HELP OUR FARMING PARTNERS SAVE MALLARD DUCKLINGS!
|
Wheat acts as surrogate upland habitat for ground-nesting birds like mallards, and when it's located next to rice or natural marsh, it can produce even more mallards than natural habitat. But harvest often comes before all the ducklings can hatch and waddle out of the field. Our new incentive program pays farmers to delay their wheat harvest until July 1-15, when most ducklings should be out of the field. Payments offset costs associated with delaying harvest.
Click
here to learn more (or to apply, if you're a farmer), and
here to donate today. Just $40 will make one acre safer for nesting waterfowl this year! Wait, make that two acres, thanks to that generous matching grant.
|
|
LEGISLATION - WORKING TO DO GOOD, FIGHTING BAD PROPOSALS
|
The California Legislature is off and running, and our advocacy team is hard at work fighting for waterfowl, wetlands and hunting.
Three CWA-sponsored bills this year address critical needs: raising money for waterfowl and pheasant breeding habitat, requiring groundwater sustainability plans to consider impacts on wetlands, and allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to purchase junior hunting licenses for at least one more year. We are also working with other conservation organizations to get funding for waterfowl habitat in the proposed climate resilience bond (SB 45).
And there are already several bills detrimental to hunters on our list: banning lead ammunition at shooting ranges, imposing impossible requirements on storing long guns in unattended vehicles, banning the use of dogs in deer hunting and banning the import of parts of some legally hunted African animals.
Click
here to learn more about these bills, and be sure to sign up for action alerts
here if you'd like to help us fight for the good bills and work to defeat the bad ones. Signing up for alerts also gets you on the list for the Capitol Insider newsletter, an occasional email newsletter keeping you up-to-date on our advocacy team's work, and the ways you can help.
|
|
California Waterfowl filed an
important brief in a federal lawsuit last month detailing the devastating effects of a 2017 ruling taking 50,000 acre feet of water out of the Klamath Project and sending it down the Klamath River. The decision left the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge almost entirely dry at critical stages of the wetland's life cycle, including breeding season, molting season and staging for the migration south.
Litigants are seeking another 50,000 acre feet this year, which combined with emerging drought could prove devastating to the refuge, which is a critical stop for birds throughout the Pacific Flyway.
Click
here to learn more.
|
|
PROPOSED 2020-21 WATERFOWL REGS
|
One pintail, two scaup, a normal Sunday season end and two new hunt days reserved exclusively for military veterans and active-duty military personnel - that's the big news in the proposed waterfowl regulations for 2020-21.
California Waterfowl's Regulations and Traditions Committee and full board will take positions on the proposed regs at our meeting on April 3, and the California Fish and Game Commission will set the regulations on April 16.
|
|
SPRING HUNT OPPORTUNITIES
|
Join us this turkey season for hunts during the special youth weekend as well as opening weekend hunts at Bird Haven Ranch, Hoodoo Island, Butte Creek Island Ranch, Sanborn Slough and Merlo Waterfowl! We've got turkey hunt dates and opportunities all season long!
Want even more spring opportunities? Check out our fishing trip and pig hunts!
The deadline to apply for youth weekend turkey hunts is this Saturday, March 7. The regular season opening weekend hunt deadline is March 14.
|
|
SOCAL YOUTH CAMP ALMOST FULL
|
Our Camp Sprig at Mystic Lake in Riverside County is back for 2020. Sign up your 10- to 17-year-olds for two days of hunter education, shooting instruction, hunting skills instruction and more!
This level 1 camp takes place April 18-19 and is for youth who do not have their hunter education certificate.
Click
here to sign up your youth today. Hurry! Only a few spots left!
|
|
|
|
|
DISPATCHES FROM THE VETERAN HUNT PROGRAM: A FAIR-WEATHER 'SNOWS STORM'!
|
How can you get caught in a snows storm in fair weather? Just ask the veterans who participated in our late season goose hunt at Lookout Ranch!
Click
here to read the full story.
|
|
DID YOU FILL OUT A 2020 END-OF-SEASON SURVEY YET?
|
Time is running out to fill out a 2020 end-of-season survey. Let your voice be heard and be automatically entered into a random drawing for a Stoeger M3000 12 ga. camo shotgun! Survey results will be shared with state and federal decision makers to better communicate hunter preferences.
Click
here
to take the survey.
|
|
|
|
COME HELP US CELEBRATE 75 YEARS OF INSPIRING CONSERVATION
|
We now have TWO EVENTS this year to celebrate our 75th anniversary:
March 26 @ Del Paso County Club
Register NOW for our Diamond Gala at Del Paso County Club
here!
|
|
|
|
ONE HUNDRED VOLUNTEERS CLEAN UP OWENS RIVER
|
This is grassroots volunteering at its best. Click
here to check out how a couple of CWA members from our Bishop chapter - and supporters including Trout Unlimited, CalTrout, California Deer Association and Ducks Unlimited - organized a massive clean-up east of the Sierra.
|
|
|
|
Live in SoCal? Don't miss our southern California Shoot & BBQ at
Raahauge's
on April 18. Get a squad of five together or just show up and enjoy a full day of competitive shooting, BBQ lunch and more!
|
|
California Waterfowl is a 501c3 organization whose mission is to grow California’s waterfowl populations, wetlands and hunter-conservationist communities.
Our vision is a California with thriving waterfowl populations, vibrant wetland ecosystems and respected hunting communities.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
