Wildlife Conservation
Contributions to the Conservation of Alberta’s Fish and Wildlife Heritage
Ducks Unlimited Canada
William Turnbull has been a part of Ducks Unlimited Canada in different capacities for 30+ years. As a former President and member of the board, Turnbull has been involved in this organization since he was young. His Dad was a DUC keeman for many years in Ontario. Joining the organization was all about the heritage and this component of his life fulfilled his passion to contribute.
Fred Mannix, a friend of Turnbull’s invited him on board as a partner of the Richdale camp that Mannix began with his father. During the 80’s and 90’s they would use the ranch to help steward possible contributors and those who care about the waterfowl resource. This idea launched a grand concept, which began to be a valuable prong of a two-part template designed to raise funds for wetland and waterfowl conservation. They began with an invitation-only major gift dinner fundraiser just outside of Calgary, and the second prong would be taking attendees of the dinner to a duck and goose camp and showing donors first-hand the type of habitat conservation work their gifts would help.
Before too long three more camps were brought to life and they became living examples of how wildlife and agriculture both benefited from this collaboration and opened a lot of eyes in those local communities as well as at provincial levels.
The 2004 dinner this team hosted raised $975,000- by far the single largest fundraiser ever held in Canada. It was through passion and promotion for waterfowl conservation that they made everybody take notice and feel good about helping out. Their success in raising these funds is directly related to making people see how important wildlife conservation is to them.
Champions for the ducks Article (PDF)
Culture of Curiosity spawns 100% conservationist solution – Article – Page 1 (PDF)
Culture of curiosity spawns 100% conservationist solution – Article – Page 2 (PDF)
Culture of curiosity spawns 100% conservationist solution – Article – Page 3 (PDF)
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