MISSOULA, Mont.--(Ammoland.com)- Ducks Unlimited is being honored with the Boone and Crockett Club’s Theodore Roosevelt Legacy Award, which recognizes and celebrates cooperative partnerships in conservation.
DU Chief Executive Officer Dale Hall received the award and recognition during the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, March 14, in Atlanta.
Boone and Crockett created the award in 2008 to honor the collaborative spirit of America’s greatest conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt. Previous recipients include the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Wildlife Management Institute.
“This award is a way for us to highlight and encourage people and organizations working together to achieve great things,” said Club President Ben Wallace. “Cooperative partnerships have proven crucial throughout the history of conservation—and they’re going to be even more important in the future.”
“Ducks Unlimited has always felt very closely aligned with the Boone and Crockett Club and its philosophy of cooperative conservation,” said Hall. “As the founder of the modern conservation movement, Theodore Roosevelt realized things get done when you work together to achieve a common goal. DU is very pleased and honored to receive this prestigious award from our friends and partners at the Boone and Crockett Club.”
In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed two B&C members, Jay “Ding” Darling and Aldo Leopold, to a committee with Thomas Beck to assess the dismal state of migratory birds and to recommend actions. Together they proposed the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp Act, which soon became law. The act provided that funds from sales of federal duck stamps would be used to acquire land for the National Wildlife Refuge System, established earlier by B&C founder Theodore Roosevelt.
In 1935, the eventual founders of DU, through an entity they created in 1930 called More Game Birds in America Foundation, sponsored the International Wild Duck Census, the first comprehensive aerial survey of North America’s most important waterfowl breeding grounds. This survey confirmed the importance of duck habitat conservation in Canada. However, federal duck stamp monies couldn’t be used outside of U.S. borders.
So, in 1937, DU was launched for the purpose of raising funds in the U.S. to secure lands in Canada. A second entity, DU Canada, was established to actually deliver that mission.
Today, DU is the world’s largest and most effective non-governmental organization for waterfowl and wetlands conservation. Supported by legions of dedicated partners and volunteers, DU has raised over $3.3 billion to conserve more than 12.4 million acres.
DU is celebrating its 75th Anniversary in 2012.
Hall added, “Though we have had many accomplishments in the past 75 years, DU’s work will continue.”
About the Boone and Crockett Club
Founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887, the Boone and Crockett Club promotes guardianship and visionary management of big game and associated wildlife in North America. The Club maintains the highest standards of fair-chase sportsmanship and habitat stewardship. Member accomplishments include enlarging and protecting Yellowstone and establishing Glacier and Denali national parks, founding the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and National Wildlife Refuge System, fostering the Pittman-Robertson and Lacey Acts, creating the Federal Duck Stamp program, and developing the cornerstones of modern game laws. The Boone and Crockett Club is headquartered in Missoula, Mont. For details, visit www.boone-crockett.org.
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