# Jay Strangis - Editor of Wildfowl Magazine



## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

Ever since this site and our charitable event (Greenskins Classic) was slandered and grossly exaggerated in Wildfowl Magazine a year or so ago by the editor, Jay Strangis, I always felt that his unprofessionalism and inaccurate propoganda would be his demise.

Well I finally got around to reading his editorial this month ( I refuse to pay for a magazine so I read a free copy), and I'm really surpised nobody has said anything.

I don't know whether I should be laughing or if I should be scared by the falsehoods he spreads, but this is about as blatently WRONG as it gets. If you haven't read it yet, you'll love this. And remember, Jay Strangis is not only the editor of Wildfowl Magazine, but Bowhunter Magazine as well.

The editorial is called "The Door is Open" in the latest issue of Wildfowl Magazine and I could never truly understand what it meant. The article is basically a shot at both Ducks Unlimited and Delta Watefowl and the work they've been successful at doing for decades. He states, "We can't buy the prairies and their potholes...and we can't hope to produce ducks by simply trapping every predator between Omaha and the Peace River. We've got to move more rapidly toward the big picture, the really big picture."

Now here is where the editorial gets weird. This is a guy who claims to be an active outdoorsmen, a conservationist, heck you'd expect to be if you'are an editor of 2 major outdoor magazines. This guy has absolutely NO CLUE about conservation. Don't believe me? Read his next sentence:



Jay Strangis said:


> *We should style our grandest effort on the framework of Pheasants Forever's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). *


That's right, Jay thinks that CRP is not a government program funded by all citizen's tax dollars, HE THINKS IT WAS DRAWN UP BY PHEASANTS FOREVER. I am in no way knocking Pheasants Forever, I don't have a bad opinion of them...I think it's a great organization. But seriously, is this real?

He later writes:



Jay Strangis said:


> *The difficult part of such a plan is selling it to Washington. That's going to take money, and organization. Of course, Pheasants Forever must be a key player, sharing its successful model and brandishing its support.*


Wow. Can you imagine how difficult it will be to sell the idea of subsizing idle land to our government called the Conservation Reserve Program?

Time will only tell I guess. :roll: :lol:

No wonder the magazine's subscribers have run for the hills in recent years.


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## Remmi_&amp;_I (Dec 2, 2003)

That is unbelieveable. There really shouldn't be another issue of his propaganda circulated. 
:eyeroll:


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## taddy1340 (Dec 10, 2004)

Wow...he needs to buy a clue! :eyeroll:


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## BROWNDOG (Nov 2, 2004)

I spent a couple of hours with Jay This past sping, he lives in Brainerd MN. where I live, I was looking at getting a pup from a kenel he had gotten his dog from , so we spent a couple of hours shooting the sh*t and talking dogs and ducks. I havent read the artical but he must have been writing this piece at the time because we had this same conversation. What i got out of it that night ( and I['m not sticking up for him and I'm not a fan of Wildfowl either) was we as supportors of Delta and DU can buy all the water we can buy and do all the research but if the ducks don't have the grass lands around the nesting areas it isn't helping much, his thoughts were we need to buy or pay the farmers for the land around the water to act as a buffer zone. At the time of our conversation it made sence to me, like I said I don't support the guy I just wanted to take a look at his dog. I did let him know I frequent NoDak Outdoors :lol: 
He said "Chris and I have had our differences"

I'll have to go to the book store and read the artical.


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## djleye (Nov 14, 2002)

Ironic, I just got a card from them today to try and get me to subscribe again, I haven't subscribed for three years at least!!! :eyeroll: :eyeroll:


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## Tator (Dec 10, 2005)

I guess I never really knew how jay stood on certain things like that. I'm almost tempted to boycott his hunting show now, and ya, I got the wildfowl letter in the mail also today.........garbage. good info

Tator


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

What a revelation. Waterfowl need grasslands to nest in? What does he think the USFWS grassland easement program does? Where does this guy think duck stamp dollars go?

Doesn't he know that DU does as much work on grasslands as they do wetlands?

Why do you think Delta has been trying to get everyone to buy two duck stamps?

This guy must be an avid reader. :lol:


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

djleye said:


> Ironic, I just got a card from them today to try and get me to subscribe again, I haven't subscribed for three years at least!!! :eyeroll: :eyeroll:


I got one today also......1 years subscription.....regular.....$35.00....now $14.....they must be getting desperate.I quit getting it 5-6 years ago.....still don't want it.


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## Bert (Sep 11, 2003)

DU bought up several hundred acres of popple trees near Grygla, Mn. a few years ago. I personally saw the land, none of which was suitible for nesting, staging or even being lost if you were a duck. (Of course the 
DU Muckity-Mucks got some prime deer hunting ground.) Still trying to figure out how that does anything for waterfowl.

Farmers in NoDak and Canada still plow whatever is dry right up to the waters edge. (burn it first). (Lots of Cans and Redheads nest in that secondary stuff which is not water but also, not land.) (Why buy a giant wetland when it is cumulativly the small stuff which produces ducks?)

Mallards, Pintail, Teal... seem to like that grass which is big...and within 1/2 mile of water where feed is abuntant.

Preditors are a big problem. Of course if the birds which are left werent concentrated so tight, it wouldnt be that much of an issue but when are people going to accept the fact that you cannot have 1955 ducks with 2006 farming and $15.00 vs. $70.00 for a fox pelt regardless of how much money you throw at it?

Minnesota probably has enough grass land to support nesting but what mother in her right mind is gonna raise kids in an area where there is no food and safety (fertile water)?

Grasslands and buffers are the key to production. Water comes and goes.
When it goes (and Mn has been wet (what is left of the wetlands) for a long time) there is no food.
NoDak has been wet too but the big, old, wet isn't as productive as the small, new wet. Combine big old, small,new and lots of grass and you have ducks.

DU has spent the lions share of its money on big wetlands. Mostly in Canada.
Canada = northern flight for me and I haven't seen one in 8 years.

I don't know the guy in question, I havent read the article. All I can say is that it has been my experience with DU, that they started out with their hearts in the right place and it has become a good ole boys club ever since focusing more in where we can killem than where we can raiseem.

I know of lots of land in S. Mn that used to be wetlands and benifiet the whole flyway (not to mention citizen hunters) but I dont see too many DU dollars going towards reclaiming that.

PF. (in my estimation) has become self serving just like DU. I do not donate to either anymore. PF did, however drive a lot of the lobbying which milked the CRP Program for as long as it has survived. That (combined with unusual wetness in the duck factory) is a big part of why people squabble over who gets to hunt the last frontier of duck hunting.

If Du put more into S Mn there would be many more happy campers in this state and all the way down the flyway.


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## hoots120 (Aug 18, 2005)

I canceled my subscrition 2 years ago because of articles like this. I must get 3-5 cards a year asking me to re-subscribe. They just don't get it.
:eyeroll:


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## Ron Gilmore (Jan 7, 2003)

Dano I did not even open my letter from them! Just tossed it!!!

BD that may be his intent, but having met him and visited with him, he is clueless in expressing things!

He is not a waterfowler! He may hunt them, but really does not understand the grand scheme! Twenty minutes of conversation made that clear!!!!!!


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## goose0613 (Oct 24, 2003)

Bert said:


> ... All I can say is that it has been my experience with DU, that they started out with their hearts in the right place and it has become a good ole boys club ever since focusing more in where we can killem than where we can raiseem. ...


That pretty much sums up DU.


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## zaconb (Feb 5, 2004)

In my area DU stepped up to the plate along with a Provincial wildlife agency and purchased 18 Km of wetlands, shoreline, and marginal cropland and opened it up for public use. This area was deemed a no discharge area due to city amalgamation, I guess the city decided it was better to have some cash for it and allow hunting then have nothing at all. All of the big marshes have attached to them large tracks of grassland perfect for nesting. This is a great multi-use area and the duck numbers have been increasing steadily in this area over the last few years due to DU's involvement.
Now I am a member of DU, Delta, PF, and RGS, they all have good and bad aspects about them, BUT MO DUCKS IS MO DUCKS!

DU Area!


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## Curt Wells (Jan 13, 2003)

Jay Strangis is the editor of Petersen's Bowhunting Magazine, not Bowhunter Magazine. Our editor is Dwight Schuh.


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## Matt Jones (Mar 6, 2002)

I also liked how Jay claimed that "he doesn't even hunt ND, and hasn't hunted it in 5 years" to some people after the greenskins brew-ha-ha as a way to make it sound like he didn't care about the regulations in the state and this site. Some thought his editorial was written out of spite, and after reading his childish and petty rant it was pretty obvious it was IMO.

Then a few months later I flipped through one of the Wildfowl rags my buddy had and there was a piece written of him hunting in ND and he talked again about hunting in ND in his own colum. Uh, WTF???

It sounds like this current column is just further evidence that this guy really doesn't have a clue as to what is actually going on. :roll:


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## fireball (Oct 3, 2003)

I haven't read the article, but my guess is he is trying express his opinion on the fact that most the DU and Delta money raised at the state level, leaves the state. With PFE, 80% of the money raised in the state, stays in the state. Money goes towards buying land that can be hunted publicly and used to raise the birds. While our benefit here with DU is the improved nesting, we don't see a great result, like they do in the south. We raise the birds locally, they next down south for the majority of the hunting season. We are the nursery, we see limited results, most of our local ducks are gone the first cpl weeks after some pressure. We than wait for the large northern flights. We benefit from this migration. PFE keeps its money in the state, they are a grass roots player, because their product does not migrate. Big money waterfowl hunting happens in the south, where they stage for the winter. We are a rest stop in a long migration. I am not a big fan of DU, I am a member and supporter of conservation, but I don't like to see the money go south to help huge outfitters be even more successful. DU is a fat cat program. :sniper:


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## PJ (Oct 1, 2002)

The moral of the story is that Jay is so stupid he doesn't even know that CRP, or the Conservation Reserve Program is a Federal program. It doesn't matter what DU and Delta do. This guy is a tool.


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## Ihuntnfish (Sep 13, 2005)

One of Deltas most recent projects (within the last 3 years) is ALUS which to my understanding is basically a CRP program for prairie Canada. I believe it started out not as a government program but is catching on and possibly getting government support. Hmm sounds like he should have done some more research before running his mouth.


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