DU leader makes wetlands priority

A couple of years ago, Indiana's John Tomke sat shoulder-to-shoulder with President Bush at a White House conference table, making his pitch for wetlands conservation legislation.

As a guest of Bush, he toured the president's Texas ranch, talking about hunting and fishing and listening as Bush identified nearly 20 different trees on his property by the shape of their bark.

Tomke said Bush casually mentioned that he was not a preservationist, but rather a conservationist who works to improve it.

Something else that the president said during Tomke's ranch visit stuck with him.

"He said, 'I think that water will be a bigger issue than oil in the next decade.' And so I think that is a clue to where his mind is (on wetlands conservation)," said Tomke, the president of Ducks Unlimited, which has 778,648 members in North America (14,000 in Indiana). Hearing the word "decade" was music to Tomke's ears because it is his goal as 37th president of the 66-year-old organization to help stop the rapid decline of wetlands in the next 10 years......

(rest of story: http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/208043-1660-036.html)