Roy Kroll, manager of the prestigious Winous Point Shooting Club on Sandusky Bay for 25 years, has been named manager of conservation programs for the Great Lakes/Atlantic Regional Office of Duck Unlimited.
Kroll, 54, will assume his new duties July 1 and principally will focus on wetlands restoration and conservation in the western Lake Erie region.
"It's just a great opportunity," said Kroll yesterday. "It's really a good fit for me."
He noted that DU is moving ahead with what has been a fledgling program along Lake Erie. "They're taking it to the next level."
And he is their man.
Some pertinent background:
The importance of DU's efforts regionally to globally cannot be overstated. It now speaks of program challenges that carry a "B" in the dollar signs - as in billion, not mere millions. With more than a million supporters it has helped conserve almost 12 million acres of vital wetlands internationally.
The United States alone already has lost more than half of its historic wetlands and continues to lose more than 80,000 acres a year.
So DU just gets things done, and in the last decade or two it has become adept at forming federal-state-local public and private partnerships that have produced headline results in conserving precious wetlands habitats that benefit not only waterfowl but countless other wildlife and plant species. In short, DU is about a whole lot more than killing ducks.
At the same time, Winous Point Shooting Club is an international leader in private wetlands and waterfowl conservation efforts. Though fiercely private and exclusive, it quietly has developed a reputation as first among equals and Kroll has played a key role in its heritage for more than a quarter century. The club, established in 1856, is the oldest waterfowl club in North America.
The club's members early on decided never to use repeating shotguns, sticking only to traditional double-barrel arms. They banned baiting of waterfowl years before even the government caught up with the concept, and decades before some clubs ever did anything but flaunt anti-baiting laws.
Winous Point decades ago initiated an educational program in which students from Ohio State University live in the residential compound of the secluded, 4,500-acre grounds to engage in advanced wetlands and ornithological studies. Countless OSU natural resources graduate students - including me - have mucked around the Winous Point marshes.
Among many other accomplishments on Kroll's watch, the club declared 2,400 acres of Mud Creek Bay, an arm of Sandusky Bay which it owns, off limits to hunting. That was willingly done to protect and conserve wintering populations of the black duck, which is threatened with still unexplained declines. The little bay is the major winter staging area for the species.
So it goes. In 1979, Kroll joined Winous Point as assistant manager under the well-known Bob Meeks, who himself followed the legendary late John "Frosty" Anderson. Twenty-five years ago Kroll became manager of the club and along the way he also was named executive director of the Winous Point Conservancy, an arm of the club devoted to research, education, and conservation that was established during his tenure.
Kroll said that his love for Winous Point remains.
"I started as a student and a punter [for hunter-members] before I was hired. It gets in to a lot of duck seasons."
The club has begun searching for a new manager.
But Kroll, though he has left his mark there, said that the DU opportunity was too good to pass up.
"It's an impressive operation and it just keeps getting better."
He noted that the western Lake Erie projects with which he will be involved dovetail perfectly with DU and international efforts to address such global issues as climate change.
"There never has been a better time for it."
The western Lake Erie region contains the majority of Ohio's critical remaining wetlands, noted Kroll.
"It's such an important area for DU. It's a real coup for us to become part of it."
He plans to work for "wetlands restoration, more conservation easements, and more happy duck hunters."
The region, including southeast Michigan, has lost to development more than 90 percent of its historic wetlands, which are so vital to all manner of wild plants and animals. The latter include migratory neotropical songbirds, tens of thousands of which use these wetlands during their spring and autumn passages.
Bob Hoffman, director of the DU regional office in Ann Arbor, cited Kroll's career efforts in conservation in announcing the appointment.
"Western Lake Erie communities are under a great deal of pressure due to urban and industrial development and changing agricultural practices. The success of our land conservation strategy will be critical to habitat preservation."
For his part, Kroll notes that he has benefited from seeing both public and private perspectives on wetlands issues.
"Cooperation among landowners and other entities is imperative when working towards the goal of perpetual land protection," he stated, hinting at his upcoming DU work.
Kroll holds a masters degree from OSU and has remained active as an OSU adjunct faculty member, DU conservation programs committeeman, and a member of the Ohio EPA advisory committee that generated the Ohio Wetlands Restoration and Mitigation Strategy Blueprint. He served 25 years on the federal Mississippi Flyway technical section.
He and his wife, Barb, have two children, David, 21, completing his junior year at Bowling Green State University, and Stephanie, 24, who is a doctoral candidate in microbiology and molecular genetics at Indiana University.
The Krolls will be moving to Ann Arbor, though Roy notes, "Don't tell Jim Tressel."
As for living in Maize and Blue Land, he adds, "I'll just have to adapt."
• Today and Tomorrow Toledo Trap and Ske et Club, 5 to 9 p.m., 3150 State Rt. 295, Berkey; Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m.; call the club, 419-829-5101.
• Tonight Salamander hike, 5 p.m., Blue Heron Reserve, U.S. 6 northeast of Fremont, across from Pickerel Creek State Wildlife Area, call the Sandusky County Park District 419-334-4495.
• Tonight Shorebirds and amphibians hike, 8 p.m., with the Toledo Naturalists Association, Irwin Prairie State Nature Preserve, meet leader Elliot Tramer at preserve lot a quarter mile west of Irwin Road on Bancroft Street; also, Saturday, birding for early neotropical migrants, 8 a.m., meet leader John Chadwick at the Magee Marsh Bird Trail, west end, along the lakefront at Magee Marsh State
Wildlife Area, 13229 West State Rt. 2, Oak Harbor.
• Tomorrow Canoe paddling/Northwest Ohio Canoe and Kayak Club: Portage River, Woodville to Elmore, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., call Dale Becker 419-899-2437; also, Thursday, Vermilion River, Vermilion, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., call Becker; also, Sunday, Tiffi n River, Whisler Road to Schick Road, 3:30 to 6 p.m., call Becker.
• Tomorrow Canal opening day event, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Providence Metropark, repeats Saturday noon to 5 p.m.; also, Friday, birding and coffee, 7:45 a.m., Wildwood Preserve Metropark/Visitor Center; also, Friday, family pond experience, 7 p.m., Secor Metropark/Nature Photography Center; also, Saturday, volunteers to help monitor rare plants, 1 p.m., Oak Openings Preserve Metropark/Buehner Center porch, call for reservations 419-407-9700; also, Saturday, volunteers to help with oak savanna conservation, 2 p.m., Oak Opening/Buehner, call for reservations; also, Saturday, Friend of Side Cut, 9 a.m., Side Cut Metropark/Lamb Center, volunteers help with gardening; also, Sunday, redbud hike, 1 p.m., Farnsworth Metropark/boat launch lot, call for reservations.
• Thursday Public trapshoot, 6 p.m., Progressive Fishing Association, 7576 Schadel Rd., Whitehouse, call Mike Adcock 419-877-9393.
• Thursday Trapshoot, 6 to 9 p.m., Ottawa Lake Sportsmen s Club, 9480 Memorial Hwy., Ottawa Lake, Mich.; call Jim Smith 419-360-4910.
• Thursday Public trapshoot, 6 to 9 p.m., Ottawa County Conservation League, Martin-Moline Road, Martin; call Bob Reinbolt, 419-855-8409.
• Thursday Trapshoot, 6 p.m., Sandusky County Sportsmen s Club, State Rt. 600 east of Gibsonburg; also, Sunday, Black Swamp Carbine shoot, call Jeremy Decker 419-618-7969; also, Sunday, mini-Palma match, call Dave Gay 419-287-3884.
• Thursday and Saturday Garlic mustard pulls, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge/Visitor Center, call Kathy Huffman at the refuge 419-898-0014.
• Thursday through June 1 Bear hunting license-application period, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, visit license outlet or on-line at michigan.gov/dnr; also, Thursday through June 1, Michigan elk-hunting license application period, see the Web site or visit a license outlet.
• Friday to Sunday Boat inspections: Friday 9 to 11 a.m., Sandusky downtown city ramp; Saturday 2 to 4 p.m., Turtle Creek Marina; Saturday and Sunday, Gander Mountain, Toledo, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; call the Ohio Division of Watercraft 419-836-6003.
• Saturday Boating education course, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., W.W. Knight Nature Center, White Road, Perrysburg, call Ohio Division of Watercraft 419-836-6003.
Saturday Mudjaw Bowmen fund-raising night, 6 p.m., clubhouse, 6240 Benore Rd., call the club 734-848-4097.
• Saturday Sandusky River water-quality monitoring, 10 a.m., Wolf Creek Park/canoe launch, State Rt. 53 on river south of Fremont, to register call the Sandusky County Park District 419-334-4495; also, Monday, Canoe with eagles, 5 p.m., meet at park offi ce, Countryside Drive off U.S. 6 east side of Fremont near bypass.
• Saturday and Sunday Bowshoots: Saturday, Winameg Sportsmen s CLub, Fulton County Road K, Delta, register 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., 30 3-D targets, call Ray 419-874-7087; Sunday, Canvasback Gun Club, 3801 West Dunbar Rd., Monroe, Mich., register 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 30 3-D targets benefi t for kids, call Tom Rudzinski 734-735-0729.
• Sunday Inaugural Sporting Clays Tournament, Northwest Ohio Make-A-Wish, at WR Hunt Club, 5090 Sandusky County Road 237, Clyde, call 419-547-8550 or 419-244-9474.
First Published April 29, 2008, 8:57 a.m.
