First Inaugural Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Youth Hunt

Hitch

Hitch

Well-known member
From the days of Sandy Point, Capt. Titus and Capt. Dummit, and Dummit's Grove and the duck clubs that dotted the Mosquito lagoon, fresh water springs, stories from Forest and Stream, Al Fresco and Dr. Henshall, to the Space program, mosquito impoundments, and more ducks...MINWR has a rich history, and now it has the MINWR youth duck hunt sponsored by UW-F and the USFWS...

Scouting...

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Friday night meeting at the MINWR Visitor's Center...

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Dorn Whitmore - Refuge manager

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My grandson Aria still looking for his first duck

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The boys guided by the best with their ducks

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Lunch on UW-F at the MINWR Boy Scout pavilion

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A humble start, but a new tradition on one of the finest Refuges in Florida.

Hitch
 
Congrats on starting a new tradition. I'm sure the boys had a great time. Nothing like getting someone out for their first waterfowl hunt.
That is a beautiful area down there. I have traveled the ICW thru Mosquito Lagoon and have never associated it with ducks. I'm always looking out for Manatees.
Keep up the good work.
 
Very cool to see a spot like that and see some kids get a chance at it. With this years weather I bet they got an even better show.
Thanks for the Pictures.
 
Of course I sat here dreaming of what it must have been like to enjoy a hunt in a camo t-shirt! What a great start. That conference room looks so much like the one at Bosque del Apache NWR where the youth go for part of their training prior to the snow goose hunt.
Excellent pics.
Al
 
What a great opportunity for those kids to get started... and a neat resource to have the opportunity to use.
 
We had 5 youth hunters attend the Friday night meeting and 6 hunted...a humble beginning but a good start. All of us are new at running a youth hunt, so it worked out great and we know better what to expect next year. The refuge has been really slow this year due to the lack of fresh water from very little rain all summer to fill the impoundments, and most hunters knew it would be slow. We did get some good numbers of ducks very late. Low numbers of ducks is probably why we had a low turnout, that and the economy.

On another note; we are making progress with the refuge and are building relationships with the birders that use the refuge and who have dominated the events schedule there in recent years. Our organization has been pulling boards and putting the boards back up for three seasons now in most of the brackish water impoundments. No one else wants to do it, and with staff cuts and budget cuts, it's been neglected. But if we keep at it and when we get good rain in the summers, it will all pay off. We have a good group of members that volunteer, and this has opened up the refuge to the idea of the youth hunt, and other ideas. The birders think the low duck numbers are because of hunting pressure and have been bandying about that idea for some time now, but it is very clear to us that it's the poor management of the impoundments combined with the lack of rainfall that have lowered the numbers. The Refuge use to get much of its fresh water from springs, but those have all but dried up in the last couple of decades due to water use sky-rocketing in Florida. Florida uses 7 billion gallons of fresh water every day and only about 16 million gallons of that are from surface waters. The rest is pumped out of the Floridan aquifer. Were seeing the same things happening at other coastal refuges in Florida...lack of fresh water and lack of ducks.

Hitch
 
The rest is pumped out of the Floridan aquifer. Were seeing the same things happening at other coastal refuges in Florida...lack of fresh water and lack of ducks.

Hitch
Click to expand...


first off, congrats on the youth hunt. I know from taking my boy and his friend how much fun these can be and they are truly an important part of passing on the tradition.

Your final thoughts alarm me and it is truly shocking how this is happening everywhere. I think there will be a time that water is more precious than oil, but we still like our green grass. Thanks for your efforts in the impoundments, I remember you posting pictures of when you guys were pulling boards, doesn't look all that easy, but it is well worth it.

Keep up the good pictures/stories. I love reading them.

later.
 
Thanks Jim! That will be SUPER! There is nothing like seeing a kid leave with one of those hand carved decoys.
 
Here are a few of the photos from our "Board Meeting" in June, installing the boards, unfortunately we had a very dry summer and fall...

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Pat Stone (left) deserves the credit for getting these efforts started. He's been working with the refuge for years.

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Dan Daniels (in the water, left) has stepped up big time, helping Pat and he organized the first youth hunt. This was our work crew last June...

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I'll be at the DU Sportsman's Summit for Clean Water in Memphis next Tuesday.

Hitch
 
That is just super cool Hitch. There is nothing worse than being a kid who wants to get out and hunt and fish without a place to go. I'm proud of you guys. Do you think those six kids realized they were making history? "I was one of the first kids to get to hunt there back in '11..."

Sadly, most folks don't get too excited about water until the well goes dry, me included.

Mike
 
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