Steve Kufrin (center) receives congratulations from Region 3 Refuges Chief Nita Fuller after receiveing a special National Wetland Conservation Award by Deputy Regional Director Charlie Wooley. - USFWS Photo by Scott Flaherty

Steve Kufrin (right) poses beside the new Kufrin Waterfowl Production Area sign with members of his family. - USFWS photo by Scott Flaherty

More than 100 former colleagues, friends and family members joined life-long outdoorsman and former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partnership coordinator Steve Kufrin August 10 in Big Stone County to dedicate a 739-acre waterfowl production area that bears his name. Charlie Wooley, deputy regional director of the Service's Midwest Region also presented a 2005 National Wetlands Award to Kufrin during at the afternoon event. Other speakers included Roger Pederson, state policy manager for Ducks Unlimited; Paul Hanson, former chairman of the board of Pheasants Forever; Joe Duggan, vice president of marketing and corporate relations at Pheasants Forever; Nita Fuller, chief of the National Wildlife Refuge System in the Midwest, and retired Service employees Dick Toltzman and Harold Duebbert. All speakers celebrated Kufrin's passion for wildlife -- especially waterfowl -- and lauded his career spent working to conserve Minnesota's wetlands. ?It sure is great to be back in God's Country, I?ll tell you that,? said Kufrin, speaking to the assembled crowd from a podium that overlooked the prairie WPA. As he continued through his remarks, Kufrin thanked those in attendance as well as those people who made an impact on his career and contributed to his love for the outdoors. ?I?m reminded of the minister who used to say, ?Thanks to the God who put the curl in the drake mallard's tail,? he said. An avid waterfowler, Kufrin said he decided to get involved in wetlands conservation after returning home after a four year stint in the U.S. Air Force in 1965. ?While in the Air Force I?d get letters from friends and family that said, ?less ducks, less pheasants,? Kufrin recounted. ?When I got home and visited wetlands I used to hunt on, all I could find is a combine and drain tile. The wetlands were gone. Forty years later, we?re still trying to recapture our wetlands and grasslands we lost in the 60s,? Kufrin said. Kufrin, 62, grew up in Benson, Minn., and began championing wetland conservation while editor of the Swift County Monitor-News newspaper in the 1970s and 80s. In 1989, he went to work for the Service as one of its first partnership coordinators, working with conservation groups and landowners to share the cost of habitat restoration projects by the agency on public and private lands. He retired from the Service in January after being diagnosed with brain cancer and now lives in Prior Lake with his wife Jill and daughters Emily and Becca. Since his retirement, Kufrin has received several noteworthy accolades for his conservation efforts. In March, he was named ?Man of the Year? by Outdoor News for his years of wetlands conservation work. Governor Tim Pawlenty also proclaimed March 19, 2005 as ?Steve Kufrin Day? in Minnesota. The Kufrin Waterfowl Production Area is located on County Road 10, about 7 miles northeast of Ortonville in Big Stone County. It was created from a recently acquired 200-acre mix of former cropland, native prairie and wetlands that have been combined with 539 adjacent, Service-owned acres to create a 739 acre WPA. It is one of 544 WPAs managed by the Service's Morris Wetland Management District. ?The Kufrin WPA is in the heart of some of the best remaining waterfowl habitat in Minnesota,? said Steve Delahanty, manager of the Morris Wetland Management District.