GO, PACK, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Moosetrot

Where dey go?

Ok Moosetrot, I'll play the game... Go Browns!!!
LOL. Best wishes.

I think I will say GOOOOOOOOOO BEARS

Apparently Mr. Moose has his green and gold thong dry cleaned, pressed, greased, and ready to kick as.
Please carry on.

Zim

Well, Zim, truth of the matter is I have not washed it in about 10 years. That would be bad luck.

Moosetrot

The Pack needs some good Ju-Ju this year....I’d wash it........

You're just trying to jinx us, Nessie! That's like telling Tom Brady he can't wear makeup on game day.

Moosetrot

Fly Eagles Fly.

Go Pack!!!

That's true! Moosetrot just scrapes some of the fauna out and slips it on for the game.

LMAO!

GO, PACK, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Moosetrot (The Great Black Odor)

Well Mike, that was more than I really needed to know. See ya in Marshfield this weekend.
Moosey, you and your new hip gonna be there?

Zim

Zim-

Was thinking about it but then there was scheduled a dedication of the new Fred Funk boat landing on Saturday. Fred was a very good friend of ours and kind of the Father of many conservation projects and mentored many of us over here on the River in balanced use of the resource. He was a great man and I made sure the renovated boat landing would be named for him. My family is placing a park bench on the landing where old Fred would have sat to watch and greet the duck hunters. When he passed we lost a great one. While my hip is doing so well it's scary, I am going to have to pass on the convention to attend this dedication.

Moosetrot

Understand that Ray and it sounds like a great event to be at.
I can wait to harass you at a later time.

Take care, Zim

Ray, I don't recall the fella. Were the greetings after 1970?

Fred Funk was one of my very best friends and was my mentor in conservation, especially waterfowl issues. Beyond uncountable hours of talking and taking action on River issues, he and I spent very memorable times out on the water duck and goose hunting. He mentored many of us over here. His accomplishments are many, especially in preserving our rights to hunt on the River. In the 80's the Feds were taking steps to close waterfowling on the River due to the Canvasback population, but through the efforts of Fred Funk's leadership we are still hunting here. When he was not out hunting he could always be found at the landing, checking on how hunters did, and especially encouraging kids and congratulating them if they got birds. He was a consummate waterfowler, conservationist, statesman, and friend. I miss him deeply and have great memories that should stay with me instead of posting them on the web. The excerpt from his obituary can give a good idea of the man he was, but his stories and legacy of conservation go far beyond what wound up in the newspaper.

Fred's Obituary:

He was born Feb. 18, 1922, in La Crosse to Albert P. and Dorothy (Rendell) Funk, and was brother to Albert, Virginia and Henry. Fred attended Cathedral Grade School and graduated from Aquinas High School in 1939.

Fred volunteered for service in World War II with the U.S. Army Air Corps, attaining the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. As the co-pilot of a B-24 bomber, he completed 16 high-altitude combat missions with the 15th Air Force in Italy before his plane was shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Linz, Austria in 1945. That mission was chronicled as the harrowing final combat flight flown by Sen. George McGovern in Stephen Ambrose “Wild Blue“, a book to which Funk and his aircrew contributed. Funk parachuted from the crippled bomber, was captured by German troops, and was interned as a POW for the remainder of the War.

After graduating from Notre Dame in 1946 Fred was employed along with his brothers in managing the La Crosse Rubber Mills (later known as La Crosse Footwear), a firm his father had founded. Fred always brought his unique warmth and congeniality to everyone at the workplace.

Following his retirement and the sale of the La Crosse Rubber Mills in the early 1980s, Fred increasingly devoted himself to conservation activities involving the Mississippi River. Fred loved the River and it showed in his recreational pastimes and his tireless conservation advocacy later in his life.

Mim and his family and friends can recount the many hours they spent with him on the Mississippi River, camping, water skiing, fishing, waterfowl hunting, cross-country skiing, putting up wood duck houses and just exploring the myriad backwaters he loved. Fred was absolutely passionate that families in the future be able to continue to enjoy the River as he had.

In the 1960s, he saw the River changing and began to speak up publicly, advocating so that individuals and families could to continue spending time on the River in the ways he loved. As a businessman, he sometimes felt conflicted between the needs of industry and commerce, and what was best for the River environment. He firmly believed that with input from all sides in a conflict, solutions could be found, and was not afraid to wade into the thickest of heated discourse to find solutions. He spoke up, sometimes too loudly for some, to advocate for public input in decision-making about the River because he believed that the wisdom of generations of river rats was too-often ignored in resource agency planning. He sought balanced input, and felt that too often commercial interests could get their way through political influence alone.

He was often singled out for recognition for his outspoken conservation advocacy, but he was always quick to accept awards not as an individual, but as a representative for the many others who worked tirelessly with him on conservation projects. In presenting him with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Award in 1990, former Congressman Steve Gunderson said of Fred that “he is a conservationist and sportsman in the truest sense of Teddy Roosevelt“. Among other recognition, in 1999 Funk received the National Audubon Society “River Steward Award“, recognizing his 30 years of service on organizations that promote the welfare of the River. Public service groups he was active in included the Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission, with several years as chair, the La Crosse County Conservation Alliance, Brice Prairie Conservation Association, chair of the Greater La Crosse Chamber of Commerce Environmental Committee, chair of the Lake Onalaska Protection and Rehabilitation District, and elected member of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress migratory waterfowl committee.

He was particularly proud of his role in the cleanup of pollution from Twin Cities sewage overflows, Wisconsin’s double-hulled barge legislation, the Lake Onalaska dredging project, and the Upper Mississippi River Environmental Management Program among a long, long list of conservation issues.

He contributed greatly to the quality of the Mississippi River and was well known for being able to bring together many different sides to achieve a goal.

Fred moved from La Crosse to Brice Prairie after his retirement. He loved living there, on the edge of Lake Onalaska, with his dear wife Mim, near to the river and backwaters he loved. He delighted in being out on the water, taking special pontoon boat “box lunches” out in the sloughs with Mim, cross country skiing, feeding birds, watching the fall migration of ducks in the lake and so much more.

Excellent in all respects.

I wonder if some of those wood duck nesting boxes I would find in the strangest places in the way backs were of his work.

I miss the Brice Prairie and river bottoms of the 60s.

He was a Packer fan, too! (an effort to bring this thread back into context).

Moosetrot

Fly Eagles Fly.