Director-s-Desk

From the Director's Desk - By David J. Wielicki

SCWA's 25th Anniversary Year - Let's Celebrate!

2011 marks the start of SCWA’s 25th Anniversary Year. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of over 500 volunteers and the financial support of over 4,500 SCWA members and Sponsors, your Association can celebrate the following conservation successes achieved over the past 24 years:

1. Installation of 20,500 wood duck nest boxes

2. Production of more than 825,000 wood ducks.

3. Creation of the 410-acre SCWA Wildlife Education Center and Camp Woodie the nation’s leading youth wildlife education summer camp

4. Conservation Education has been provided to over 65,000 youth

5. Wetland management assistance to 600 landowners resulting in the creation and enhancement of thousands of acres of managed wetlands

6. Production of over 115,000 songbirds

7. Successful release of 630,000 mallards with 45,000 scheduled for release in 2011

8. The addition of 75 to 100 thousand waterfowl to South Carolina’s waterfowl population on an annual basis.

9. SCWA has become the Nation’s second largest state Waterfowl Association

Although these are major accomplishments, as members of SCWA you know we must expand our commitment to conserve and enhance our South Carolina’s waterfowl and wetland resources. The SCWA Board of Directors, Chapter Volunteers and Staff are working hard to make this 25th Anniversary year the most effective yet toward achieving our mission to conserve, enhance and perpetuate our waterfowl heritage. Despite a tough economy with your help we can achieve major conservation successes in the coming year.

Conservation education remains the key to passing on the legacy of our wildlife heritage and SCWA is doing its part thanks to your support. This year in addition to running the nation’s leading summer wildlife conservation camp, Camp Woodie, we are launching our school year natural resource conservation camp, Camp Leopold. Camp Leopold will focus on providing natural resource conservation education to teachers and students throughout the school year using the award winning Leopold Education Project. We will launch this program in September with several teacher workshops to introduce the program to South Carolina schools. Our long term goal is to have over 5,000 youth and teachers attend Camp Leopold annually. We are also excited to welcome our new Camp Woodie Director, Ed Paul and his assistant Camp Director Jonathon Casper to the SCWA team. Our team of outdoor education experts brings years of experience to SCWA, and are busy getting the Wildlife Education Center ready for its best Camp Woodie program yet. Our team is committed to a top quality program that will grow to reach its potential of 650 youth each summer.

As we move forward into 2011 your Association will add over 75,000 ducks to our state waterfowl populations through our wood duck and mallard projects. We are making strides to expand our wood duck nest box program with 190 nest box units already installed and several hundred more scheduled for installation and distribution across the state. The mallard release project has a goal of 45,000 mallards to be released in 2011. With funding from the Alcoa Foundation we have expanded and added several new waterfowl impoundments at the Wildlife Education Center. Thanks to support from Ferguson Enterprises, Blanchard Machinery, Tractor Supply and Crop Production Services we are adding irrigation and a protective wild hog proof fence to our largest waterfowl impoundment, the 43 acre “Land Impoundment”. These habitat improvements will help to make our waterfowl management demonstration area at the Wildlife Education Center one of the best in the country while also providing food for up to 15,000 wintering waterfowl. In the coming year we will also be working on additional grants to create and enhance up to 50 acres of waterfowl habitat at the Wildlife Education Center. SCWA biologists will also continue to work with landowners and agencies across the state to enhance waterfowl habitat.

Over the past 25 years SCWA has worked with state and federal agencies, private landowners and conservation groups to help make a difference for waterfowl habitat, waterfowl populations and waterfowl hunting right here in South Carolina. A testimony to the success of these efforts is the fact that while the number of waterfowl hunters in most other states has declined , the number of waterfowl hunters in South Carolina has increased from 14,958 in 1988 to 23,500 in 2009. In addition, annual duck harvest in South Carolina has steadily increased from 78,978 in 1988 to 249,400 in 2009. South Carolina ranked number one in duck harvest in 2009 and consistently ranks as one of the top three duck harvest states in the Atlantic Flyway. Your association has played an integral part in achieving these successes through increased waterfowl production, improved wintering habitat and hunter recruitment programs like Camp Woodie that are keeping our waterfowl heritage strong in South Carolina. Thanks to your support your organization has enjoyed 25 years of conservation success and looks forward to the next 25 years of conserving, enhancing and perpetuating our waterfowl and wildlife heritage.

If you need more information about our conservation efforts, please contact us at the office

803-452-6001 or you can email us at contact@scwa.org