Best Wishes for The 2024 Season

I hope this Newsletter finds you well and excited about the upcoming dove opener – our fall kickoff season. For many farmers and land managers, it has been a challenging summer fraught with flood events both from the Mississippi River and local rain events followed by recent droughty conditions. If you were not connected closely to the Confluence, you might have enjoyed the relatively mild summer we have had and not noticed the flood events and damage which serve as a reminder that in the Confluence we are never far from a 100–500-year flood event. Unfortunately, it appears some local leaders have not noticed the flooding either, despite witnessing it in their own backyards, but we are continuing to remind them!

It may be a bit early yet to brush blinds, hang tree stands and sharpen broadheads, but it is never too early to head to the range for some target practice and that is exactly what many supporters did at NILO farms on August 22^nd. A great time was had at the GRHA/Winchester Fall Warm Up sponsored by FSI. Special thanks goes out to our partners at Winchester and FSI that made the event happen.  

This is the beginning of my favorite time of the year, mowing moist-soil in the duck lakes, kicking off the dove season with friends and family, and waiting for the sounds of blue-wings strafing the decoys on the first cool mornings in September. Lets keep up the good work so future generations can also share these wonderful times.

The last few months have been incredibly busy for GRHA as we protect and promote our outdoor heritage for future generations. This summer we continued the fight against development in the 100-year floodplain, including a new interest by the City of O’Fallon to develop up Highway 79.  We continued to raise awareness and educate our supporters at events like Squadfest, and Duckfest, however, our third annual Wetland Habitat and Management Workshop had to be cancelled due to flooding. We look forward to those fifteen landowners joining us in 2025. We, of course, held several GRHA events that raised awareness for our mission and raised important conservation dollars.  We are also working on renewed and groundbreaking partnerships that we hope to announce at the upcoming Partnership Gala so look for some exciting updates coming soon. Speaking of  coming soon….we continue to develop our new Foster Rollins Conservation and Education Area along the Mississippi River and next to Cliff Cave Park. We will have more on all of this in future eNewsletter issues!

As we kick off the fall seasons, we want to wish you and your families a safe and memory filled fall season, and as always, we thank you for your support.

We ask that you please, consider renewing your support today. We cannot conduct our critical efforts without your support! As a GRHA Member, you can help us advocate for the Confluence, become involved in fights against development in the 100-year floodplain, for outdoorsmen’s rights and better understand the implications of today’s policies on the future of the Confluence. With your membership and/or sponsorship purchase, GRHA is able to protect the outdoor lifestyle for families, youth, and non-hunters, as well as promote the important connection between habitat management and our outdoor traditions of conservation in the Confluence. 

With you on our team, leading the fight for proper floodplain management and conservation, our future is bright! 

I will leave you with this quote form legendary archer and hunter Fred Bear:

“If you are not working to protect hunting, then you are working to destroy it!”

I can tell you the same goes for Conservation!

For the Confluence,

Mike