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By John Carlson Jr., President
I first met Peter Ottesen in the summer of 2010. It was just after I had left California Fish and Game Commission to become the president of California Waterfowl. A lunch event was held in Stockton to introduce me to major donors and supporters. Peter was there as a major donor and outdoor writer who covered the event.
Over the years, I got to know Peter through his writing, his work on CWA’s Magazine Editorial Committee, duck hunting clubs and his philanthropy for waterfowl and wetlands. I now consider him a good friend.
CWA has grown over the years, thanks to dedicated members, forward-thinking boards of directors, talented staff and tireless volunteers. However, back in 2017, I realized that no one had ever documented this great story into a history book. I approached Peter with the idea, and I am happy to say that he jumped on it immediately.
Peter’s credentials make him the right person for the job. Over his storied career, he has been inducted into both the California Outdoors Hall of Fame and the California Waterfowler’s Hall of Fame.
He is an award-winning outdoor writer who, for more than four decades, has produced columns, news stories and photographs about the conservation of wetlands and waterfowl. His work appears in major daily newspapers, magazines and television documentaries.
A leader among journalists, in 1986 Ottesen helped start the Outdoor Writers Association of California, with a combined readership of 22 million people, and served as its president. Ottesen has won every first-place writing award the organization presents, including the coveted Writer of the Year in 1995.
Ottesen has championed many environmental causes, such as defending the Bay-Delta Estuary, bemoaning the loss of 95% of the state’s wetlands and reviling the toxic disaster at Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge. He documented the need for an adequate supply of good-quality, well-timed water for the Grasslands Ecological Area and Central Valley refuges, and his reports helped forge the Central Valley Project Improvement Act in 1992.
To tackle his latest project, Peter interviewed close to 80 individuals and researched many documents, old newsletters and magazines from CWA’s vaults. Those countless hours on the road, on the phone, and poring over written materials allowed him to put together a comprehensive history of our organization.
The product of his work is called “California Waterfowl Association’s 75-Year History.”
As Peter likes to point out, this book is not a final product but rather a start to a living history. And hopefully, sometime down the line in 10 years or so, another dedicated soul will pick this up and add more great chapters to this story.
Lastly, I want to personally thank Peter for donating all his time to this effort and for raising the funds needed to print and publish the book. He is also directing that all proceeds from the sales go to CWA to help us carry out the mission to grow California’s waterfowl populations, wetlands and hunter-conservationist communities.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did and that it brings back some great memories of your waterfowl adventures and sparks some excitement for what the future may hold.
