Syracuse.com - Finger Lakes and Western New York Waterfowl Association celebrates 50th anniversary

[HuntingNY-News]

The list of past club presidents reads like a "Who's Who" in Western and Central NY waterfowling circles.

The following is a press release from The Finger Lakes & Western New York

Waterfowl Association:

Back in the early 1960s, waterfowlers from Western NY and the Finger Lakes began informal meetings to better direct their influence on waterfowl-related issues.

Encouraged by increasing numbers of diving ducks on local waters, they also wanted to influence the DEC to set seasons that would afford waterfowling opportunities during the late season. It was against this backdrop that the Finger Lakes & WNY Waterfowl Assn was formed at a meeting in Canandaigua in 1962.

Comprised of dedicated waterfowlers from the 24 western counties of NY, the group was formed “…for the conservation, propagation, and preservation of waterfowl, and the establishment of liaisons with local, state, and national waterfowl groups and government departments engaged in activities affecting waterfowl.” Individual club members were already very active conservationists and included a number of well known USFWS-certified duck banders such as Rodger Case (Canandaigua), Chris Pitman (Skaneateles), Gerry Farrell (Lewiston), John Daniels (Grand Island), and Mike Rosing (Dunkirk).

Over the last 45 years these five are credited with banding more than 75000 ducks from the Great Lakes to the Finger Lakes. The group was eventually successful in convincing the NYSDEC to establish a late split season, a season that still exists today.

The list of past club presidents reads like a “Who’s Who” in Western and Central NY waterfowling circles. Chris Pitman (Skaneateles) served in several club offices including president and is an award-winning duck carver who has also banded ducks for over 45 years.

Gerry Farrell (Lewiston) served two terms as President, was a regular attendee at Atlantic Flyway Council meetings, and is an avid bird bander, targeting songbirds as well as ducks.

Beside his FL&WNYWA Presidency, John Michalovic (Amherst) also served as New York State Chairman and Treasurer for Ducks Unlimited and was a pioneering NYSDEC-certified Waterfowl ED/ID instructor with more than 33 years of service.

Well known carver Ed Fiorino (Albion) was a two-term President, served on the State Waterfowl Season Setting Task Force for many years, is a long time Waterfowl ED/ID instructor, and served a term as DU State Vice President.

Also a two term club president, Ken Zolnowski (Cheektowaga) was Dinner Chairman and 20+ year member of the Buffalo DU Committee, taught Waterfowl Ed/ID for over 30 years, and has been a member of the NYSDEC waterfowl season setting Task Force for the last 13 years. Ken also initiated and directed the group’s mallard nest structure program for over 20 years.

This conservation project was initiated in 1991, in memory of long time treasurer Fran Finnick of Canandaigua. Members collaborated with NYS Bureau of Wildlife biologist Dan Carroll to improve mallard nest success by installing artificial nest structures on the Tonawanda and Oak Orchard Wildlife Management Areas. These structures featured a unique tripod design and were very successful in thwarting predators such as raccoons.

In 1996, FL&WNYWA volunteers improved upon the original nest basket design by introducing a nesting cylinder based somewhat on the Hen House widely publicized by Delta Waterfowl.

However, the new structure was much cheaper to construct than the Delta design (~$13), could be assembled from readily available materials, and required no special assembly skills. Nesting cylinders proved far superior to traditional nest basket designs, consistently demonstrating nest use rates near 60% and nest success rates greater than 95%, while providing critical overhead protection from avian predators such as the Great Horned Owl.

From a modest beginning of 40 structures in 1991, the Project has expanded to over 120 structures in 2011. Annually, club members volunteer hundreds of man-hours on this project which has successfully hatched over 6000 ducklings since its inception.

On three separate occasions, the Erie County Federation of Sportsman's Clubs has honored the Project by awarding individual club members their "Conservationist of the Year" award. Delta Waterfowl highlighted this project in a 2005 article. Delta’s research on sportsman conservation projects nationwide revealed that the FLWNYWA program is the longest running sportsman-funded mallard nesting program in the US.

During this same time, group activities expanded into several other areas. In the mid-1980s, spurred by an alarming drop in the recruitment of waterfowlers, the group partnered with staff at the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge to institute a youth waterfowl hunting program. Club members provided basic instruction to young waterfowlers on waterfowl ID, safety, ethics, and equipment and served as guides during a youth waterfowl hunt. FL&WNYWA still provides instructor assistance to this program, which is now administered by the Lake Plains Waterfowlers of Rochester, NY.

Over the years more than a dozen FL&WNYWA members have also served as NYSDEC-certified Waterfowl Hunting Education instructors, certifying thousands of waterfowlers across New York State.

The group has also played a role in stabilizing the season setting process within NYS. For years, FL&WNYWA meetings served as a conduit for exchange of credible data concerning waterfowl migration and harvest within the Western Zone of NY.

USFWS waterfowl population counts were routinely discussed at meetings, along with harvest data from the Iroquois and Montezuma NWRs and the state-run Tonawanda and Oak Orchard Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs).

These data helped to identify the principal migratory time frames within the zone, a key ingredient to the season setting process. In the 1990s, the club prepared a report on season setting and submitted it to the NYSDEC for review.

Around the same time, club Secretary Tom Mellenger shot a videotape documenting major puddle duck migrations well after season close in the Western Zone. As a result of these varied actions, FL&WNYWA was influential in the formation of NYSDEC’s Waterfowl Season Setting Task Force now used annually to set hunt dates within the state’s 5 waterfowl zones. Since the inception of the Task Force in 1999, waterfowler complaints to the DEC regarding season dates have dropped dramatically. FL&WNYWA members have served on the Western Zone Task Force for each of the last 13 years.

As the club enters its next 50 years, waterfowling opportunities in NYS have never been better. However, the recruitment of waterfowlers continues to decline in the face of competition from many sources including the ever-expanding electronic entertainment media. It’s a challenge that is immense but that the group is facing head-on.

After all, the fate of the North American waterfowl resource is at stake.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog