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Each fall 30,000 wood duck ducklings leave nesting boxes in California, thanks to the Wood Duck Conservation Program. That's 30,000 wood ducks that otherwise wouldn't be alive in California. ”

License fees and Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson funds generated by excise taxes on sales of sporting goods foot about 75 percent of the bill for state fish and game agencies. Together with federal agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service and the BLM, they shoulder responsibility for managing wildlife and related lands. But, without the help of sportsmen's groups, the state and federal agencies' conservation efforts would be in big trouble.

Hunting and fishing organizations typically have a few administrators and biologists who hold paying jobs, but the vast majority of the manpower that ultimately gets the work done is volunteer. We need to hear more about these people, because they are the backbone of conservation in the United States.

A West Coast example

Recently the California Waterfowl Association (www.calwaterfowl.org) held a special Appreciation Dinner for some of its most dedicated volunteers. I had the good fortune to be invited to speak to the group, which gave me an opportunity to meet many of the unsung heroes who donate countless hours of service every year. Some were retirees while others gave up weekends and evenings with the family to build wood duck nesting boxes, maintain trails and levees, serve on various committees, work with state and federal agencies and educate the next generation of hunters.

The volunteers came from all walks of life: doctors, lawyers, government workers, businessmen, teachers, homemakers and even a former state legislator. When I asked the volunteers why they did what they did, without pay or recognition, they just smiled and spoke about the value of giving something back. Through hunting, they said, they had learned to appreciate nature. Sure, they hope their efforts might help their chances of getting some ducks in the fall, but knowing that wild animals and habitats have been conserved and the heritage has been passed along to the next generation is the real payoff for them. The real rewards of volunteerism, they said, is for the soul.

Most hunters belong to one or more hunting organizations. Membership is voluntary, and that simple contribution is step one… and it's an important one. That willingness, which raises millions of dollars every year, is ample proof that hunters are conservationists, because most of the money that comes in goes out again for research and habitat protection rather than large salaries.

C.W.A. is not a large hunting organization, but its success illustrates the enormous amount of grassroots volunteer spirit in the hunting community. It has about 16,000 members (roughly one-fourth of the licensed duck hunters in the state). Over the course of the past 15 or so years, CWA and its public and private partners — which include DU, National Audubon, The Nature Conservancy, American Farmland Trust, Trust for Public Lands, USFWS, DFG, US Bureau of Reclamation, and the US Army Corps of Engineers; just to name a few, (under the umbrella of the Central Valley Habitat Joint Venture of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan) — have protected, restored and/or enhanced 600,000 acres of wetlands, riparian areas, associated uplands and agricultural lands to benefit waterfowl and wildlife. In addition to volunteer efforts, partners have contributed more than $330 million to effect habitat conservation in the Central Valley. Partners have also worked to firm up critical wetland water supplies for Central Valley Refuges and Wildlife Areas and private wetlands within the Grasslands.

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without the help of sportsmen's groups, the state and federal agencies' conservation efforts would be in big trouble. ”

I asked the CWA staff for some statistics on the extent of volunteerism. The Director of Communications polled the various departments and came back with the following statistics: Among the 16,000 members, about 2,500 did significant volunteering — about 1,000 of those did work for the wood duck program, which builds and erects nesting boxes for wood ducks; about 60 for the youth program that visits schools; about 60 for business committees; and the remainder (roughly 1,400) performed fundraising, mostly working on dinner committees that bring in the lion's share of the financial resources they need to get things done.

One immediate result of CWA's work is that each fall 30,000 wood duck ducklings leave nesting boxes in California, thanks to the Wood Duck Conservation Program. That's 30,000 more wood ducks than would otherwise be alive in California. Wood ducks nest in cavities of old dead trees, ideally near water. Ninety percent of the historical forested wetlands of California have been lost, and so building wooden nesting boxes and setting them out in suitable habitat replaces the old dead trees.

A nationwide effort

What CWA is doing for wood ducks is also true elsewhere in the U.S. At the beginning of the 20th century wood ducks were nearly extinct due to market hunting and logging practices that wiped out great chunks of their nesting habitat. Today, there are nearly four million wood ducks in the US. They have become the most common species breeding in the eastern United States.

Each hunters' organization — Ducks Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, National Wild Turkey Foundation, etc. — could report similar success stories. Few people realize how much some of these volunteers spend to participate. A friend who is a national officer in Ducks Unlimited estimates he spends $10,000 a year for travel related expenses associated with volunteering, in addition to money that he contributes.

Above and beyond what it does for conservation, the hunting community's volunteerism reaches far beyond wildlife conservation. In recent years it has become a major player in feeding the needy. Two examples:

Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry (www.fhfh.org/cgi-bin/index.asp) With 33 affiliate chapters in 25 states, from 1997-2000, volunteers provided 750 tons of venison for the needy, resulting in 6,000,000 meals.

Safari Club International's Humanitarian Services Program (www.safariclubfoundation.org/sahoutlet.htm) Sportsmen Against Hunger, in all 50 states, Canada and abroad, provides of 250 million meals of wild game meat every year to the needy.

One other volunteer corps in the hunting community that gets far too little credit is the 65,000 Hunter Education Instructors. Thanks to them the accident rates for hunting has plummeted in the last few decades, making hunting safer than ping-pong and golf.

When President Bush, in his recent State of the Union speech, called every American to commit at least two years of their life, or 4,000 hours, to the service of others, he was speaking to the American spirit. While there are agencies such as AmeriCorps, Senior Corps and Peace Corps set up to coordinate volunteerism, I hope that at some point he and others will call attention to the massive volunteer program already in place and at work in the hunting community. They are a model of what is possible when people grasp the importance of giving something back without compensation, simply because it is a part of being a good citizen.

James Swan is the author of the book "In Defense of Hunting."
To purchase a copy visit his website.