New funding helps ensure that future wildlife management leaders understand waterfowl hunting’s critical role in conservation
BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA — Delta Waterfowl has been awarded $284,614 to support the organization’s University Hunting Program. The generous gift from the Multistate Conservation Grant Program will help The Duck Hunters Organization continue to introduce wildlife management students to waterfowl hunting.
The Multistate Conservation Grant Program supports projects that address regional or national level priorities of state fish and wildlife agencies. The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cooperatively administer the Multistate Conservation Grant Program.
Delta’s University Hunting Program, launched in 2017, is designed to recruit hunters and educate future wildlife management professionals. Through it, Delta aims to teach wildlife management students who do not have a hunting background about the integral relationship between hunting and conservation by providing them with a hands-on waterfowl hunting experience. In addition to receiving classroom instruction, students must successfully pass a hunter safety course, attend a shooting skills instruction day, and participate in a hunt that culminates in a meal featuring the game harvested.
The program has expanded each year since its inception, and is slated to be delivered at 72 universities in 2022. Delta’s ultimate goal is to deliver UHP at each of the nearly 500 universities in North America that offer a wildlife degree program.
“Receiving the Multistate Conservation Grant is an amazing opportunity for Delta Waterfowl, as it allows us to expand our University Hunting Program,” said Jacob Bushaw, R3 coordinator for Delta Waterfowl. “As hunter numbers continue to decline, it is important that we continue our dual goal of recruiting new hunters and educating these future wildlife management students about the critical relationship between hunting and conservation.”
Delta Waterfowl has taken a leadership role in waterfowl hunter recruitment, retention and reactivation for more than two decades.
“This grant award will facilitate continental expansion of the University Hunting Program,” said Joel Brice, chief conservation officer for Delta Waterfowl. “We are especially grateful that the funding can be used to deliver UHP to wildlife management students at any of the 449 universities in the United States that offer wildlife-related programs.”
For more information about UHP, contact Joel Brice at (701) 226-7269 or jbrice@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.
