All Roads Lead through the WMA

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast where I have got pretty interesting topic tonight. Breaking news, my email blew up last week when the proverbial it hit the fan over this topic. There’s been a highway proposed to go right across Swan Creek Wildlife Management Area up in Northern Alabama. Who cares? Somebody may be asking because I don’t live in Alabama. Well, look, we always care because it’s waterfowl habitat. You all may remember a few years ago, hunting was one of today’s guests. I did a duck hunt in Alabama, killed my first pair of mallards over some homemade decoys, killed a Canada goose on a property right next to Swan Creek WMA. And what was so interesting about it is we did a topic on the lost flyway because back in the day, back in the heyday, gazillions of Canada geese migrated down to Swan Creek Wildlife Management Area and it was a huge cultural tradition. Lots changed since then. I’ve got a bunch of guests today and I’m going to rely on you all, Franz, to introduce everybody self, everybody introduce themselves. Where you from? What you do? And let’s kick it off that way.

Franz Schnabl: Well, Ramsey, thank you for having us. My name is Franz Schnabl, the original director for Alabama and Mississippi with the Delta Waterfowl Foundation.

Ramsey Russell: Go ahead. I’m sorry, I mean, go ahead, James.

James Michael Moyer: I’m James Michael Moyer. I’ve worked with Delta Waterfowl in the past as a volunteer.

Ramsey Russell: Jump in, somebody. There you go.

Kylie Suchy: My name is Kylie Suchy. I am also local to North Alabama and I’m a volunteer for Delta Waterfowl as well.

Connor Forteberry: I’m Connor Forteberry. I’m a resident here in Decatur, grown up here my whole life. Founding member of the – one of the founding members of the Auburn Delta Waterfowl chapter. Now I’m back home in Decatur.

Keaton Kenny: Okay. I’m Keaton Kenny. I’m a wildlife student at Auburn University and one of the founding members of a Delta Waterfowl chapter in Auburn as well, Connor and I.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I’m going to lead off, Michael. You and I had a great hunt. Of course, all of you all are duck hunters, so I’m talking to my people. But you reached out to me a few years ago and invited me to come to the great state of Alabama and duck hunt. And it opened up my eyes because, Alabama ain’t the epicenter of duck habitat in the continental United States, but I learned a lot about the history of Alabama, when that Canada goose kind of Canada geese flew over, we managed to snag one down. He hit the water. And you got all excited and I couldn’t understand it until you said, after the hunt, we’re going to go up there and look in this old shed and then you’ll get it. Then you’ll understand why I’m so excited about shooting a Canada goose on this place. And we opened up that shed and there was just chest high piles full of beautiful decoys that somebody made. And you described to me that back in the day, the road all the way out to the black top was lined up with men waiting in trucks for their turn in the blinds. And the rule was when you shot your 2 goose limb and get out and let somebody else in. And all day, every day for an entire long Canada goose scene in Northern Alabama, people were shooting migrator interiors over those decoys. And that really hit home. And that’s that lost flyway of Alabama I’d long since heard about. And then we had Seth, a biologist from Alabama, talking about how sandhill cranes had become such an amazing surrogate for those Canada geese that history and they were really starting to fill that void and how critical Swan Creek WMA was. Let’s back off and take me back further into the history of Swan Creek WMA. Just how important is Swan Creek WMA to the state of Alabama and to the Mississippi Flyway?

Unique Opportunity for Duck, Goose, and Crane Hunting

More importantly, it also is one of the only, if not the only public access that we have for duck hunting, goose hunting, crane hunting, whatever the case might be.

James Michael Moyer: I think Swan Creek in particular is important to the state, primarily because it’s one of our great assets that we have for North Alabama. It’s the most heavily trafficked WMA for the state of Alabama. But more importantly, it also is one of the only, if not the only public access that we have for duck hunting, goose hunting, crane hunting, whatever the case might be, because we’re, you’re kind of pinned in a little bit of a corner there with private land and land that they’ve just – a river that they won’t let us even hunt. And so, from a hunting standpoint, I feel Swan Creek is wonderful. And it’s not just the people in the state of Alabama. I mean, you pull up to the WMA and you’ll see Tennessee tags, you’ll see Mississippi tags, you’ll see Georgia tags, you’ll see Alabama tags. I know I’ve hunted with people there that aren’t even really close to the southeast before. That’s just coming along to hunt. So –

Ramsey Russell: Is it a draw hunt or can anybody hunt it for public access? Because access for duck hunting is a big deal right now.

James Michael Moyer: It really is, especially in the state of Alabama. You mentioned it’s not really known as a duck hunting destination, but anybody on this podcast will tell you is when they show up, they show up in big numbers and you want to be able to go hunt them. So, yes, there is a draw that you can put in for blinds within the WMA. And I know that Keaton and his crew and I think Connor was in on that, too, where they drew for a blind and had a great year. So it is a draw for the blind spots there. But again, it’s one of the only, other than the refuge of a place that we’ve put money into to be able to not only provide access, but to provide habitat to migrating birds.

Ramsey Russell: So it’s not just a WMA. It’s kind of like the WMA of Alabama. Connor, you grew up in Decatur. Have you hunted there often?

Connor Forteberry: Yes, sir. I’ve started duck hunting 10, 11 years old and I’ve spent all season, really. I live 10 minutes, 15 minutes down the road, spent a lot of time growing up there. A lot of memories. A lot of friends, family, too.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about some of those memories and some of those friends. I mean, you’ve been hunting there a long time. You’ve been hunting since you were 10, 11 years old. Did you hunt up there with your folks?

Connor Forteberry: Yes, sir. Friends, family, anybody, really. I guess we started, I started heavy in high school when everybody started be able to drive by a little flat bottom and shotgun and some decoys and that’s all you needed. We get out there. I mean, opening day really is the big memories, all the WNMAs nowadays, you got a lot of people waiting to get in. It’s exciting times there, beginning of the season. But it means a lot to me and I know it means a lot to a lot of these other people here as well and a lot of people that obviously aren’t here. A lot of people that I know grew up with. It’s even my dad. The stories that I’ve heard my dad tell, my dad’s buddies when we’re at the hunting club, the stories that I’ve heard them tell because they’re just like me. They used to draw blinds. They used to spend all their time when they were high school age, college age. They used to do it, do it like I do now. When they had the time and the energy to get out there and do that and the willpower, they were in it just like I was. And that’s kind of what led me on to it. So it’s kind of a generational standpoint. It’s one of those things where I would love my kids and their grandkids to have a place to go. And that’s why I’d hate to see this bridge tear that place up.

Ramsey Russell: Hey, man, it wasn’t the kind of place where you hunted your first duck hunt or killed your first duck, is it?

Connor Forteberry: Oh, yeah. I actually, that’s the first time I ever went duck hunting was at swan. First duck ever killed was in Arkansas. But I’ve killed way more in swan than I have anywhere else and spent way more time, way more time in swan than anywhere else. It’s convenient. Like he was saying, it’s all we’ve got here, really. Wheeler Wildlife Refuge borders most everything there along the river and it’s one of 2 refuges. If I’m not mistaken, in the United States, that you cannot actually waterfowl hunt. So that narrows it down big time to that WMA being – that’s what creates such a popular WMA there is, we’re limited to that and few spots on the river and that’s all we have here.

Ramsey Russell: Who else had hunted there?

James Michael Moyer: If you look at the river, Ramsey, there’s a north south side of the river that you can – there’s a line that you can hunt and then you can’t hunt.

Ramsey Russell: I say. So, they’ve got, like, a sanctuary in there.

James Michael Moyer: Just about.

Alabama as a Duck Hunting Destination?

And I shot my first duck at Swan Creek. 

Ramsey Russell: Well, that’s good. It kind of rests the ducks up a little bit. Who’ve got some other duck hunting experiences they can share there?

Keaton Kenny: I’ll have to agree with Connor. So, Connor and I, we haven’t known each other all that long. We met in college. So I’m in college right now and at Auburn University and Connor just graduated last semester and we met each other, what, Connor? A couple years ago, probably.

Connor Forteberry: Yeah, it was 4 years ago.

Keaton Kenny: Right. So we met each other. Yeah. 3, 4 years ago. And I shot my first duck at Swan Creek. That was my first duck hunt at Swan Creek.

Ramsey Russell: What was it? What kind of was it?

Keaton Kenny: We may not even shot any ducks. I just know that was my first hunt there.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Keaton Kenny: I’ve got pictures from it.

Ramsey Russell: What kind of ducks do you shoot on Swan Creek mallards, gadwalls?

Keaton Kenny: Yes, sir. It’s a little bit of everything. There’s no telling what it is. I would say there’s a good bit of gadwall. Ringnecks, a lot of ringnecks.

Ramsey Russell: God bless them. I love them.

Keaton Kenny: Yes, sir. And then anyway, continuing out through the years, me and Connor got together and started putting in for the blind draw at Swan Creek. And Connor got drawn for the drawing for the blind last year. And I mean, we were on cloud nine whenever he got drawn for it. So we had a spot out there. We were ready to go.

Ramsey Russell: And you all had a pretty good season.

Keaton Kenny: Yes, sir. I want to say we had what around 300 for the season, Connor. Just out of our blind.

Connor Forteberry: The way it works is there’s 30 spots out there within the dewatering unit that are draw blinds. And you put in online beginning of the year before we actually was last week and the draw is this upcoming week. And if you get drawn, you get one of the 30 spots. You provide the blind if it passes inspection. And if you don’t draw a blind, it’s still public access within, as long as you stay 150 yards from each blind. So you can still boat in and walk in as well. So, man, it’s a great place there for people that may not be fortunate enough to even have a boat. You can, there’s still as much or more walk in access as there is boat in access.

Ramsey Russell: James, if you ever hunted out there, I know you hunt near there.

James Michael Moyer: Yes, I have. Before I had access to get in with some guys on some private land. Absolutely. College, high school, maybe, later on in high school. So, yes.

Ramsey Russell: What kind of duck did you shoot out there?

James Michael Moyer: Mixed bag. It’s definitely one of those places you can do a mixed bag. So I remember shooting some teal there, get a lot of gadwall and mallards. I never got into the ring necks, but I hear they can get pretty thick up there. But like I said, it’s one of those deals is when everything else is froze up north and this is one of their last places that they can get. If you’re a duck hunter in the state of Alabama and everything frozes north, you can guarantee that you’re not going to be able to get on the ramp at Swan Creek because that’s where they want us to go. Because they, when they show up, they show up big.

Keaton Kenny: Well, there’s no telling what you get. I mean, Connor can testify. I mean, there’s, we’ve been, we’ve seen snows, specs, mallards, redheads, canvasbacks, you name it. We’ve seen it pass past the blind last year. A little bit of everything.

Ramsey Russell: What does the proposed project entail? What’s going on? Tell what’s precipitating this highway after all these years generations of duck hunters, some great habitats, great access for Alabama hunters. What’s going on out here? What’s this road deal going on all of a sudden?

Franz Schnabl: I think it’s all got to do with traffic low, Ramsey. There is quite a bit of traffic trying to get into the Huntsville metropolitan area over there and they’re just trying to minimize the traffic over there is the major factor.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Traffic Congestion Alternatives to Closing a Wildlife Management Area

All roads lead through the WMA. That’s the problem. 

James Michael Moyer: And one thing is that, in and around Decatur, I’ve been in the traffic that we’re talking about and all roads pretty much lead through – You either come off of 65 east of Decatur or you come in north on 31 from Decatur. And that’s really where the – I believe the congestion that they’re facing is you’ve got a series of older bridges there that are old. I’m not even sure when they were built, but you can look at them and old and know that their lifespan is not very many more years. And so my argument is or my suggestion is why couldn’t we – if those bridges are going to need to be torn down anyway at some point in time, which you can look at them and tell that that’s the case is why can’t we widen those bridges and ease up some of this congestion.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Has that been proposed as an alternative?

James Michael Moyer: I’m not sure if it’s in this one. I know when we were at the public event at in Decatur a couple of weeks ago, it was heavily talked about with a lot of the people that were there. Matter of fact, there, I don’t know his name, but there was a gentleman that was speaking very intelligently in terms of the age of those bridges. I know they needed to come down. I believe he had some type of engineering or whatever it was to have to do with those bridges back in the day and he was a Decatur resident and he was talking about – and this is where I came up with this is if we know that those bridges already have a limited lifespan and we’re going to have to replace them anyway, why don’t we focus on the real problem rather than making the problem way worse than it is?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Who are the big proponents of this? Is it just the city of Decatur? Is it a lot of urban people up in that part of the world that are supporting this project?

Franz Schnabl: Well, from my understanding, Ramsey, the city of Decatur got a matching grants to hire a consulting firm to come in and do a feasibility study. It’s TTL out of Tuscaloosa that did the study and they were, did this study and then they were coming up with these proposed routes and all of them affect Swan Creek in some form or fashion. So that’s kind of how all this has come about. After the study is complete and now, from now, from until October 1, they’re just taking public comment as to, what does the public think about the bridge proposal?

Ramsey Russell: Of course, we all live in an echo chamber. We all duck hunters. I mean, what seem to be the public sentiment up in North Alabama? I bet those contractors want to get the bridge built because they make a lot of money, but maybe they don’t duck on, maybe they don’t come somewhere else.

James Michael Moyer: Yeah, I think we’re all fools if we don’t ever, if we don’t admit that the real reason is probably money in some shape, form or fashion. But going back to the public comment is, I don’t think anybody is against trying to, anybody on this podcast is against trying to solve the problem. It’s how the problem is going about being solved at this current time. All roads lead through the WMA. That’s the problem. And talking with them, it’s going to be a 10 year project and I’ve worked on construction sites in my younger years and I know how construction sites go. It can get pretty bad. But that’s our main concern is trying to let’s find a solution, but let’s not destroy habitat and wetlands that we’ve put in place for many years to try to solve this problem. One other thing I think that’s worth pointing out is at that public comment section and this is just my takeaways from it is, there were a lot of people there that were all for building some bridges and doing this work, and many of them had zero idea that it was even on the WMA land. And there was a couple people in particular at the table that I was at that went from, hey, I’m for this, to, hey, I’m against this particular proposal in any shape, form or fashion. Let’s find a different solution, because they had no idea that it went through Swan Creek.

Ramsey Russell: How big was that public meeting? Was it a greatly attended by a lot of people?

Franz Schnabl: It was, I would say there were probably close to 160 people there off and on was held on an afternoon. It was kind of a come and go, and they had kiosks set up with presenters. And then after the information was presented to the groups of folks that were coming in and out. There was a questionnaire process after a little form you filled out after the proposed that they were speaking on.

Ramsey Russell: Everybody that listened to this podcast knows because we talk a lot about habitat loss nationwide. We talk a lot about loss of access for hunters. We all know, every duck hunter listening knows there’s not enough places for us duck hunters and we’re a minority in America. And everybody that’s been hunting more than a few years knows we’ve lost so much habitat, so much wetland habitat, so much waterfowl habitat that it’s kind of becoming mission critical. And we hunters and we hunting organizations, we are the thin green line that kind of can hold this thing in check. When we talk about building a highway across this WMA or we talk about it clipping a corner, are we talking about a little 2 lane highway? Or we talk, what are we talking about in scale and where on the WMA, 8000 acres is a lot, but I mean, is it going to run right through the middle of it a big 4 lane? What are we talking about here?

Connor Forteberry: The proposed, when we walked into the meeting, we were still unaware. This was 2 Thursdays ago, 2 weeks ago. We were unaware of where exactly they had decided that they wanted it to go. They had taken public comment prior to that on recommended routes for these highways, bridges. The voted on those, narrowed them down to, I think it was 6 different options. And the big problem is each option runs in a different location through the dewatering unit. You’ve got one on the south bank of the unit. You’ve got one towards the north bank of the unit. There’s 3 or 4 that cut directly through the center. And then there’s 1 or 2 more that run on the eastern side and still snip a 50, 100 acre corner off the edge of it. I know 50 to 100 acres is not a lot in the terms of 8800 roughly. But at the same time, this place in particular they call Lost Lake. It’s a very major walk in area for the dewatering unit off of highway 31 there. And it would be a complete loss of that dewatering or of that walk in area there. But that’s the big problem is there’s not like a constant, it’s not on the edge or every one of them is going to harm it drastically in some shape or fashion.

Alabama’s Most Used WMA

It was referred to as a popular hunting spot, not referred to as Swan Creek WMA countless times.

Keaton Kenny: I’ll go kind of what more your says and what Connor says as well is the – Connor was saying there’s 6 routes that they proposed and more you were saying, they all of them were going through the unit. Well, the maps never shown that there was a Wildlife Management Area that the roads were going through. So when the roads were being proposed, it was, there’s an empty space of land in between 2 large cities and there’s congestion between the 3rd large city and there was no routes in between them. And there’s an open area here that there’s nothing being built. But in reality, there’s a Wildlife Management Area that’s very dear to us. And that really we need. There’s the only one in the state is in the most used Wildlife Management Area in the state, as far as I know. So it would have been a big loss to us, but it was never shown on the map that that management area was there.

James Michael Moyer: It was referred to as a public. I mean, excuse me. It was referred to as a popular hunting spot, not referred to as Swan Creek WMA countless times.

Keaton Kenny: But it was never outlined or anything of that nature. You looked at it, just – anybody looked at it and it was just, oh, there’s an open area through the Tennessee river.

James Michael Moyer: Like I said, you had Decatur residents sitting there that had no idea that it was the WMA zero. And once they found that out, they were like, this is wrong on every face. Let’s find another solution.

Protecting Wildlife Areas from Infrastructure

This is something that develops over generations. And once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. 

Ramsey Russell: Well, to an infrastructure consulting firm or a contractor that doesn’t duck hunt or whatever like it. I mean, all they see on the map is a big green spot with nothing on it. Looked like a perfect place to build a highway. No idea of the history of wildlife –

James Michael Moyer: I think it’s greater than just a duck hunting spot, though. I mean, wetlands in general, I don’t care where you are in North America, they’re being encroached on every single day. And this is a – wetland is not something that you put in place over a year or 2. This is something that develops over generations. And once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. There’s not, oh, sorry. We can come back and do something else. This is something that takes, this is a nature thing. This is a God thing. It’s something that you have – It takes a long time to develop, and you can’t. You can’t just put it in place.

Ramsey Russell: God ain’t making no more. Oh, go ahead. I’m sorry.

Kylie Suchy: Kind of to piggyback off of that. I’m just talking about generational. Some people are saying, oh, I don’t hunt at the bridge just build a bridge. It doesn’t matter to me. You may not hunt. What about your kids? What about your kids? What about the generations to come? It’s not just about what we want right now, but it’s about what’s going to happen later on.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I agree entirely. What about just knowing there’s green space out there for waterfowl and wildlife and just everything. Why not protect those areas as best we can, what are some of the proposals, the alternative proposals that exist? What are some of the options that exist for building the bridges that could you go back in and re over the infrastructure? Is that the only options that exist? How many alternatives do exist?

James Michael Moyer: I’m not sure on any other alternatives that they’re talking about right now, other than the ones that I don’t even know if it’s on the list or not is to expand that 31. I don’t know if you can go east, if you can go west. I don’t know what that looks like, but I think it definitely needs to be, there needs to be another solution found that doesn’t affect a wetland area.

Ramsey Russell: Amen. Talk about, we can talk about the wetlands and everything else, but let’s talk specifically about Swan Creek WMA. Before we started recording, James, you were talking a lot about the emerging sandhill crane population that is beginning to really grow and do well. You were talking about the Canada geese that still exist. Can you go into that just a little bit? Because you know a whole lot more about it than I do.

Where Have All the Geese Gone?

So they traced the migration of these geese that came to the Decatur area and found that these geese were nesting in the St. James Bay area in Canada.

James Michael Moyer: Well, I’ll tell you what I know is what I’ve been told and a lot of these stories get shared in the duck blind. And I know everybody sitting on this podcast has heard more than a few whoppers told in a duck blind. And I was always told years ago that Decatur had a ton of Canada geese and they disappeared. And so I always took it on its face. I never did any research on it. I repeated the story, told people the same thing. And so I just started trying to dig in when this proposal came about, to see what kind of truth can I find in it. And oddly enough, I ran across an article written on January 3, 2005, by the gentleman named Greg McCain. And oddly enough, the title of the story was, where is all the geese gone? And it talked directly to hunters, not seeing the populations of Canada geese that they had. So they traced the migration of these geese that came to the Decatur area and found that these geese were nesting in the St. James Bay area in Canada. And so they looked even deeper and found that just by what we’re trying to do right now or what they’re proposing to do, is encroaching on these wetland areas had a direct impact to the hatching numbers. So it’s almost right reverse of what they’re proposing today could happen to the sandhill crane. Because it’s my understanding that when the Canada geese started to go down in numbers and we were still trying to rebuild the sandhill crane from day near, almost extinction before the Migratory Bird Treaty. Yeah, I think I’ve been told less than a thousand birds existed. So for over 100 years, we put our own mandate on ourselves and says we’re not going to hunt these birds and let them grow. Now, personally, I know why that they were almost hunted to extinction because they taste so darn good. But for a hundred years, we didn’t hunt them. And then up to a few years ago, I thought it was a joke, but a friend of mine said, hey, we’re putting in a sandhill crane season. And I was like, you got to be kidding me. And he says, no, we’ve got the numbers to do it. We’ve done this study. We’ve looked at the deprivation of them and we can take x number of birds and it’s not going to have an effect on the sandhill crane population. Well, what happened is when those geese left and I think it’s worth noting, from my experience, geese and cranes do not like each other in any shape, form or fashion. They don’t want to be around each other. So when the geese left, the cranes backfilled a wonderful wetland area, whether it be anywhere in Decatur, from the refuge to the WMA to the rivers to everywhere around it, it’s one of the greatest success stories in my lifetime that nobody really even talking about. I mean, this is one of the greatest conservation stories ever told.

A Growing Crane Population Gone?

How are we going to continue to grow these numbers of cranes over the years, if we can take their habitat away?

Ramsey Russell: And how’s that population of cranes grown right there around the old Decatur goose club and the refuge in the WMA?

James Michael Moyer: I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I want to say it’s north of 20,000 birds that come in there. Yeah. So they all nest Michigan and north into Canada is where they nest from my understanding. And oddly, enough all those birds end up in Decatur for the winter for good reason. I mean, we have Swan Creek, great WMA, great wetland area for them. We’ve got Wheeler National Refuge, great wetland for them. But going back to the geese is it started with encroachment on these wetland areas and that’s the reason that those Canada geese don’t show up. So my fear is if we give an inch and we continue to encroach on the wetland areas where they winter here in the great state of Alabama, we’re going to start going backwards on a project that’s been put in motion for over 100 years. And do those cranes fly any south? Name me a wetland below Decatur that those cranes could go to. How are we going to continue to grow these numbers of cranes over the years, if we can take their habitat away? It just doesn’t exist.

Ramsey Russell: And I know from talking to probably your same friend, back in the day when he was explaining how the sandhill crane were really starting to grow and really prosper with the habitat that was available in that part of Alabama. Right now, there is a draw system in place for Alabama residents, but in the future, it could be a huge opportunity for non residents to come hunt there as they continue to do well. But progress is always about one step forward and 2 steps back, 3 steps back, fall down a flight of stairs. And that’s what projects like this tend to do to the conservation movement. What is being done? What is being done right now? What are you all doing? You all are all Delta Waterfowl representatives. What are you all doing and what is the movement at large doing? I want to know what’s being done and what can be done to stop a project like this.

Franz Schnabl: So right now, Ramsey, TTL has taken public comment up to October 1. Delta Waterfowl last week launched an action alert to Alabama members. And then there are links to that action alert out on all the Delta Waterfowl social media pages in the state of Alabama. The easiest way to find that is Delta Waterfowl Alabama on Facebook. Just basically go click the link, put your name and your information in, takes literally 1 minute to do it and it has a little area there for your comment, your public comment and then that goes directly to TTL as well as the city council there in Decatur. And we have gotten hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of folks messaging in on this issue. But right now, until after October 1, there’s really not a whole lot we can do, again that the consulting group is taking public comment to the end. And then at that point, I think we’ll know just a little bit more.

Ramsey Russell: So it would help if everybody listening would go to Delta Waterfowl Alabama’s website and let their voice be heard. How hard can that be? We all got an iPhone in our hands, sitting in a recliner watching tv. How hard can it be to go that website? So Franz do I go to just deltawaterfowl.org and access Alabama? How do I go to this website?

Franz Schnabl: It’s Delta Waterfowl on Facebook. So if you have access to Facebook, just type in Delta Waterfowl Alabama. It’ll bring up the page. It may be bring up other pages in the state of Alabama as well. They all have a link there. It’s real easy to click the link and you can fill out the information.

Ramsey Russell: And I’m going to put a link to that on this episode description. So if anybody listening to this on their iPhone can look down, click the link, boom. They go right to the petition.

Franz Schnabl: If you would like to also contact TTL consulting out Tuscaloosa their telephone number is 205-561-3778 I believe they have a website as well. And I believe there’s a link to public comment on their website.

Ramsey Russell: Say that number one more time for those that just reach for a pin.

Franz Schnabl: 205-561-3778.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. You all call them up and tell them, anybody listening, call them up, tell them, go fill out the questionnaire and give them your comments on what you think about wetlands degradation and the loss of duck hunting access. And then call them up, too. Boy, I bet they’ll like that if everybody starts calling.

Kylie Suchy: I also think just sharing on social media, just trying to bring awareness, it doesn’t matter where you’re at, doesn’t matter if you’re in Alabama or across the country, the more that you can share, we most people have social media these days, so the more you can share that and get that awareness out, then I think that that’s going to help bring, hopefully some change.

Ramsey Russell: Yes, ma’am, I agree entirely.

James Michael Moyer: Yeah. It’s more better than the great Alabama.

Ramsey Russell: But this is all, you know right now. Right now we’re talking about a proposed project in Alabama that disenfranchises generations of duck hunters and future generations of duck hunters. But at the same time, it could happen anywhere and it will happen anywhere with time. And when it happens in your backyard, you’re going to be wanting us all the way into. That’s where us million duck hunters can stick together for the greater good, I think. That’s what I think.

James Michael Moyer: Yeah. Because if it can happen here, it can happen in your neighborhood, too. And this is the reason you go to those banquets on Thursday and Friday nights is to find commonalities with other people and have your friends backs, regardless of what stages you’re in, to help fight against these types of things happening and help and more importantly, giving your opinion on helping to find another solution to the issue.

Importance of Supporting Waterfowl 

Everybody needs to go to these waterfowl banquets and buy some raffle tickets and buy a print or buy a shotgun and support conservation. But it’s so much more than that.

Ramsey Russell: I agree entirely, James. Everybody needs to go to these waterfowl banquets and buy some raffle tickets and buy a print or buy a shotgun and support conservation. But it’s so much more than that. That’d be like going just on Easter morning to church, throwing $20 in the plate and calling yourself a Christian. You’ve got to, we’ve got to be more active than that. And in this day and age of social media and cell phones and podcasts, it’s so easy for us to mobilize and help each other out across state lines for the good of wildlife and for the good of our fellow hunters. Any last thoughts?

Keaton Kenny: Yeah, Ramsey, I want to thank you for sharing our – I shared the post that you and Franz and James and everyone’s kind of posted on. I know you shared our post other day on the Auburn Delta Waterfowl page on Instagram, which is, it’s kind of hard to share on Instagram. Everyone –

Ramsey Russell: It can be. Yeah

Keaton Kenny: Yes, sir. It’s not friends on, friends is. It’s kind of who your followers are. It’s very – It’s a narrow market.

Ramsey Russell: It sure is. Especially if you’re a hunter and swing shotguns, wear camo. Instagram algorithms don’t like you.

Keaton Kenny: Yes, sir. It’s not like Facebook. I mean, who sees this? I mean, who the people like, that’s kind of how it is. But I want to thank you for sharing our post. Just trying to get that out there.

James Michael Moyer: That’s what’s so good about these types of mediums today, Ramsey is a podcast like yours that has so many followers where we can sit here and talk about an issue and get the word out regardless of where you live, Alabama, Alaska, Maine, it doesn’t matter. And what we got to realize is we’re all on the same team and help each other and to keep being able to do what we love to do.

Ramsey Russell: Absolutely. Well, thanks, each and every one of you all, for what you all do for the ducks, for what you do for Delta Waterfowl. Thank you all for bringing this to my attention and for coming on tonight. I know we ran a little bit late into the night, but thank you all for coming and making me and everybody listening aware of this important situation. Folks, thank you all for listening this episode of Duck Season Somewhere. And if events like this haven’t happened in your backyard, have not jeopardized your hunting or where you grew up hunting or where you think you might take your kids hunting, it’s coming. There’s a lot of people on Earth and God ain’t making no more habitat. If something like this, if an issue like this does crop up in your backyard, give me a shout. Reach out to me on social media. Reach out to me cell phone. I’m easy to find. And let’s talk about these subjects and let’s begin to do what a lot of other special interest groups are doing around the country. Let’s mobilize ourselves and work together for the greater good. Thank you all for listening to this episode of MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast. We’ll see you next time.