Nick Wansha
Active member
A real nice story with pics in this AM's Rochester Democrat & Chronicle about my club - LPWA, our wood duck nesting box program and an interview with a hunting bud of mine. :tu
Greece advocate: Be fair to fowl
Peter Hofmann continues his grandfather's legacy
Leo Roth • Staff writer • March 25, 2008
GREECE — Peter Hofmann was leafing through the black-and-white photographs in a file cabinet inside the Lake Plains Waterfowl Association clubhouse.
Each one triggered a memory.
"I think I was 5 years old when I first came down here," said Hofmann, 46. "I found an old picture in there, building wood duck boxes in somebody's basement with my grandfather. He got me into it."
That was Herbert Naber, one of the founders of Lake Plains, established in 1952 by a group of dedicated waterfowl hunters and conservationists.
Today, Hofmann serves as club president.
"Sometimes looking at the old pictures, it hits home," Hofmann said of his family's legacy.
"It's an emotional feeling. It's a family tradition here, and it's something I know I can pass on and hopefully it'll still be here when I'm gone, and the same care will be taken," he said.
Just as the club's original members did, the Lake Plains Waterfowl Association's 85 current members view themselves as caretakers of the delicate wetlands bordering Lake Ontario in Greece.
The tiny clubhouse is tucked into a wooded stretch of suburbia off Island Cottage Road on slightly more than an acre of land. Unlike rural sportsmen's clubs, this club doesn't have enough room for shooting ranges.
But that's OK. The setup allows for members to concentrate on public education, habitat restoration projects and social functions.
Lake Plains is a lead association for teaching hunter safety and waterfowl identification courses.
"We pioneered waterfowl identification in this part of the state," Ed Fiorino, 72, a club member since 1956, said proudly.
He uses the club's impressive collection of species mounts when instructing.
The club also advises the state Department of Environmental Conservation and community governments regarding hunting, wetlands management and other conservation issues.
"It's not just what we do for the duck hunting community, but what we do for the community as a whole — for the outdoors," said Hofmann, an optical technician whose grandson, Brandon Valerio, 16, is a junior member.
For more than 50 years, Lake Plains has been building and maintaining boxes along the Lake Ontario Parkway as far west as Orleans County, for colorful wood ducks to nest in each spring, aiding in the remarkable recovery of this nearly extinct species.
Cavity nesters, wood ducks decreased in number when old-growth forest was cleared.
The boxes give the ducks a place to lay and hatch their eggs.
They also attract non-duck guests: squirrels, raccoons, screech owls and honey bees.
The boxes need to be cleaned each year. "Building them and putting them up — that's the easy part," Hofmann said.
Inheriting this chilly job from his grandfather is something Hofmann can be proud of.
"This year was great: We had ice. We could walk out across the marsh to clean the boxes.
"Some years, you wade out up to here (chest) and your ladder is halfway in the water."
For PICs go here - http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080325/NEWS05/803260307/1003/NEWS01
Greece advocate: Be fair to fowl
Peter Hofmann continues his grandfather's legacy
Leo Roth • Staff writer • March 25, 2008
GREECE — Peter Hofmann was leafing through the black-and-white photographs in a file cabinet inside the Lake Plains Waterfowl Association clubhouse.
Each one triggered a memory.
"I think I was 5 years old when I first came down here," said Hofmann, 46. "I found an old picture in there, building wood duck boxes in somebody's basement with my grandfather. He got me into it."
That was Herbert Naber, one of the founders of Lake Plains, established in 1952 by a group of dedicated waterfowl hunters and conservationists.
Today, Hofmann serves as club president.
"Sometimes looking at the old pictures, it hits home," Hofmann said of his family's legacy.
"It's an emotional feeling. It's a family tradition here, and it's something I know I can pass on and hopefully it'll still be here when I'm gone, and the same care will be taken," he said.
Just as the club's original members did, the Lake Plains Waterfowl Association's 85 current members view themselves as caretakers of the delicate wetlands bordering Lake Ontario in Greece.
The tiny clubhouse is tucked into a wooded stretch of suburbia off Island Cottage Road on slightly more than an acre of land. Unlike rural sportsmen's clubs, this club doesn't have enough room for shooting ranges.
But that's OK. The setup allows for members to concentrate on public education, habitat restoration projects and social functions.
Lake Plains is a lead association for teaching hunter safety and waterfowl identification courses.
"We pioneered waterfowl identification in this part of the state," Ed Fiorino, 72, a club member since 1956, said proudly.
He uses the club's impressive collection of species mounts when instructing.
The club also advises the state Department of Environmental Conservation and community governments regarding hunting, wetlands management and other conservation issues.
"It's not just what we do for the duck hunting community, but what we do for the community as a whole — for the outdoors," said Hofmann, an optical technician whose grandson, Brandon Valerio, 16, is a junior member.
For more than 50 years, Lake Plains has been building and maintaining boxes along the Lake Ontario Parkway as far west as Orleans County, for colorful wood ducks to nest in each spring, aiding in the remarkable recovery of this nearly extinct species.
Cavity nesters, wood ducks decreased in number when old-growth forest was cleared.
The boxes give the ducks a place to lay and hatch their eggs.
They also attract non-duck guests: squirrels, raccoons, screech owls and honey bees.
The boxes need to be cleaned each year. "Building them and putting them up — that's the easy part," Hofmann said.
Inheriting this chilly job from his grandfather is something Hofmann can be proud of.
"This year was great: We had ice. We could walk out across the marsh to clean the boxes.
"Some years, you wade out up to here (chest) and your ladder is halfway in the water."
For PICs go here - http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080325/NEWS05/803260307/1003/NEWS01
