Delta Waterfowl Advances Conservation and Hunting Mission in Promoting Devney, Fisher

BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA — Delta Waterfowl has promoted a pair of longtime employees in effort to advance its mission of securing the future of waterfowling in North America. John Devney has been named chief policy officer, while Jim Fisher will serve The Duck Hunters Organization as vice president of Canadian policy.

“There are no greater friends to ducks and duck hunters than John and Jim,” said Dr. Scott Petrie, CEO of Delta Waterfowl. “From fighting for conservation policies that directly enhance duck production, to defending the hunting tradition at every level of government, these two men embody everything Delta Waterfowl stands for.”

A lifelong duck hunter raised in a small community northeast of St. Paul, Minnesota, Devney has been at the forefront of Delta Waterfowl’s mission since 1998. He has handled a myriad of responsibilities during his time at Delta. In his latest role, Devney works to ensure positive outcomes for ducks and duck hunters at the local, state and federal levels.

Notably, he partnered with members of the agriculture community to engineer Delta’s Working Wetlands program — an innovative, incentive-based habitat initiative that focuses on protecting the best duck-producing wetlands throughout the prairie pothole region. Working Wetlands was successfully included in the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill.

“John’s accomplishment with Working Wetlands is truly a historic achievement for waterfowl conservation,” Petrie said. “The program targets small, temporary and seasonal wetlands, which Delta’s earliest research tells us are the most critical to duck production. This work is creating a new tool to conserve the wetlands of most importance to ducks and duck hunters.”

One of the organization’s longest-tenured employees, Fisher became a Marsh Ecology Research Program (MERP) technician for Delta in 1985, while beginning a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Manitoba. He remained a Delta student as he pursued a master’s degree in natural resources management, assisting in the launch of new Delta conservation programs, notably Adopt A Pothole and Hen Houses.

In his current role, Fisher advocates for waterfowlers and guides Delta’s policies on agriculture, wetland conservation, hunter recruitment/retention and more in Canada. Among numerous achievements, Fisher played a large part in establishing Manitoba’s Growing Outcomes for Watersheds — a program based directly on Delta’s incentive-based approach to habitat conservation — which conserves wetlands on working agricultural lands. GROW provides voluntarily enrolled farmers with financial incentives for conserving habitat, including small, shallow wetlands — those most at-risk of drainage and also the most important to upland-nesting ducks such as mallards, pintails and teal.

“Working Wetlands and GROW are monumental wins for ducks, habitat and hunters,” Petrie said. “Every waterfowler in North America has benefitted from the tireless determination of John Devney and Jim Fisher.”

Contact John Devney at (701) 471-4235 or jdevney@deltawaterfowl.org and Jim Fisher at (204) 791-2818 or jfisher@deltawaterfowl.org.

Delta Waterfowl Foundation is The Duck Hunters Organization, a leading conservation group working to produce ducks and ensure the tradition of duck hunting in North America. Visit deltawaterfowl.org.