CAMPAIGNING FOR CALIFORNIA QUAIL
Derek Fong, Santa Clarita, Calif.

Fong, vice chairman for the Santa Clarita Valley Chapter of Quail Unlimited, has raised over $12 million for habitat restoration projects in the Los Padres and Angeles National Forests. These include erecting concrete guzzlers to ensure that animals have water to drink and planting trees in areas destroyed by fire. "I beat on the doors and ask for money," he says. "I'm the whip." During his tenure, turkeys and quail in the area have flourished. He also raises funds for the Boy Scouts and has been nominated for president of the Hunter Education Instructor Association of California.

He's fought for trout nearly 50 years, and now he helps wounded war veterans catch them.
Bud Lilly, Manhattan, Mont.

After serving in the Navy in WWII, Bud Lilly wasted no time returning to the passion of his life: trout fishing. He opened a fly shop and formed a fishing club dedicated to catch-and-release, spearheading an effort that helped establish the practice in the West. Now, over 60 years later, he's created the Warriors and Quiet Waters Foundation, which brings wounded and traumatized soldiers to Montana to experience the therapy of flyfishing. "So far we've helped some 70 kids," he says. "And we send each one home with a fly rod and the encouragement to keep fishing." He is also working with the state to increase public access to trout streams.

TAKING MISSOURI WATERFOWL UNDER WING
Tim Reger, Chillicothe, Mo.

"In 1969 I saw a little ad in FIELD & STREAM that said for $10 you can help the ducks," says Reger, recalling how he got started in Ducks Unlimited. He founded the Grand River DU chapter in 1972 in Chillicothe—Missouri's first small-town chapter, which has since raised over $1 million. He's also helped create four other DU chapters, and in 2007 raised $190,000 for the Fountain Grove Wetland Conservation Project. "I've hunted ducks since age 10," he says. "Helping our sport means providing the birds with clean air and water, and that benefits the whole planet."