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Old February 21, 2010, 05:19 AM   #1
12dinomag
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upland game what is your opinion !

Looking for someone that is educated on the organizations that go by Ducks Unlimited and or Quails Unlimited. Do they have land you can hunt on when you become a member or do they just close all their land to help the birds? should a hunter really help them??? I live in California and its a problem to find land to hunt on as it is!
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Old February 21, 2010, 10:37 AM   #2
Art Eatman
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They have websites which provide far more explanatory material than we can post here.

By and large their interest is habitat preservation and enhancement. While they might provide useful information for a would-be hunter, I don't believe they're specifically involved with access to hunting lands--but that's an "I dunno."
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Old February 21, 2010, 07:29 PM   #3
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no they arent doing anyting along the lines of hunting access that i've yet to hear mainly along the lines of habitat and introducing new birds into low numbered areas as far as if it's worth the money i would say it kinda depends on were you live if it benefits you personly but it does our children and granchildren
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Old February 21, 2010, 08:18 PM   #4
12dinomag
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how can it help them if they keep taking the public land and making it non accessible. soon there will be no place to hunt other than dfg's lands! I think its not the right organization. they should open their land up every other year and rotate the lands to be open. the hunters that give money to them are just getting screwed in the long run!!
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Old February 21, 2010, 10:03 PM   #5
knoxville
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Ya that would probably work. Were i live the fish and game are running the preserves and you buy a permit and can hunt on them but there is only one reserve and plenty of public land so i don't know what everyone in he east deals with. I have a buddy from new jersey that comes and hunts with me every year and he says they have preserves but i'm not sure the foundations fund those kinda of preserves or not but i'm sure you could find any info you want for your state by calling game and fish or looking on line. Were do you live.
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Old February 21, 2010, 11:55 PM   #6
12dinomag
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Ontario CA
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Old February 22, 2010, 10:56 AM   #7
grubbylabs
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They do lease some land for hunting there is a place near Roberts here in Idaho. But I have never bothered to look into it.
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Old February 22, 2010, 01:26 PM   #8
Scorch
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Quote:
how can it help them if they keep taking the public land and making it non accessible.
AFAIK, Ducks Unlimited and Quail Unlimited do not "take public land" and close it to hunting, they lease sensitive tracts of land and preserve or restore them so that birds can nest or live there. If a sensitive piece of habitat is closed to hunting, it has more to do with needing to keep the habitat undisturbed so we can have birds next year.

FWIW, there are many, many public hunting areas in CA that are administered by DFG that are abused, mismanaged, and trashed by hunters, so the birds need someplace to live to get away from pressure.

CA has an extensive system of wildlife areas that are open to hunting, and quite a bit of public land open to hunting, but there are millions of people in the state trying to use it. All part of "the price you pay" to live in CA.
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Old February 22, 2010, 07:40 PM   #9
Art Eatman
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I know that Ducks Unlimited has collected and spent way north of $50 million in buying pothole land to keep the potholes from being filled in for farming use. These are in the flyways in Canada and in the northern US, mostly. Could be similar in the western flyways; I don't know. Probably over $100 million, by now.

In Georgia, Quail Unlimited works with landowners on habitat improvement and such things as fire ant control.

I know that some groups will buy land and close it to hunting, but I seriously doubt that any such thing happens from DU or QU. It would have to be some strictly-local, strictly-limited event from some scientific reason.
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Old February 22, 2010, 11:39 PM   #10
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Well sounds like art hit the nail, California thats brutal i would buy a boat go to the ocean and shoot seagulls at fifty miles an hour prob have a better chance of getting shot than downing a duck
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Old February 23, 2010, 05:32 PM   #11
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I don't Duck hunt but support Ducks Unlimited

They not only preserve Duck habitat they preserve wetlands which are a vital part of our eco-system. Now this is probably more suited towards the eastern US (and Canada) but I think it an important battle ground against development of prime wildlife habitat.
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Old February 23, 2010, 05:46 PM   #12
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An example.

An old battery factory was shut down along a major river. Land totally polluted and useless for next forty years according to gov't. It was in clay soil so the Gov't cleaned up what they could and sealed with more clay. Well now we had over 75 acres along a river totally barren with a few weeds sprouting up. Total eye sore.

DU said they would pay for topsoil, seed and some vegetation if locals supplied manpower which we did. We now have a nature area with duck nesting on the banks an area with pheasant habitat, deer, turkey. Located just on the edge of a small city.
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Old February 23, 2010, 09:41 PM   #13
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I did a lot of work with the Southern California Chapter of Quail Unlimited in Riverside. We didn't have any land to hunt. What we did was do a lot of work with the BLM and the California Department of Fish and Game repairing guzzlers out in the desert. If you paid attention, you could find some nice spots to hunt Quail, Chukar and Dove. We also helped out on Junior Pheasant hunts sponsored by the DFG. My son loved those. A lot of kids would have single shot shotguns. He was about 12 and would use my 1100 Remington to back them up in case they missed. He got to shoot a lot of birds on those hunts.
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Old February 24, 2010, 11:43 AM   #14
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I don't think their focus is on providing land for you to hunt. They do habitat preservation and restoration so you have something to hunt... Same thing as Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, etc.

Sorry, have to point out that ducks are not upland game, they are waterfowl...
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Old February 28, 2010, 02:46 PM   #15
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Its more like a refuge where they are trying to boost the ducks population.
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Old March 1, 2010, 09:33 AM   #16
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One of the advantages to joining an organization like DU is that you meet others who are interested in the same thing you are. Through those contacts you may get an invitation to hunt land you normally would not be able to hunt. You also find places to hunt.

If it were not for organizations like DU, all the private preservation activities would be handled by organizations like the Sierra Club (If they even still do things like that, I think they have pretty much gone all political).
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