Minnesota Ducks Unlimited honors state partners at convention

Alexandria, Minn. — Ducks Unlimited recently recognized Jeff Tillma with its 2026 Minnesota Conservation Partner of the Year award and Brittany Nosbush with the 2026 Beyond The Call award. Tillma is the Minnesota DNR Fish & Wildlife Division’s land acquisition coordinator based in Grand Rapids, and Nosbush is DNR’s senior realty specialist based in New Ulm.

The awards were presented by DU conservation staff during DU’s Minnesota State Convention on Feb. 14, attended by nearly 300 of DU’s most dedicated volunteers and major sponsors.

“I waterfowl hunt each year, grew up reading DU magazines and always wanted to be a waterfowl biologist,” Tillma said. “My career went down a different path, but this acknowledgment is the next best thing and means a lot. I’m very grateful. I truly enjoy working with DU and the enthusiasm of DU staff is contagious. Working with partners is the best part of my job!”

“Thanks to DU so much for this award, it truly is an honor to work with you all,” Nosbush said. “I really value the partnership we have and look forward to so many more land projects to come!”

Tillma has worked for the DNR for over 27 years, first as a fisheries biologist and a stream restoration biologist for the Fisheries Section, and more recently coordinating land acquisitions for the Fish & Wildlife Division. Nosbush has worked for the agency for nearly as long, first as an office administrative specialist in the southern regional office in New Ulm before transitioning into a senior realty specialist role for Minnesota DNR there but working with partners and land projects throughout the state.

“Jeff Tillma and Brittany Nosbush are two of our best conservation partners in the DNR, and both are key to helping DU accomplish our cooperative public land protection and restoration work,” said Jon Schneider, senior manager of conservation programs for Ducks Unlimited in Minnesota.

“Without highly motivated state and federal agency colleagues with whom to work, we simply can’t be successful in implementing our conservation mission as our members and mission require. Jeff Tillma has done a wonderful job of coordinating land acquisition opportunities among multiple DU staff, DNR Divisions, and many conservation partners in Minnesota for the past six years. Brittany Nosbush routinely has gone above and beyond her basic job duties to facilitate complex public land acquisitions by DU for transfer to the Minnesota DNR in a friendly, efficient, professional, and timely manner. DU staff and our nearly 50,000 DU members in Minnesota are very appreciative for their dedicated public service and proactive partnership assistance!”

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Since passage of Minnesota’s Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment by Minnesota voters in November 2008, DU has successfully purchased 79 new public land parcels from willing seller private landowners totaling 8,504 acres through state Outdoor Heritage Fund appropriations as recommended by the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council. Of these, 75 parcels have been acquired for the DNR as additions to state wildlife management areas (WMA), mostly in the Prairie Pothole Region of southwest Minnesota, including three parcels that created new WMA units.

This year marks the 75th Anniversary of Minnesota DNR’s State Wildlife Management Area System. DU’s land acquisition work provides DU with the opportunity to restore drained pothole wetlands and marginal cropland back to native prairie grasslands, and to buffer shallow lakes.

It is an integral part of the “Living Lakes Initiative,” DU’s conservation program in Minnesota and Iowa, whereby DU strives to help agency partners and private landowners protect, restore, and enhance wetlands and shallow lakes for migrating and breeding waterfowl and public use.