Ducks Unlimited brain fart

Sense its off season and we were all so busy trying to kill ducks, what your thoughts on DU decision to drop E Don Thomas from its magazine. From what I have read for myself, DU dropped the ball on this. The powers to be at Du who made that decision need to fired.

Sad to hear. I've enjoyed his writing for years. Apparently he annoyed one of the money boys. Here's all I could find:


http://www.hcn.org/articles/quack-attack-ducks-unlimited-fires-writer-over-stream-access-fracas

The article was about a regional issue in Montana. DU needed to keep their nose out of it. The fact they claim Kennedy had nothing to do with Thomas dismissal reeks of lies and betrayal. Its like saying no college athlete gets money/gifts. Nobody can prove it but we all know what is really happening at our favorite college athletic department lol. Whats sad is the grass roots level chapters will get hurt here. They have done nothing wrong but will be effected by this. I've wrote DU and have informed them that my membership is over unless they right the ship on this.

Are you surprised by this?
This is a flagrant example of what is wrong with DU and his been for decades.
DU for many is a high society fraternity of "LL Bean" wearing Doctors and Lawyers.
All you have to do is attend one of the bigger DU banquets and you will witness it first hand.
The cost of a table, the winning bids, the amount of booze consumed.
Sure, some portion of the funds raised do go to good use but for the majority of the high rollers it serves as blood money for their "above the law" actions when in the field and justification for favors to be received later.

You wouldn't have to dig to deep to find favoritism to levels beyond belief.
DU refuge land purchases next to Dr. Bob's private ranch.
DU sponsored hunts where only "special" people are invited.
Approvals for habitat improvement $$s on Dr. Bill's ranch while not being approved on his neighbors ranch (the one who isn't in the good ole boys club.)
I've seen pictures of pickup truck beds literally overflowing with mallards with local DU executives posing, grinning from ear to ear.

The levels of corruption within DU may not reach the Hillary Clinton level but it's certainly bad enough that they wont be getting any of my dollars.

I'm surprised they actually fired Thomas for this. He's not exactly a local yokal writer. He called a spaid a spaid and got canned for it. I personally have no problem with the Kennedy's of the DU world getting to hunt national honey holes if there giving up the money they do but this crud crossed a line, got thrown back across it by Montana sportsman and courts, and is still trying to cross those lines. Got called out by Thomas and du takes the cruds side. The irony is this....DU is supposed to be a conservation organization that stands for, among many things public access...which the crud was trying to deny to Montana sportsman (illegally so said the courts).

It doesn't take much effort to see the backlash du is taking on this. Thomas has the vast majority on his side on this issue.

I've been a long time supporter of DU, served as volunteer on several different chapters.

I've been quick to defend them, and recognize that an organization that big isn't going to make everyone happy.

However, the decision to let that writer go (and removed articles from websites) crossed many lines for me. Their defense is that they were defending a DU volunteer is bs.

The freelance writer wrote in support of public land, called out a bully private landowner, presented facts, and had nothing to do with DU in the article.

When DU made the decision to listen to their pockets and basically did a type of whistleblower retaliation instead of supporting outdoor writers it showed bad corruption and true colors.

I'm glad they exist and I still think they are an important tool in conservation efforts. I hope they continue to grow, but...

It was a bad decision, and I can't/won't donate to them with a clear conscience until they issue an apology. Many people fill the same as me.

I'm glad I don't work for them or have a DU tatoo.

I haven't decided on which side I fall on this issue, but the original article is an interesting read.

Outside Bozeman Article

And the best part about it is it's not even that high of a society. Most of the "big wigs" at DU are laughed at by the upper echelon.

Basically if anyone is suprised by this. You've not paid very good attention.

Garrett....another example for the "like" button campaign you're running

thanks for the PM pointing this out, Judd. I almost missed a great opportunity to push my agenda. i saw a DU thread and just assumed it was a DU sucks Delta is great thread, and then it would morph into a debate about CCA sucking and that all commercial crabbers were going to heaven and everyone against them were are going to hell.

Don't drag Wal into this.....he's having a rough week.

very weak, your better than this

After a re-read, my post was a bit harsh.
I agree that DU has and continues to do great things in the way of habitat rescue, management and acquisition.
They are a great voice in Washington for wetlands protection, etc.

There are a lot of things about DU that I don't understand.
They are "classified" as a "Non-profit" but I don't know what that means. Certainly the DU execs profit. Hall, CEO made $432K in 2014. They have retirement plans, employee investment programs, etc.

DU holds "Conservation Easements" to over 375K acres. At the time of the donations (spanning back to the incorporation of DU) these easements were valued in excess of $500 million! What does "easement" mean in this case? Do they own the land or just the usage rights? For how long? Since I haven't seen land or lease prices come down lately, one can only guess at the value today . . over $1B ?? How is that not profit? Like I said, a lot of stuff I don't understand.

As a "non-profit", DU receives ALOT of our tax dollars (Duck stamp money, etc.) to use as they see fit.

If you want, check out these:
2014 DU Audit (It's very interesting to see where their lands are . . and are not!! Very little holding in Texas. Can you say: Short Stopping?)
Charity Rating (Note where they rate in comparison to other outdoor "charities".)

We should remember that DU is not a government agency. It is a private corporation. While public opinion and image is very important, they are free to do as they see fit. They may regret it later, but they can still do it.

Here we go again, people making in accurate assumption based off very limited and wrong information and facts.

Please Mr. Frog Blocker, enlighten us.

I let my DU membership expire after realizing that the big shots get to hunt a bunch of these leased improvements. Although I'm a pretty big deal, I'm sure that I'd never get to hunt one of these places.

Delta promises to keep some of my money from a local banquet in my area. What does this mean exactly? Honest question? There is little to no public opportunity here. What's the money that is kept here for?

No problem...it's just what friends do

"Here we go again"....

That actually paints a bad picture of DU. Really, thousands of people across this country smell $hitt coming from somewhere.....DU is the only one asking for more TP. Maybe some soap also.

I said here we go again, not in reference to another DU debate. But more or less another debate drawn by inaccurate assumptions made from small pieces of information. Everyone in the forum claims to Not be an expert but then argues with you about how they are right and everyone else is wrong.

I'm not sure what Frog Blocker is but I'm sure this is a poor attempt at a joke. Let me start off by simply saying. Conservation is not raising money for more free public hunting area for a bunch of Top Waters to tear up all year. Conservation is conserving, preserving, and building habitat so that a species can survive and flourish.

To answer the Delta debate. Both DU and Delta are great organizations and go towards Conservation. Delta does promise to put money back into the county that the funds are raised in. Well Dallas is one of their largest events and last time I checked Delta wasn't building any public waterfowl hunting areas in Dallas County. Going to back to my point above conservation is not providing public hunting areas.

Yes DU CEO makes over $400K a year. In order to have the knowledge and expertise to operate a multi hundred million dollar company you deserve to be paid. I doubt anyone in this thread has the knowledge or experience to manage a company of this size that spans across three countries and to do so for any cheaper. If you are going to boycott DU on the fact that a non-profit CEO makes that kind of money. I would suggest you stop watch football also cause the NFL is a non-profit and Roger Goodell makes over $1Million/year, along with the CEO of United Way, and Wishes for Warriors to name a couple.

Ducks Unlimited was originally a grass roots organization and operated on the same basis as WRP and CRP. Landowner would sign 30 year easements on private property to allow DU to come in and build wetland. So yes the big spenders that donated their land to build wetlands on get to hunt their own property. If you owned property that would make good wetlands you would have been able to do the same thing to your property. But for the next 30 years you wouldn't be able to put cattle on it, plant it, cultivate it, or develop it.

Does DU take big donors on hunting trips? Yes absolutely. Are they on the private secret lease that DU funds paid for? Absolutely not. All these hunts take place on privately owned land or with outfitters that DU pays for the hunt. These individuals and sponsors pledge hundreds of thousands of dollars in fund raising. Same reason business customers take their big clients out to games and hunting trips, or the reason why you put big spenders at the front of the room in an auction. The extra expense on giving special treatment to this large contributor is greatly out weighed by the amount of money they donate each year. If you are upset and think that it is rigged because you got drunk off free beer one night and spent $100 on raffle tickets, but the sponsor with a table that spent $5k on raffle tickets won a gun and you didn't. Maybe its just best that you stay at home next time.

Lastly DU turns over the management and monitoring of their projects back over to the state departments such as TPWD after construction is complete. DU does not have the man power to monitor the 1.5 million acres of preservations. TPWD decides which properties will be open for public hunting and which will be preservation, not DU. There are numerous DU projects that TPWD and Army Corp now manages that do have public hunting across Texas. However they are not Type II so you won't find them listed in your public hunting permit book. You will have to get out and do some scouting and talk to some of the departments to find them. And there are large Type II DU projects open to public but I won't name any lakes.

If you want to have a mature conversation or have some additional question feel free to PM me but I'm not going to get in a long drawn out debate with the trolls.

Sorry this is about them siding with a donor firing a writer over an editorial artical about a rich donor sueing a state over land access.

You are correct, and I apologize for getting off topic. However I was asked to enlighten everyone on topics that were brought up in the thread. If I missed anything or if anyone would like to continue this discussion you may PM me.

In regards to the original topic, I would be hard set to side with any one side without additional information. I don't necessarily trust what the AP writes and news tends to be exaggerated to make for better stories. Should a writer have freedom of speech and be able to write what they want? Yes that is what our country is built on. However, if the article is about one of the board members of the organization that employs you I don't imagine he was shocked by the outcome. If I write in a public forum and insulted my boss, I don't imagine I would have a job come Monday either.

Pm sent

This is how I see it too. The original article was not just an opinion piece on stream access or the legal battle, it was a pretty unprofessional slam piece. Yes, DU could have backed the writer on the stream access issue if that was all it was, but I don't know what else he expected when you bite the hand that feeds you. I would expect to be fired if I wrote that article about my boss (or a key client might be a closer analogy).

Like I have already stated, I have no problem with what happens with big doner's inside Du. I get that. Read the post directly above this one I'm typing. The magazine is for members. They fired a longtime , popular writer for all the wrong reasons. This tells me DU needs a cleansing from the top down.

Come on Jepsen...this is no place to interject logic

I'm not gonna PM you but for what it's worth, I hate agreeing with you.

I'm not Jepsen, I am his business partner. Jepsen wouldn't of been able to keep any composure or logic in his responses, I think we all know this too well. But I'm sure he'll appreciate you guys still thinking about him.

Kennedy is a BIG giver to DU and a former board member. Georgia resident who bought land in Montana and then decided to close public right/access. Its all in the public records/courts. The fact that Thomas wrote the article not knowing what a big wheel(a$$) Kennedy is speaks volumes on his own behalf. Unbiased writing....what a thought.

No need to lecture me on DU, I have my opinion and dont care what the CEO makes. I am not a Fan for other reasons.

So what I am being told is that My local Delta leaves money local for an unknown reason? Could it possibly be only to fund future fundraisers?

This is all so confusing to me, I just want my monies to fund Ducks. So they can migrate down and I can shoot them. I could care less about an over priced banquet, etc.... i sure dont want to be funding any big shots hunt. I can barely afford my own habit.

Can't argue with that logic either Flock...I'm sure he'll be flattered.

I agree 100%

This. First time I ever read about short-stopping was in an article by the late Ed Holder, outdoors editor for the Port Arthur News, ca. 1966 or 1967. Some things don't change.