THE D-7 Crew was recently presented the highly coveted first annual "GOLDEN ROCKET AWARD." This award was created by the waterfowl research folks to recognize the Wildlife Management Crew that captured and banded the most number of wood ducks during preseason banding efforts. Seventeen Wildlife Management Crews across the State competed hotly for this prestigious award. Through hard work, innovative techniques, superior "woodsmanship", and dedication to a military campaign style of operation, THE D-7 crew managed to emerge champions despite not being located in North Carolina's best wood duck habitat. Along with the trophy, THE Wilkes crew also received a .5% pay cut, higher insurance premiums, and loss of use of Work vehicles to travel from home office to depot to reward them for their initiative and inflexible fidelity to the Wildlife Commission.
The Wilkes County based crew captured and banded 226 ducks and 28 recaptures in July and August of 2008. On 21 summer mornings, crew members were up hours before dawn traveling to one or more of 22 remote sites located in six different counties in Northwest NC in order to band wood ducks. The crew employed a variety of electrically initiated rocket deployed and mechanically initiated entanglement and containment devices, and other traps in order to accomplish this important mission. Crew leader Jim Keepfer was quick to give credit to Mike Greene and Wes Duncan for their outstanding work, and to former temporary employee Tim Nixon, D-7 biologist Chris Kreh and CURE guru Johnny Riley for their help. Recognition is also extended to the many cooperating landowners who allowed the crew to hang out in their riparian areas.
The Wildlife Management Division presents other prestigious awards such as the Golden Dove, the Disdainful Turkeyfoot, the dumberer award, The bloody arm award, and others, but, among these, only the GOLDEN ROCKET has been officially declared a MAJOR award. Pictured below, among some of our trapping hardware and accouterments, is The GOLDEN ROCKET which, beside being the first MAJOR award is also the heaviest award ever presented in the history of the Wildlife Management Division. The award will reside in the well-stocked trophy display area in THE D-7 Wildlife Management Crew Depot until some other Wildlife Management crew manages to demonstrate the dedication, skill, fortitude, and luck needed to out-compete the incredibly talented Wilkes Crew (or until some major road construction, new gamelands boundary, or other project keeps them away from the creeks and rivers all summer.)
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