MWA Working Hard

Plymouth, Minnesota - In a state with 10,000 lakes it's hard to imagine a waterfowl chapter struggling to make ends meet but the Minnesota Waterfowler Association (MWA) is doing just that. Jim Cox, president of the MWA's board of directors, said the association has been scaling down staff for quite some time and now includes an office manager, book keeper and chapter coordinator. Why the struggles? There's several aspects including the water quality of Minnesota, politics and believe it or not, the lack of quality wetlands contributing to lower numbers of waterfowl hunters leading to another slide in membership numbers.

Adding further strain is MWA's inability to secure grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. It's not that the two departments are refusing the funds it's that the MWA holds an exceptional amount of debt "disqualifying" them for funds. Grants, membership monies and land ownership was MWA's main sources of asset value. With membership numbers down and grants not easy to come by the MWA has been selling large acres of land to bring the red line up. Hopefully, the association can regroup with some elections coming up at the end of July and secure grant money.

Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes struggling to keep an important chapter fighting for Minnesota hunters but the chapter may be down but it's not out and will be holding fundraising events.

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