A Public Relations Disaster?

I have donated to Ducks Unlimited for quite a few years now and I could never figure out why a lot of duck hunters are against Ducks Unlimited. I always thought that the dollars raised by Ducks Unlimited went into the conservation and the land purchased by them was open to public hunting and would stay that way forever. Well this is not so, the last time I was home I was talking to some fellow hunters that told me that they would no longer be supporting Ducks Unlimited. I asked them why and they told me that when Ducks Unlimited buys land they restore it and sell it to the highest bidder. After this happens the land that was purchased with our donations is closed to hunting and is a private hunting reserve for the highest bidder.

Here is a link to Ducks Unlimited land auctions: http://prairie.ducks.org/index.cfm?&page=/cld/listings.html

Earlier this year Ducks Unlimited tried to buy some more land in Kidder County, North Dakota. The purchase was denied by Governor Hoeven, because of North Dakota corporate farming laws nonprofit organizations have to go through a process in which they must first go through the county commission, then through the Natural Areas Acquisition Advisory Commission. Both of these groups then make their recommendations to the governor who then has the final say on whether or not the property may be sold. On February 16th Ducks Unlimited released an article about how this law is unfair to them and about how they pay property taxes just like any other property owners. Another part of this article is about how they help local ranchers out because they let the ranchers rent out the grassland out at a fair market value. What they fail to tell you is that when they are done with their restoration project that they will put up for auction, which they did have a prior press release stating that this was their plan from the beginning but I cannot find it anymore.

Here is a link to the Ducks Unlimited press release: http://www.ducks.org/states/21/news/pub/article1768.html

Now I am beginning to understand where people are coming from when they say that they will not support Ducks Unlimited anymore. Now it seems that the more people I talk to are saying that they will no longer be supporting Ducks Unlimited. So now I am not sure if I will donate anymore money to Ducks Unlimited until they change their ways. I also wonder how many supporters this is going to cost Ducks Unlimited.