Carbondale Reporter

State Rep. Dave Severin recently shared a series of photographs from the Sesser Ducks Unlimited banquet in Coello.

The event was held on April 16 at 5 p.m. in the Coello Community Building, Ducks Unlimited reported on its site. The banquet featured a social hour, auction and an announcement of scholarship winners.

"Another successful exciting action packed Sesser Ducks Unlimited Banquet tonight. Congratulations on 30 great years!" Severin said in a Facebook post. "I was glad to be a part of the event by being a sponsor and participating. It was great seeing ole friends and meeting news ones. Congratulations to the High School scholarship winners. Shout out to the food vendor, my good friend Crystal Lukens, Crystals Catering. Food was wonderful as usual and her salad dressing is the bomb. BTW, you can purchase locally in Southern Illinois — Benton Sav-A-Lot."

In Illinois, Ducks Unlimited takes on a variety of projects, including one that helps Illinois farmers set up 'smart wetlands' to mitigate the effects of an over-5,000-mile area of oxygen-depleted water at the Mississippi Delta known as the Gulf of Mexico's hypoxia zone, Ducks Unlimited reported. This project is a partnership with the Wetlands Initiative.

"Ducks Unlimited has conserved more than 15 million acres of wetlands across North America over the last 85 years, including more than 55,000 acres here in Illinois," Mike Sertle, a biologist with Ducks Unlimited for Illinois. "Most of our projects are on large stretches of land. What makes this partnership so exciting is that DU will help TWI expand the crucial practice of creating precision-sized marshes directly at the source of nutrient runoff."