Before any youth movement gets underway in the organization’s hierarchy, providing there is a change, Jason Foster is fired up about the fast-approaching New Iberia Ducks Unlimited Chapter Banquet.

Foster, who’s serving his 11th year as the local chapter’s chairman, believes outdoorsmen in the local community will support the fundraising event for the umpteenth time with a big turnout Oct. 26.

“Absolutely,” Foster said Oct. 21 as he and his banquet committee put finishing touches on banquet preparations.

The 46-year-old outdoorsman expects even more DU Green Wings, which he has been encouraging the past several years.

“Every year I’m trying to get more young people there. Every year I’m trying to add five more on average. My goal is to get more young people there,” Foster said Oct. 21 as he and his banquet committee put finishing touches on the banquet.

The turnout should be higher than at last year’s event, without question. Due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict with a big local high school football game, only 62 people showed for the local chapter’s fundraiser in 2022. (Still, $58,000 was raised that night.)

“This time of year there are always excited people and people waiting. Everybody’s waiting,” he said, referring to the highly anticipated arrival cooler weather and the “big duck” season that opens Nov. 11 in the West Zone. “Everybody’s ready. There’s a lot of anticipation.”

A live auction item that undoubtedly will be highly sought after among banquet-goers is a Garth Brooks Las Vegas country music concert package for two at Caesar’s Palace, a Ducks Unlimited-only event scheduled in 2025.

Other live auction items of interest on the list of 23 include the Benelli SBE3 28-gauge 2023 DU Shotgun of the Year (minimum bid $1,900); the Springfield 1911 Garrison Blued .45ACP 2034 DU Handgun of the Year (minimum bid $1,000) and the Christensen Mesa .308-caliber 2023 DU Rifle (minimum bid $1,900).

There are eye-opening silent auction items, too, such as a Cabo all-inclusive for two ($1,995); Lisbon All-inclusive for two ($2,495); Puerto Vallarta All-inclusive for two ($1,795); 2023 DU Stamp Print; Sean Louviere Waterfowl Mount Donation, and a special Cast Iron Griddle.

Admission prices for the local fundraising event, scheduled to start at 6 p.m.:

Green Wing (under 18 years old) admission is $25, which includes an event ticket and GW membership. A general membership ticket is $50.

Sponsorship levels are:

Bronze — $350. Two event tickets, sponsor gift, program advertisement

Silver — $600. Eight event tickets, sponsor gift, table and program advertisement.

Gold — $1,000. Eight event tickets, choice of firearm, table and program advertisement.

Platinum — $2,500. Eight event tickets, choice of firearm, premium advertisement, program front page, table, website event page.

Silent and live auction items will be up for bid.

Corporate underwriters for this year’s fundraising event here are Musson Patout Automotive Group and Romero’s Power Sports LLC.

Armond Schwing, past New Iberia DU chapter chairman who later served as Louisiana DU state chairman in 2008, has been tabbed as the MC for Thursday night’s fundraiser at the Isle of Iberia RV Resort on Louisiana 3212. Schwing has embodied the spirit, drive and success of DU for many years.

Foster, a financial advisor for Cestia Wealth Management LLC, said he is ready to step aside for “new blood” to take over the organization’s reins.

“We’re trying to recruit new blood so we can try to turn it over. It’s a little unusual to be chairman this long. But I’m proud,” he said.

DU, the nation’s largest nonprofit group, was established in 1937 to conserve wetlands, grasslands and associated habitats to benefit ducks, other wildlife and communities. There are 664,000 members nationally, including 39,000 volunteers who organized 4,400 fundraisers in 2022.

DU’s conservation goal outlines planned protection, restoration and management of natural resources to ensure sustainable use and enjoyment by current and future generations. DU conservation efforts fall into three categories: protecting healthy, intact wetands with conservation easements or purchases, enhancing existing wetlands or wetlands that are degraded, and restoring wetlands in areas drained or hydologically altered.

Why is that so important? More than 50 percent of the country’s historical wetland areas have been drained, degraded or converted to alternative uses, according to DU.

How do waterfowlers who put the boots on the ground benefit from DU in the Sportsman’s Paradise?

Cassidy LeJeune, DU director of Conservation Programs for South Louisiana, announced Oct. 17 that DU and its partners in south Louisiana recently received two North American Wetlands Conservation Act grants that will enhance and restore 4,960 acres of coastal wetlands near Terrebonne Parish’s Raccourci Bay and south of Creole in Cameron Parish.

“The securing of $3.4 million in federal funds via these two grants is a huge win for south Louisiana,” Cassidy said in a prepared statement. “Our team of DU biologists did a fantastic job at piecing together these two NAWCA proposals, which were ranked first and second in the nation. The federal and matching funds that are available through these grants will result in highly important enhancement work in both southeast and southwest Louisiana.”

DU also proudly points out there are 27 public waterfowl hunting areas on DU’s Louisiana Public Lands Projects. Two of those area are in our backyard, the Atchafalaya Basin – Sherburne Wildlife Management Area and Attakapas Island WMA.

Louisiana duck hunters can thank the Prairie Pothole Region for nearly all of the ducks that migrate here from the Upper Midwest, namely North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Minnesota. That region pockmarked with an immense number of potholes, which fill with snowmelt and rain each spring, is known as “the duck factory.” It’s also DU’s No. 1 conservation focus area.

The Sportsman’s Paradise also benefits from DU’s Mississippi Alluvial Valley and Gulf Coast conservation efforts as the organization continues to conserve critical waterfowl habitat in this state.

Louisiana DU boasts 12,868 general members, a number that includes 964 Green Wings (222 Legacy Green Wings), 1,137 sponsor members and 1,215 major sponsors in 2022. Total membership is 15,191.

The grassroots bucks for ducks total raised in 2022 was $3,954,549.