If you are into duck hunting and live in the Tri-Lakes region, you have probably encountered Bob Butler somewhere along the way.
The Bryant resident is the senior regional director for Ducks Unlimited for central and southern Arkansas. For 15 years, he had been driving thousands of miles around The Natural State helping local chapters of the the organization widely known as DU raise money for the conservation of the waterfowl flyways through the U.S. and especially in Arkansas.
“Ducks Unlimited is the leader in wetland conservation and is made up of volunteers — mostly hunters — along with men and women who love the outdoors,” Butler said. “We need to enhance the wetlands and grasslands so ducks can thrive. Our efforts impact not only game birds, but songbirds and the entire ecosystem.”
Butler explained that when it comes to conservation, what’s good for the goose is good … well, here is what he said:
“Wetlands can hold floodwaters and help filter the waters in our rivers and streams. What is good for ducks and geese is good for people. We all benefit.”
Butler is one of only three full-time employees of Ducks Unlimited in the state. His territory goes as far north as Conway County and across the state to the Louisiana border. Not surprisingly, his employer is a big organization in Arkansas.
“At of the beginning of the year, we had 28,885 members,” he said, “all volunteers. The national president of DU is an Arkansan, George Dunklin Jr. of Stuttgart.”
Butler said the Arkansas members of the organization raised more than $1.3 million last year. He helps local Ducks Unlimited chapters gather those funds by assisting them in holding special events.
“I manage and help the chapters with banquets, golf tournaments, kid events, shooting events,” he said. “I work with about 40 chapters, and they hold about 80 to 85 events a year.”
He said he travels to all of the chapters for meetings and planning sessions. He then returns for special events, which can mean some long days and late nights. But Butler said his job is very fulfilling.
“I don’t know if I can change the world, but I am making a difference,” he said. “I want to make sure the wetland habitats are around for the generations.”
Butler said he is proud that out of every dollar he helps Ducks Unlimited raise, 86 cents goes directly to conservation efforts.
He said much of the money raised by the chapters and their volunteer members goes to protecting the Mississippi flyway, one of the world’s major migration routes for about 40 percent of the waterfowl on the continent and nearly half of the bird species in North America. Almost 350,000 acres of the flyway are in Arkansas.
“I am always amazed. Now through October, as farmers are beginning to cut the rice, the fields are empty and you never see any ducks, but as sure as clockwork, in November, all the ducks and geese come,” Butler said. “It’s still a wonder. I always carry binoculars with me, and sometimes I pull over and just watch them.”
Born in Texas, Butler grew up in Texarkana, Arkansas. He said he grew up a Razorback fan, even when he attended the University of Texas in Austin.
“Down there I would say I was an Arkansas fan, and my friends would just nod,” Butler said. “In Arkansas when I tell people I went to UT, I get these cross looks like I just did something awful.”
Having rejected the idea of being a lawyer, Butler majored in business management. He joined the family business in Texarkana.
“We had Butler Fence and Canopy and did wrought-iron work,” Butler said. “After my father died, I had the business for another year or two, then decided I wanted to do something else.”
Butler was a teacher in Texarkana, and during a visit to her classroom, he met Evelyn, the teacher next door, who because his wife.
Although Butler said he grew up hunting deer and squirrel, and fishing with his father, it was his grandfather who took him duck hunting.
Butler said he saw a presentation on duck hunting when he was about 13 or 14 years old. He was interested, but his father was not.
“Dad said he went duck hunting once, and he was wet, cold and got lost, so he wasn’t going again,” he said. “My grandfather said I could go with him, and then I started going with my friends.”
It was as a hunter that Butler learned about and then joined Ducks Unlimited.
“I started volunteering with DU when I got out of college and moved back home,” he said. “I liked the way they did business and what they did with the money they raised.”
As he thought about selling the family business, an opportunity was coming open with Ducks Unlimited.
“A friend who worked with the organization was retiring, and he told me they were looking for someone to be the director in central Arkansas,” Butler said. “That was 15 years ago.”
Since he was working in the region, Butler and his wife thought they should move there. They had a daughter, and the schools were a big factor in where they would live, so the family moved to Bryant.
“Evelyn found a job with the Bryant School District, and my daughter went through school there,” Butler said.
He said he works with the Saline, Garland, Grant and Hot Springs county chapters on their annual fundraising events.
“We will be having our Hot Spring County annual membership banquet in Malvern on Oct. 7,” Butler said.
One of the two fundraising events held each year by the Garland County Chapter of Ducks Unlimited will be held Nov. 13 at the Garland County Fairgrounds outside Hot Springs.
“We are now re-establishing a chapter in Clark County,” Butler said.
While he enjoys duck hunting, he said he is fascinated with the thought of the distances the waterfowl have covered in their migration.
“I think about how they have come from so far away,” Butler said. “Some of them have come from the Arctic Circle, and others from Saskatchewan or Manitoba in Canada. You wonder how they can do that and know the way.
“I love to hear the geese fly at night when it’s too dark to see them, but you hear them cross the sky. It’s always amazing.”
Staff writer Wayne Bryan can be reached at (501) 244-4460 or at wbryan@arkansasonline.com.