After a remarkably successful 2018, DSC is eager to start the new year by hosting hunters and conservationists from around the world during its 2019 DSC Convention, Mogambo: Dagga Boy Danger, to be held January 17-20. One of the world’s fastest-growing outdoor conventions and expos, the 2019 DSC Convention will return to Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center and Omni Hotel Dallas in Downtown Dallas.
This extraordinary gathering of hunters and conservationist has greater purpose beyond reconnecting with old friends and pursuing a sport. DSC’s mission of conservation, education and advocacy is advanced in large part by the proceeds from the convention auctions and through the organization’s important work over the past few years. In the last seven years, nearly $8 million has been granted for various programs that benefit wildlife and wild places worldwide.
This year was an exceptional one for DSC, which made great strides toward conserving wildlife and wilderness lands, educating youth and the general pubic and promoting and protecting the rights of hunters worldwide.
Here are some of DSC’s most notable accomplishments for 2018:
January 2018
- DSC’s 2018 Convention, Legacy, was a huge success with more than 52,000 attendees and $7.46 million raised.
- DSC announces dismay when British Columbia moved to ban all grizzly hunting in the province, effective immediately in December.
- After a thorough analysis and deliberation, the Board concluded that the practice of captive-bred lion hunting is not a practice that is in keeping with DSC’s values of ethical and fair-chase hunting.
- During the Convention, Sporting Classics honored DSC with the 2018 Sporting Heritage Award as an appreciation of all the work DSC does for conservation and education around the world.
March 2018
- Demonstrating the depth and commitment of DSC to conservation, education and hunter advocacy, eight of the 16 appointees to the newly formed International Wildlife Conservation Council were DSC Life Members: Paul Babaz, Bill Brewster, Ivan Carter, Peter Horn, Chris Hudson, Mike Ingram, John Jackson and Denise Welker.
- DSC Executive Director Corey Mason attended the Guide Outfitters Association of British Columbia’s (GOABC) annual meeting to pledge DSC’s support of its needs, especially in the wake of a grizzly hunting ban.
April 2018
- DSC had a strong presence in a non-traditional venue – the Earth Day festival called EARTHx in Fair Park, Dallas, Texas. EARTHx is the largest environmental gathering in the world, with 150,000 attending. With a large booth and representation on several informative panel discussions on African conservation and sustainable use in North America, DSC held its own in the same space as groups such as Greenpeace and the Humane Society of the United States.
May 2018
- DSC attended the annual meetings of the CIC (International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation) in Madrid, Spain, to keep abreast of conservation and hunting issues in Europe, Africa and the rest of the world.
- Around the same time, DSC welcomed the NRA Annual Meetings and Expo to the Dallas area, putting its best foot forward to promote hunting and to support the Second Amendment.
June 2018
- DSC headed to Washington, D.C., to advocate for sportsmen and women. A group of DSC Board members and friends joined a bipartisan group of members of Congress and their staffers at the DSC-sponsored Beast Feast. While at the Capitol, the DSC group met with U.S. Senators, Representative and several other federal officers to discuss conservation of wildlife.
Grants: Tanzania Lion Illumination Project
- Patti Vaughn, an outspoken advocate for African wildlife, leads an initiative to install solar-powered lights on livestock bomas to deter predators – saving livestock and the people who tend the herds, and saving the predators from indiscriminate retaliatory killings that often have devastating effects on predator populations.
23rd Annual Hunters for the Hungry
- Over 90 hunters donated 200 deer to be processed for Hunters for the Hungry.
ECLCC Guzzler Project
- DSC also funded the El Carmen Land & Conservation Company (ECLCC) Wildlife Water Guzzler Project to place a couple more guzzlers on the parched landscape of Chihuahuan Desert country.
Data Hunters: Leopard Research
- Data Hunters seeks to address the data gap in leopard research by using trail cameras at leopard baits set by professional hunters as a means to obtain large amounts of data rapidly and at relatively low cost across vast expanses of important leopard habitat, especially hunting areas. This partnership between Data Hunters and DSC stands as a prime example of the hunting community being pro-active in helping ensure that hunting remains sustainable in the long-term. DSC was instrumental in obtaining the generous donation of trail cameras from Cabela’s to assist with the pilot season.
The DSC Foundation 2018 Year in Review: The DSC Foundation was formed in 2015 to support the mission of DSC to conserve wildlife and wilderness land, to educate youth and the general public and to promote and protect the rights of hunters worldwide, advanced through grants and financial assistance. Since receiving its 501(c)(3) tax exempt status in summer 2016, DSC Foundation has made over $3 million dollars in grants in support of the DSC mission, and has reached millions of people around the world. In Africa
- One of the DSC Foundation’s most successful grant initiatives has been its support of the Zambezi Delta Anti-Poaching Unit in the African country of Mozambique. The Foundation has provided funds for helicopter patrol, equipment and training of the anti-poaching unit. Since Mozambique’s civil war when buffalo numbers had plummeted to 1,200, the population today stands at 24,000, increasing by roughly 2,000 a year.
- In Zimbabwe, Charlton/McCallum Safaris’s anti-poaching initiative DAPU (Dande Anti-Poaching Unit), operates in the famed lower Zambezi Valley. DSC Foundation funds have provided a new anti-poaching vehicle, upgraded equipment and clean drinking water for anti-poaching units and supporting Zimbabwe Parks personnel.
- In 2018, DSC Foundation issued a grant to Namibia’s Game Products Trust Fund for the protection of Namibia’s black rhino population. DSC and The Foundation have donated over $600,000 dollars to support the countries wildly successful Black Rhino Management Program. Over a 20-year period, the program has resulted in the doubling of the black rhino population in Namibia.
In North America
- Partnering with the Wild Sheep Foundation, the Foundation fully funded the 2018 Roundtable Summit meeting in Sonora, Mexico, with the purpose to identify challenges and solutions for successfully restoring and managing free-ranging Desert bighorn sheep in Sonora. In addition, the Foundation supported the Westside sheep restoration project, the La Guarida rainwater project and the El Sierra Alamo rainwater project.
- In Texas, the Foundation funded a guzzler project to help sustain Desert bighorn sheep in the mountains of west Texas.
- DSC Foundation also provided the initial funding and continues to support The Wild Harvest Initiative conducted by Conservation Visions. This multi-year program is designed to measure and analyze the biomass of wild animal protein harvested in the U.S. and Canada and to assess its nutritional and economic value.
- DSC Foundation continues DSC’s support of youth outdoor education through grants to the Outdoors Tomorrow Foundation and the NRA Youth Hunter Education Challenge. The Outdoor Adventures curriculum reaches nearly 43,000 middle and high school students across the U.S. NRA’s Youth Hunter Education Program has served over 1.2 million youths since its inception in 1985.
Social Media Campaigns
- DSCF has also taken a major role in creating a multi-faceted messaging campaign to educate the public-both hunting and non-hunting-about the benefits of big game hunting and the value that hunting brings to local communities, both at home and abroad. Through its television partnerships, and aggressive social media messaging, DSCF’s presence and partnerships are now enjoying global interest and recognition.
Visit dscf.org for links to these videos and other social media.
For more information, please visit www.biggame.org.
