in North and South Dakota, there are 582 landowners on a waiting list for easement evaluation. These landowners represent a total of 288,814 potential, new easement acres, but purchasing easements on this number of acres will require $47,353,200! If these landowners are not offered easements within the next 18-24 months, there is concern that many of them will sell their land to individuals interested in converting the grassland to cropland. Are you guys ready to abandon the ducks here???


By the way DU Board members are volunteers and are not paid. They pay their expenses to and during meetings out of their own pockets.

The DU TV show actually raises money for the ducks through advertising sponsors and secondarily by increasing awareness. It is not a negative drain on conservation efforts. Jared Brown and Mark Pierce are volunteers as well and pay there own expenses. Wade Bourne is the only host that is paid.


By the way how's everyones season going?
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Postby Cotten » Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:04 pm

Double R 2 wrote:FYI. An article someone sent. Talk about timing.

http://www.madduck.org/pdf/melancholy.baby.pdf

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has raised only 22 percent of the total habitat dollars, yet has purchased 88 percent of the permanently protected northern prairie waterfowl conservation acreage. (These lands include the refuges and waterfowl production areas that you encounter frequently while motoring across the Dakotas and eastern Montana.)



Well I guess that just about sums it up doesn’t it? I think I will buy an extra stamp also.
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Postby Cotten » Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:17 pm

bioduckmc wrote:By the way how's everyones season going?


This ain't politics. If you are going to claim the better season you should be prepared to take blame for all of the recent bad ones. As soon as you guys make some decent points you screw it up by ending with a BS statement like this one or the one above that B.M.F.T. wrote: "What has DW done for you lately?........................ Not much."

:roll:
Last edited by Cotten on Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Dutch Dog » Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:19 pm

I would expect something like that from a DU person. They are ALWAYS ready to spout off some "numbers" saying this or that. Just like a bunch of "@#$%#" engineers. It's all about numbers...if you don't like the results change what you put in until you get the output you desire..regardless of how idiotic the input may be. And if you think we're biting on the hosts of a National TV show being volunteers you are sadly mistaken. It's apparent that you are somehow ASSociated with DU..so I'll give you something to think about. You ask us if we are ready to abandon the ducks...to that I say NO, we are simply ready to apply our funds to a more financially responsible organization that isn't run by a bunch of irresponsible idiots. You (DU) decided to make another utterly stupid decision and are trying to muddy the issue by coming on here and spouting off some garbage about some bleeding heart story of wetlands in the Dakota's. "Please send your support or these lands will be lost forever" Are you buying easements or property??? WTF would we want an easement for?? Your report doesn't change the fact that they have made piss poor decisions once again and it's time duck hunters took a serious look as to where we direct our support. By the way I have only been duck hunting 1 time this year and didn't throw out a decoy. How many refuges have the elite in the DU camp been on this year?? Nevermind, we'll get to see all about it on TV next season.
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Postby gator » Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:24 pm

mr. bioduckmc, welcome to mississippi..... :lol:

enjoy your stay, gator
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Postby sportsman450 » Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:24 pm

DU's track record with YOUR money aint as good as some would lead you to believe. DU brags that over 85% of your contributions goes directly to on the ground habitat. Well the part they forget to tell you or the part that is "misleading" is that 85% is more truthfully 85% maybe after all the bills are paid, and/or you use the "Authur Anderson/Enron accounting method." The "normal" at local events, DU Inc. actually receives only about 60 % of the actual money you contribute (after the building rent, caterer, the "cute little shirts and hats" the committee is wearing, merchandise, raffle girls, auctioneer, etc. etc. and that is at a well planned, dollars watched event, whole lot of events are more like 40-50% or less, some even lose money)

in 2002 DU changed their fiscal years to run july 1st - june 30th from march1-feb-28, so the 990 forms filed with the irs will reflect amounts from those dates. copies of the 02 returns are available but only reflect march - june 02 figures. the portions shown here are from 7-01-02 thru 6-30-03 and 7-1-03 thru 6-30-04 which are the 2 latest 990 returns required by non-profits. 990's are public information for non profits.

On the 03 return which covers 7/03-6/04, you will note total revenue on line 12 is $136,282,615.00 Well now even 80% of that going to habitat would mean they only spent $27,256,523.00 on other stuff. THATS AT 80%. Well why then on line 26 of page 2 does it reflect salaries and wages paid of $31,366,734.00, not to mention pension plans of $3.7 million, other employee benefits of $6 million, $3.4 million of travel, postage & shipping at $6.1 million and TELEPHONE bills of $1.1 million. According to the Texas Instument machine I have, that's over 51 million dollars JUST in salaries, employee perks, travels, postage and telephone bills. That same TI tells me that's in the 60% range. Couse I am just an ordinary dumbass and not an number twister. Here's where the Enron accounting method comes in handy. Since approx. 50% of DU staff carry the "biologist" title, their salaries are considered a part of that 85% of your money that goes directly to habitat since they deal with habitat.
On page 4 Part V of the return note, the Executive Vice President salary, $385,627.00 plus $61,158.00 in contributions to his benefits plan & deffered compensation. Hell, most of us don't make his deffered compensation a year, must less $400,000.00 a year in salary. Notice the the Asst. Treasurer and Executive Secretary salaries.
Schedule A only requires the listing of the 5 highest paid employee's other than officers and directors. The lowest one of them is over $171,000.00 total. sheeezzz.....
I remember one DU supporter on here some tome back posting $ amounts DW was spending on lobbying. DU spent $65,587 on lobbying in 03 and $71,455 in 02.

On the 02 return which covers 7/02-6/03, you will note total revenue on line 12 is $124,360,592.00.
page 2 shows salaries, pension plans, other perks, bills etc. etc.
page 4 shows the National Officers salaries
Page 5 shows DU spent $71,455 on lobbying
Schedule A shows salaries of 5 highest paid employees

If DU is going thru such hard financial times, how come these guys took such HEFTY raises from 02 to 03.
Exec. VP went from a total of little over $291,000.00 to over $440,000.00 in 1 year, WTF rates a $150,000.00 a year increase if you are watching your $'s
Asst Treasuer went from $210,000.00 to $$267,000.00 - increase of $57,000 per year
Exec Sec. went from $160,000.00 to $202,000,00 - increase of $42,000 per year
Group Manager #1 went from $220,000 to $279,000 - increase of $ 59,000 per year
Group Manager #2 went from $200,000 to $267,000 - increase of $67,000 per year
Group Manager #3 went from $157,000 to $195,500 - incease of $ 38,500 per year
Dir of Operations #1 went from $151,700 to $183,800 - increase of $32,100 per year
Dir of Operations #2 went from $141,900 to $171,900 - increase of $30,000 per year

click on to enlarge:
03 returns
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sportsman450
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Postby sportsman450 » Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:33 pm

DU can try and put any spin they want on this, but there are the actual facts directly fro DU's own tax returns.

For those of you who wanted facts and figures, THERE THEY ARE!!!

Mull em over and then buy more duck stamps and spend your dollars and time with DW
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Postby Dutch Dog » Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:34 pm

I'd like to see what he has to say about that?!!! :shock: :wink:
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