Count me in

I will be there and will bring many more along. It will be a long, hard crusade and maybe, just maybe, my son and grandson will be able to accompany me on a duck hunt where we actually may need to use all those shells we've been lugging around. (Four times this past season we didn't fire a shot.) I think it's time to redirect all the fundraising moneys to this very critical issue.

—Steve Zimmerman, 58, Elk River

It's a start

I wish I could offer ideas, but waterfowl management is broken and the managers don't know it. They are defensive, and most are too young to remember when we had ducks. Thus, they believe that we "had ducks" in the '90s, when, the truth is, it was a shadow of the '70s and that was less than the '50s. So these "managers" enact facades, like "Adaptive Harvest Management," that carries with it six-bird limits. Ideas? For them it must start with accepting reality.

—Tony Dean, 64, Mandan, N.D.

We'll all come

I'm 18 and my family and I have been avid duck hunters since I can remember. I have noticed a change, and my dad has too, and that change has been for the worse. If and when this rally comes up, I'll be there. So will my dad and mom, because duck hunting is the world to me.

—Riley Moe, 18, Columbia Heights

Get their attention

In recent years I have spent most of my hunting days on public land in North or South Dakota. There is a major sinking feeling in my stomach when I cross back into Minnesota knowing that the majority of the season's fun, opportunities and birds are in my rearview mirror. I think a specific agenda is appropriate — what are we rallying for? I believe something more than "for the ducks" is in order. At a minimum the dedicated sales tax? Also replacing or enhancing the DNR with the citizen board as you have described? A habitat plan? Stay away from putting farming practices/incentives on the agenda?

—Justin Ronning, 28, Golden Valley